Chapter 5
The club clattered to the floor.
That sound broke something in Sloane.
She turned and ran.
Not toward the front door.
Toward the hallway that led to Grant’s office.
The woman in the navy suit calmly lifted her phone.
“She’s moving toward the study,” she said. “Lock interior access.”
A beep sounded somewhere deep in the house.
Then another.
Then Sloane screamed.
Not in pain.
In fury.
The hallway door had locked.
Charles finally looked at Eve.
For half a second, all the steel left his face.
He saw his daughter.
Pregnant.
Cut.
Holding herself together with two hands and a rule he had taught her before she was old enough to understand its cost.
“Evelyn,” he said.
Only he called her that.
Only when he was frightened.
“I’m okay,” she said.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I know.”
“Paramedics are outside.”
“I want the phone first.”
Grant laughed again, breathless now, trapped between security and ruin.
“Of course. That’s your family. Optics before blood.”
Eve turned on him.
Not fast.
Not dramatic.
She stood carefully, one palm under her belly, and faced the man she had once promised to love for life.
“You don’t get to say family,” she said.
Grant’s mouth closed.
“You don’t get to say blood.”
Sloane pounded on the locked hallway door.
“Grant! Do something!”
Charles nodded to one of the officers.
“Bring her back.”
The officer walked toward the hall.
Grant looked at Eve with something poisonous in his eyes.
“You think this makes you safe?” he said quietly.
Eve heard the tone beneath the words.
Not fear.
Promise.
“You don’t know what your father started,” Grant said.
Charles’s expression did not move.
But Eve saw it.
A shadow.
A fraction.
There it was.
The first twist beginning to open.
Grant knew something.
Something her father had not told her.
Daniel Ross spoke over him.
“Grant Whitaker, you are not required to make any statement. Law enforcement is en route. I strongly advise you to remain silent.”
Grant smiled at Eve.
It was the smile he had worn on their wedding day, right before the cameras flashed.
Polished.
White.
Empty.
“She deserves to know,” Grant said.
Charles stepped closer.
May you like
“Don’t.”
Eve looked at her father.
