Chapter 5 - THE CALL
Dominic answered Sophia’s call in my hospital room because some part of him still believed every ringing phone was an opportunity to command.
That part died while she spoke.
I watched it happen.
His shoulders stiffened first.
Then his eyes flicked toward Paige, as if she might explain the words coming through the speaker.
Suspended.
Secured.
Terminated.
Served.
Officers.
My client.
He lowered the phone slowly after Sophia finished.
Paige stared at him.
“What does she mean, the mansion is secured?”
Dominic ignored her.
“Audrey,” he said, voice low. “You’re confused.”
I laughed once.
It hurt my ribs.
But I laughed.
That laugh did more damage to him than shouting would have.
“No,” I said. “For the first time in three years, I’m not.”
His face hardened.
“What is Larkspur?”
I tilted my head slightly.
“The company that saved yours.”
He blinked.
“What?”
Dr. Reed remained between us, silent now, watching carefully.
Paige’s eyes sharpened.
She understood money before Dominic understood danger.
I looked at him.
“When Harrington Construction was ninety days from default, Larkspur Capital bought your distressed debt and converted enough of it to take control. Sixty-two percent. The board seat you thought belonged to an investor named Daniel Cross? He answers to me.”
Dominic stared.
“No.”
“The mansion was refinanced through South Vale Property Trust. You signed the occupancy agreement without reading it. Larkspur owns the trust.”
Paige whispered, “Dominic…”
“The SUV lease,” I continued, “the executive credit line, the emergency payroll guarantee, the equipment bridge loans. All mine.”
He stepped back.
For three years, Victoria had called me a charity case inside a house her family did not own, beside a son whose company survived on my hidden signature.
The irony would have been funny if my child were not gone.
Dominic’s mouth moved soundlessly.
Then anger saved him from comprehension.
“You lied to me.”
I looked at the ultrasound photo.
“Yes,” I said. “I hid my money because I wanted to know whether you loved me without it.”
His nostrils flared.
“That is manipulation.”
“No. What you did was manipulation. I set a boundary around assets my father protected before you ever learned my name.”
Paige slowly placed the champagne glass on the counter near the door.
The tiny sound of crystal touching laminate made everyone look at her.
She looked frightened now.
Not for me.
For herself.
“Dominic,” she said carefully, “what is happening at the house?”
His phone vibrated again.
This time it was not Sophia.
The screen showed a name I recognized.
Marcus Hale.
Chief Financial Officer of Harrington Construction.
Dominic hesitated.
I said, “Answer that one too.”
He did.
Marcus’s voice was loud enough for everyone to hear because Dominic’s hand shook and hit the speaker button.
“Dominic, where the hell are you?”
Dominic swallowed.
“At the hospital.”
“Larkspur just froze the operating accounts. The board is in emergency session. Security is at the mansion. Victoria tried to remove files from your office and nearly got herself arrested.”
“My mother did what?”
Paige covered her mouth again.
Marcus continued.
“There’s more. Larkspur’s counsel sent footage to the police. Staircase camera. Audrey falling. Victoria at the top.”
Dominic’s face went dead.
For the first time, he looked at me not as an opponent, not as property, not as a wife to manage.
As a witness.
I held his gaze.
“You recorded my mother?” he whispered.
I shook my head.
“The house did.”
Marcus was still talking.
“And Dominic… the board wants your resignation before midnight.”
Dominic exploded.
“They can’t remove me from my own company!”
Marcus went silent.
Then, quieter:
“It hasn’t been yours for two years.”
The call ended.
Not because Dominic ended it.
Because Marcus did.
The room changed after that.
Power often leaves without ceremony.
Dominic stood there holding a silent phone, his mistress behind him, his wife in a hospital bed, his unborn child gone, his mother exposed, his company slipping out from under him one signed document at a time.
He looked at Paige.
She did not move toward him.
That was when he understood that the family he had chosen had conditions.
Paige loved champagne, mansions, company cards, and hotel suites. She loved being the woman a powerful man risked things for.
She had not signed up to be the mistress of a man losing assets under police investigation.
Dominic turned back to me.
“Audrey,” he said. “We can fix this.”
I closed my eyes for a second.
There were so many versions of me who would have wanted that sentence.
The girl who lost her father.
The woman who married into a cold mansion and tried to make it warm.
The wife who excused Victoria because grief had made her lonely.
The fool who thought silence was patience.
But those women were tired.
And one small life had paid the price for my delay.
I opened my eyes.
“There is no we.”
His face crumpled.
Maybe it was real.
Maybe it was fear.
I had lost the ability to care which.
Dr. Reed stepped toward the door.
“Visiting time is over.”
Dominic did not move.
A security officer entered.
Then another.
Paige grabbed her coat.
“Audrey,” she whispered, as if my name were suddenly something fragile.
I looked at her.
“You were drinking champagne in my bed.”
She looked away.
Good.
Dominic finally backed toward the door.
At the threshold, he turned once.
“You never told me about the baby.”
The sentence came quietly.
Almost human.
May you like
I looked down at the ultrasound.
“No,” I said. “And you never came home in time to learn.”
