Текст книги "Capital Risk"

Автор книги: Lana Grayson

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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

The champagne popped. Reed chugged the bottle. I stared at my ginger ale.

“This isn’t fair.” I pouted, burying my feet in the warm sand. “I turn twenty-one, and you guys get to drink.”

The noisemaker buzzed from Reed’s mouth. I batted it away.

“Just be glad you survived.” Max showed no interest in the cake, but a pretty silver package wrapped for me with his name on the tag. “Didn’t think you’d last this long, baby.”

The waves rolled in close. I kicked at Reed’s surfboard. “I’m tougher than I look.”

“So is Abigail,” Nicholas said. Reed and I voted with four thumbs down. “Claire?”

I shook my head.

He poured another drink and opened the second baby name book with a sigh. “Madison?”

“Bumper,” I said. It was so much easier and safer. I didn’t want to risk anything on our little vacation far from the truth and secrets and danger. “For now.”

Nicholas brushed my hand, his kiss soft and warm and promising to make my birthday night just as fun as the afternoon. “What would make this day perfect? Name it. It’s yours.”

That was easy and impossible. I met his lips with a gentle nibble.

“I don’t want this day to end. I wish I could stay here forever.”

If only because I dreaded what would happen when we returned home.

“I have another surprise for you,” Nicholas said. “I think you’ll like it.”

The limo pulled from the airport and returned us to San Jose.

I feared we’d regret it.

“What kind of surprise?” I asked.

“You’ll see. I want to show you before the party.”

I checked my phone. Only two hours before Nicholas’s induction as the new CEO of the Bennett Corporation. The party forced us back to reality, swept away from my birthday adventure on the beach to assume our rightful responsibilities—the ones we fought to earn, and the ones we now dreaded possessing.

“Do we have time?”

“It won’t take long.” He squeezed my hand. “I can’t wait to show you.”

I doubted he’d show me anything that would ease the prickling, suffocating, consuming instinct to run once more.

I’d never look back.

An altered sonogram would only fool Darius until my daughter was born. Then it wouldn’t end until one of us was dead.

And it sure as hell wasn’t going to be me.

I made my plan. Plane tickets and duplicates, hotel reservations and rented properties, false trails and security details. It could all come together in less than an afternoon. If I needed it. If I had no other choice. If the risks in staying out-numbered the reasons to remain.

And they did.

But I hadn’t gone. And I knew why.

I wanted Nicholas to come with me—with us.

The surprise waited for me at Nicholas’s penthouse. He guided me through the hall.

“Close your eyes.”

Nicholas had often issued such orders, but this time it wasn’t accompanied with a collar and blindfold. He opened a door and crossed his arm over my waist. I rested against his chest as he whispered to me.

“This is for Bumper.” His hand rubbed my tummy. “I didn’t want to wait.”

I peeked open my eyes.

Oh, this man.

The nursery was styled like a farm. A mural of painted blue skies overlooked fields ripe for a harvest. Little barns and animals printed on the walls—horses and cows and the sheep Dad never actually bought but threatened to ranch in Montana. The white and wicker furniture looked exactly like the ones from the pictures of our farm when my great-grandparents first settled the land. He decorated with a rocking chair and crib, changing table and shutters over the windows. The mobile was made from little barnyard animal figurines.

“I hired Atlas to do the work.”

“Nick, this is…” My words broke.

Run.

Stay.

Hide.

Fight.

My options became more limited the longer I waited and the bigger I grew. This was just the sort of perfection that would blind me to the true danger.

“I know you’re scared,” he said. “Even if you won’t admit it. But I want you here, with me.”

“You can’t promise me we’ll be safe.”

“I can. I will.” He kissed my temple. “Sarah, I’m a man who has always received everything I’ve ever wanted the instant I demanded it. You are the one exception to my rule. I can’t buy you. I can’t own you. I have nothing to offer you except my heart, and even if you refuse it, you are the reason it beats.”

“Nick…”

“I want you and the baby. You are my world. You are my family. A real family.”

He gave me a devilish smile, pulling a package from the top shelf of the dresser. I tugged the ribbon and opened the box, grinning at the tiny pink onesie.

“I couldn’t help myself.” Excitement warmed his voice. “After decorating with all the farm themes, I needed a little something else in here.”

“Daddy’s Princess?” I wrinkled my nose. “You’re going to spoil her before she’s born.”

“Absolutely.”

I covered the box before the pink seeped out and every secret spread. Nicholas took my hand.

“Tonight, I want to celebrate. We have the companies. We have Bumper.” His smile was so rare, so perfect it almost startled me. “Let’s celebrate tonight. You know how much I love you.”

“It’s not about how much you love me,” I whispered. “It’s about how much he hates me and my family.”

His fingers brushed my belly. “It’s one family now, Sarah. And nothing he does will change that.”

“Everything can change it.”

“Only if we let him.” Nicholas kissed me once more. “I dare him to try in what little time he has remaining.”

The trace of his lips on mine warmed with every whispered promise and murmured devotion. He meant to leave for the party. I pulled him into our bedroom instead.

Nicholas grinned.

We embraced in a fierce and passionate kiss, every quick nibble answered in the same fervor, the same intensity, the same realized desires.

So much for his celebration. My dress slipped from my shoulders. Nicholas’s gentle mouth caressed my skin, dragging from my puffy lips to the pulsing heat in the hollow of my neck. He kissed where the material fell away over my flushed breasts.

My body was changed now. Noticeably. I was soft curves and delicate swells. My breasts plumped, full and beautiful. Nicholas hummed, taking a nipple into his mouth. The warmth swirled around me, entirely too sensitive for little more than his tender attention.

He lowered me to the bed, but for the first time, hesitated before lying over me.

He kissed my visible tummy.

“I have to be more careful now,” he said. Bumper kicked at the sound of his voice.

“We’re tougher than we look.”

“I’m not taking any chances.” His fingers hooked within my panties. “Not when there’s so many other ways to enjoy you.”

The silky tease of my panties slipped over my hips. His hand never left my tummy. It hardly ever did. I knew he was tempted by the thought of getting me pregnant, but I feared once it happened, Nicholas would realize how truly barbaric such a practice had been. Or that his excitement would pass and I’d be taken and ruined all from the same moment.

Not so.

Not ever.

Not with the nursery and the gifts, the kisses and the touches, the honesty in his voice when he declared his love.

How gently he whispered to the baby when he thought I’d fallen asleep.

I believed him when he vowed a life of family, trust, and warmth. But it was so hard to give him that part of me. Loving him, trusting him was a strange form of surrender that wasn’t found in bindings or chains or whips.

Trust was completely consensual, independent of him and what he could offer and what he had done. It came from me. I had to trust myself first.

He touched me, and I softened. He kissed me, and I groaned. He delighted me with the slip of his tongue, and I was lost.

I loved Nicholas Bennett—I loved him more than the Atwood land, more than the legacy left by my father and brothers, more than the money and the fame of our families. And not because I’d sacrifice everything that was me to be with him, but because he’d do the same. Because it didn’t matter if we were Atwood or Bennett.

We were together. All of us.

The heat of his tongue swept through me, building deeper, hotter. I drew him to my lips as my body shuddered. One flick of his tongue wasn’t enough.

His clothes slipped away. As I softened, every bit of him hardened, including the part meant most for me. His muscles, his abs, his voice, everything tensed with raw confidence and a quick possession. The swelling of my body was made by him, but the masculine victory was tempered by how he looked at me in such awe and adoration.

“Promise you’ll stay with me, Sarah.”

I’d promise him anything while my pulse raced and my core demanded more of his touch.

And I’d probably keep those promises too.

Despite the warnings and the fears and the darkness, I’d stay with him until the end.

However quickly it would come.

He lay beside me, his hand over my tummy. His cock sunk into me. I closed my eyes, and the thickness only tightened the need inside me. For once, his breathing shuddered more than mine. I loved hearing his quiet grunt, the not-so-hidden profanities that destroyed the composure of a man as powerful as Nicholas Bennett when he thrust within the woman he loved.

He was as gentle as he could be, but his touch was never rough, only demanding. The simple, desperate movement that offered so much but took even more. I mewed, matching his intensity, resting against the heat of his chest. His hands caressed every part of me, tickling over my breasts, my tummy, and finally in the crest he claimed.

I flinched as he rubbed my swollen clit. The sensation overwhelmed me into shocked shivers of pleasure. Neither of us would last, but we weren’t savoring. I needed that burst, the quick blending of passion. A promise of everything warm and wild.

He pinched my clit as I tensed, clenching against his thickness. The first jet of his heat within me caused my own peak, and I clutched his arms, the bed, my own body.

We shuddered together in a shared, perfect pleasure.

A perfect trust.

And I knew what it meant. Trust was my most reckless sacrifice of all, and letting him love me the most dangerous promise I’d ever make. My heart was his to cherish or shatter.

It wasn’t a weakness to love, but it took so much strength to survive.

We rested, panting, loving. For the first time, I let myself imagine that this would be our reality. Our few delicate moments could stretch beyond stolen hours or days and last for a lifetime.

Nicholas sighed, pulling from me despite my soft protest.

“We’re supposed to be at my party,” he said.

“You’re just lucky I didn’t name myself CEO of the Bennett Corporation.”

“Exceedingly fortunate.”

We dressed quickly. No powder or makeup hid the flush over my cheeks. We arrived only an hour late, well within the earned grace period of a Bennett. The Atwoods were usually given two hours until high society questioned us, but who was counting the seconds?

The Bennett Corporation spared no expense when celebrating the most monumental change in the company’s history. A completely altered board and new CEO meant one of the fanciest and most exclusive country clubs opened its doors for a night of dining, dancing, and reckless drinking.

A full-scale orchestra blared classical music, and every important person with a well-known family on the West Coast joined in the cacophony of money, power, and celebrity.

Reed greeted us with a broad smile and edged us from the well-wishers for a moment of privacy.

“And just where have you two been?”

Nicholas accepted a drink and toasted his brother. “I showed Sarah Bumper’s nursery.”

“I hope I get the encore tour.”

I blushed, wishing I had something stronger than ginger ale to endure the hungry stares of my two step-brothers. Someone was missing. I searched through the tuxedos and evening gowns.

“Where’s Max?” I asked.

Reed shrugged, attempting to look carefree. He failed. “Haven’t seen him. He’s probably coming later.”

Or not at all. Reed didn’t need to make excuses for his brother.

We parted as Senator Mackin arrived to shake Nicholas’s hand. The greying, walking/talking suit beamed an elect-me personality. He wagged a finger.

“Ms. Sarah Atwood. I remember you from when you were just a little tyke.”

“Most people do, sir,” I said.

“Certainly not little now.”

I glanced down. I wasn’t that big, and Bumper would probably be petite. The dress did accentuate the bump. I thought I looked rather cute.

“I should congratulate you, Ms. Atwood,” he said.

Nicholas held my hand. “Thank you, Senator.”

What the hell was he doing?

The realization took a moment to brighten the senator’s face, but the shock remained. At first, I prepared for the scandal, the dreaded word step-brother. Instead, he laughed.

“An Atwood and Bennett baby?” he hooted. “Jeez Lousie, that’s gonna be the most powerful kid in California. Boy or girl?”

“Boy.” We both answered quickly, reflexively.

“Well, congratulations! I feel like I ought to start my campaigning now. In thirty years that little boy is going to own us all.”

He shook Nicholas’s hand again before parting to chase either a waitress or the drinks she carried. I tugged Nicholas to my side before he dared to slink away.

“So…” I perked an eyebrow. “We’re just…telling people then?”

“Why not?” he said. “Sarah, I love you. And I love Bumper. And the truth will come out soon enough. Why not celebrate it?”

“Celebrate it?”

“We’re here, aren’t we?” he shrugged. “Surrounded by everyone powerful and influential. It’s a perfect opportunity to reveal it.”

I meant to frown, but the tingle of excitement buzzed through me.

He was right, but Nicholas didn’t see the true opportunity. We were here, celebrating his ascension to the top of the Bennett Corporation, succeeding his father and seizing his empire. Nicholas had the power, the company, the heir.

And I had him.

It was the perfect opportunity to announce our blessing and twist a knife that already dug into Darius’s heart.

Now, the bastard had no family. No company. Absolutely no meaning left in his life. Everything Darius once prized in the world was lost to me. Even his heir held my hand as he made his rounds to visits friends and business associates.

“Ms. Atwood!” A balding man, flushed by too many drinks, shook my hand and grinned at Nicholas. “Paul Baxtor. Vice-President of Research and Development at the Bennett Corporation.” He exhaled, smiling wider as he looked me over. “I read through your work, Ms. Atwood. You are…absolutely brilliant!”

He knew how to flatter me. “Thank you.”

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with you. We will make history, you and me. With your intelligence and understanding of these genomes, the world is going to change.”

The damn hormones. Nicholas thanked him for me as I choked on my own pride. I fanned my face to suppress the weepy tears.

“Let’s get you something to eat,” he said.

“Hear that?” My sniffle became a giggle. “Change the world. Me. All this time you Bennetts were trying to make an heir when you could have had me instead.”

“Hindsight is 20/20.”

I shook my head as a passing server offered a variety of shellfishes and seafoods. Not good for me at the moment, not a particular favorite otherwise. I aimed for a cracker with cheese though I really wanted a snow cone. I managed to find crushed ice at the bar and some soda just as the crowd cried for a speech.

Nicholas was a lot of things—handsome, confident, devoted. He was also a Bennett. His arrogance masqueraded as charm, but the world hadn’t offered him everything he dreamed. Instead, he took it. Seized it on the back of a motorcycle, seduced it from an enemy, and stole it from a father who no longer deserved the respect of his son.

It wasn’t a speech. It was his coronation.

He rose to the band’s stage and accepted the microphone from the conductor. The lights focused over him, and every eligible and not so eligible woman in the room sighed.

The shadows captured his chiseled chin and jaw line, and the tuxedo tailored the strength of his shoulders and chest. If pride were truly sin, then every moment with Nicholas had bathed me in hellfire.

“I want to thank you all for attending.” His voice needed no microphone. The party would’ve stopped breathing if it meant capturing his every word. “This is a monumental day for the Bennett Corporation, but this will be only one of many. I foresee success, prosperity, and many more celebratory moments in our future.”

The audience applauded. I recognized a lot of people—some friends of my family and others people of wealth and fortune that had pledged their loyalty to Darius Bennett. Dad would never have tolerated a moment like this.

And he would have disowned me long before Bumper was ever a concern.

“These next few months will come with many challenges and changes,” Nicholas said. “But I’m pleased to begin this new path. This company has always been forged on a legacy of family and pride. Lessons passed father to son. I am fortunate to take this opportunity and expand that vision. For the first time, the Bennett Corporation will be overseen by the entire family.” Nicholas made the decision himself, one of his first, one he had planned for so long. “I am dividing my portion of this company equally between my brothers and me, as it should have been done long ago.”

Reed hooted from the crowd. “That means the next round is on me!”

Nicholas didn’t yet regret that decision though the few chuckles and demands for the highest caliber whiskey rumbled through the people. I searched, but Max didn’t hide in the shadows.

He wasn’t here.

I hated that it no longer surprised me.

“It isn’t just the leadership of the Bennett Corporation that’s changing,” Nicholas said. “It is our future. Sarah Atwood is the fourth member of our Board of Directors, a name which—just a year ago would have crumbled the very foundation of the Bennett Headquarters to the ground…brick by brick, if memory serves.”

He was right.

And if he wasn’t careful, I’d still do it.

His words drew the attention to me, and by extension, sparked a fury of whispers primarily concerned with my visible little Bumper. His gaze fell on me too.

Oh, Christ. He was serious about revealing it.

“Sarah Atwood is not simply a member of this board. I am in love with her.”

The hormones didn’t like this. I flushed as genuine surprise raged through the audience. The astute ones in attendance quickly did the math on my condition.

“Sarah’s position on our board isn’t the first blending of Bennett and Atwood,” he said. “And I am beyond proud and excited to announce the pending arrival of the next generation of our families in just four months.”

Dad would be rolling in his grave. Probably Mike and Josiah too. Nicholas’s call for a toast silenced most of the gossip, but I was the one who needed the drink the most.

Reed edged his way to my side. He faked a pout.

“All that, and me and Max don’t even get a credit in this union?”

“Be glad it’s Nicholas announcing it and not your father.”

The toast passed with clinked glasses and general merriment, but Nicholas replaced the microphone. I caught his glance as Max stormed through the crowd.

Max took my arm. Squeezed too hard.

His eyes were rimmed red, and his hands shook. Either his patience or his liver would give out first, but the Bennetts refused to talk about it, even when Max crashed a formal party in jeans.

“Come on, baby,” he said. “We’re getting you out of here.”

He looked ragged, but his voice was cold and sober. A genuine applause rose from the crowd.

And I knew why we had to leave. I shook Max away and refused to run.

I expected it.

Why hadn’t they?

As if he planned the very moment to coincide with his son’s speech, Darius Bennett sauntered into Nicholas’s celebratory party with a grand, serpentine smile, shaking hands with friends and greeting those who hadn’t been told of his sins, lies, and perversions.

The Bennett Board of Directors, with the exception of Bryant Maddox, resigned with full honors and every respect. That included Darius, even if his sudden departure perplexed all who knew him.

I anticipated a fight, bloody and brutal and rife with more abuses than I endured before. But Darius chose another path. It wasn’t peace, it wasn’t retreat.

Now was the fruition of whatever deviancy he planned.

And the room cheered for him. Shook his hand. Spoke compliments and wished him well on his upcoming retirement.

They praised a hero.

I didn’t cower in the shadow of my rapist.

And neither did my step-brothers.

“Darius!” One of the Bennett division presidents called to him, breaking through a conversation to pat his shoulder. “Didn’t figure on you joining us! Thought you’d be pleasure cruising somewhere in the Bahamas by now.”

“Please, Kevin. I’m retired…not dead.”

And I regretted that every minute of the day.

Darius drew to his full height, an inch shorter than Nicholas. Reed and Max pulled me closer, but I didn’t need their help. I straightened if only to ensure Darius saw the visible bump and realized he could do nothing to me. A shielding as strong as Kelvar protected me, offered by the most innocent and vulnerable.

He salivated pure venom. Had anyone seen, if anyone had ever thought to listen for my silent screams, they never would have let my step-father look upon me with such pleasure.

“I wouldn’t miss this event for the world,” Darius said. “Such a lovely party, such a happy occasion. And just look at my beautiful daughter.” He drew closer, waiting for his sons to intervene and cause a scene. They didn’t, and I stilled as he laid a hand over my belly and squeezed. “Hello, my dear. You’re looking absolutely radiant.”

I’d be sick.

Vile, crawling shivers pierced my spine.

His touch was an infection, a sickness of hatred and vile intentions. He meant to watch me squirm, to claim that part of me which wasn’t his, had never been his, and would never, ever belong to him.

I swallowed the bile and accepted the brush of his lips against my cheek in greeting. As long as it wasn’t his sickening, fat tongue in my ear again, I’d endure it. Nicholas forced himself between us, crushing his father’s hand in a stiff grip.

“Glad you made it,” Nicholas said. “You should be here to share in this momentous event.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it, son. Especially the announcement about the newest addition to our family.”

“Sarah and I are very excited.”

“As am I. Proud as can be.” The words coiled over my throat. “If only her family were here as well. I’m sure Mark would be thrilled about our little Bennett. And Josiah and Michael…” He didn’t deserve to speak their names, not after the hell he put me through in watching their fatal crash over and over. “Such a shame their lives ended before they became uncles...isn’t that right, Max?”

Max?

I glanced at my step-brother, but he didn’t answer. Nicholas pulled Darius from the gathered audience. His voice lowered, a lethal growl.

“What do you want?”

“A moment with my daughter.”

“No.”

“Then we can speak here.” His gaze fixated on my belly. “Though I doubt this is a conversation which should pass beyond family.”

His tone was the striking of a match in room filled with explosives. I didn’t trust it. I was certain he aimed a gun, but I didn’t know which of my step-brothers would suffer the bullet. It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. I nodded to Nicholas.

Five minutes in the shadow of the demon was five minutes I’d forever lose to nightmare and shame. I’d ensure it was the last time I spoke with him.

That anyone spoke with him.

Nicholas led us to an unoccupied storage room, a small area muffled from the party by the humming of the florescent lights. The door closed behind us, and my step-brothers stood between me and the monster who had yet to make his move.

“A stirring speech, Nicholas,” Darius said. “Though you really must annunciate more. Do this family some justice and use a bit of bravado.”

“What do you want?” Nicholas asked.

“Am I not permitted to attend my own son’s celebration? You’ve done it, Nicholas. Secured the Bennett Corporation for yourself. Bloodied your fists and earned your keep.” He snorted. “I should think I’m entitled to a bit of caviar for giving you this opportunity.”

“You’ve given me nothing.”

“I gave you a name. A purpose. A legacy.” Darius tilted his head. “And you ruined it. You’ve tarnished our family with this union. The girl is your whore, not someone deserving of quarter of the company. And still you parade her around, free, as if the child is yours.”

“It is.”

“And I’ll permit you to take credit for the heir, if only because the world would not understand my coupling with Sarah.”

“Coupling?” I refused to avert my gaze. “You raped me.”

“Many times, my dear. Many times.”

“And yet, here I stand. I’ve taken your family. I’ve stolen your company.” I raised my chin. “Hard to be ashamed of a little coupling when I’ve conquered the only things that ever gave you pride.”

“When the bastard is born, I will be bursting with pride.”

“It isn’t your child.”

“Call it father’s intuition,” he sighed. “Call it probability. Why lie? Why stand there and blush and giggle and whisper all those sweet nothings into Nicholas’s ear when you know the truth? They had three months to take you, rape you, force a child into that womb.” He extended his arms. “Tell them how long it took me to mount you, how long it took me to create our child—”

Nicholas rushed forward, striking his father and slamming him into the wall. His voice grated with rage.

“She isn’t yours!”

My hand reflexively twisted over my belly.

Oh no.

“Sarah isn’t yours,” Nicholas grunted. His forearm pressed into Darius’s neck. “The baby is my son.”

No. His reaction was too violent, too visceral, too quick.

Darius’s eyebrow perked just as Nicholas corrected himself.

Darius glanced to me, as though looking upon my body would reveal everything we hid about Bumper. My heart thudded, wracking against lungs that threatened to collapse in a breathless scream.

“Leave,” Nicholas rasped. “While I still give you the chance.”

“I never thought I’d see the day when my son defended an Atwood.”

“I said leave.”

“After all these years, after all these tragedies.”

Nicholas tensed. He looked to Reed and Max. “Take Sarah home.”

“The blood has always been bad between our families, particularly since her father attempted to murder you and your brothers. A shame he succeeded in only killing your mother.”

Reed took my arm. Darius called to me.

“All this ugliness worked out for the best, don’t you think, Sarah? Now you have a new lover and a little bundle of joy on the way. How fortunate your father succumbed to cancer so we could steal you.”

“Fuck you,” I whispered. Reed ushered me to the door.

Darius’s voice rose, calling to me, taunting me.

“If we knew you’d be so amenable to this arrangement, we wouldn’t have waited to murder your brothers.”

The room spun.

Murder.

A sickness churned in my belly, frozen by the chill piercing my spine. I turned, slowly, every movement an ache against the crushing agony of that memory, that horrible vision of flames and metal and my brothers’ last moments.

“What did you say?” I whispered.

Reed tugged on my hand. “Sarah, let’s go.”

“What did you say about my brothers?”

Darius’s grin spread with vile delight. “Josiah and Michael would have been great leaders for Atwood Industries. They certainly would never have sold a multi-billion dollar research idea to us, and their children would have kept the company protected within the Atwood line. Not like you, my dear.”

“Tell me about my brothers!”

“What did you think happened, Sarah? They impeded our takeover.”

“You’re lying.”

“Pilot error. Mechanical error. It’s fortunate the investigators couldn’t scrape up what bits remained of your brothers to identify the true cause of their deaths. Hard to have a homicide investigation if there’s nothing left but ash.”

“You’re fucking lying!”

“If it’s any consolation, it was much quicker and far less harrowing than putting a bullet in their brains. Your mother wouldn’t have survived her sons’ murders. A one-in-a-million tragedy was cruel, but less damaging to her fragile health.”

My chest ached in a pained gasp.

I’d never take a full breath again.

“It isn’t true,” I whispered.

“Max can tell you exactly how he did it,” Darius said. He nodded. “Go on, son. Tell your little sister how proud I was of you…that crash was one of the few times you didn’t disappoint me.”

I’d scream if I didn’t fear the sickness rising.

Max didn’t meet my eye.

It couldn’t have been true.

It wasn’t.

I looked to Reed. He no longer reached for my hand.

No.

Not now. Not after everything. Not this.

“Nick?” I begged him. “Nick, please. Tell me he’s lying.”

His silence was a knife to the heart.

I should have known. I should have protected myself. I should have run when I had the chance.

The Bennetts lived only to cause me suffering and betrayal.

And now they had everything. My child. My family’s empire. My research.

My pride.

My heart.

I had nothing left for them to destroy.