Chapter 2
The family doctor arrived within fifteen minutes.
Owen’s hearing was muffled, not gone.
Temporary.
Likely to improve.
That was the first good news of the night.
He stayed on my lap while the doctor examined him.
Every time something moved behind him, his shoulders jumped.
I hated Delilah for that.
Then I hated myself for using hatred when Owen needed calm.
So I breathed.
Slowly.
He copied me.
Good.
“What’s that thing?” the doctor asked.
The transmitter.
I had placed it on the counter.
“Not ours.”
Conrad laughed softly.
“It’s harmless.”
I looked at him.
“You’ve used that word twice tonight.”
He stopped.
Rafe, my security chief, entered.
He examined the device.
“Short-range audio relay.”
“Destination?”
“Could be anywhere in the house.”
I looked at Delilah.
“Who was listening?”
She said nothing.
Conrad answered:
“No one important.”
Interesting.
Not no one.
No one important.
I stood carefully and handed Owen back to the bodyguard.
“Take him upstairs with Dr. Hale.”
Owen grabbed my sleeve.
“Dad stay?”
“Yes.”
That answer came too fast.
I corrected it.
“I’m coming up as soon as I finish.”
He studied my face.
Then nodded.
Trust should never be built on promises I cannot keep.
The door closed behind him.
I turned.
“Now.”
Delilah looked at the floor.
Conrad spoke first.
“We needed proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That you’re compromised.”
I almost smiled.
“My son screaming proves what?”
“That you lose control when family is involved.”
There it was.
Old poison.
The Pierce family had spent months arguing that my leadership had softened since Owen was born.
I knew that.
I had ignored it because the people repeating it were irrelevant.
Apparently they had stopped trying to convince me.
They were trying to convince someone else.
“Who?”
Delilah whispered:
“The Council.”
I stared.
There was no council with authority over me.
At least not officially.
Conrad smiled.
“The people who still matter.”
There.
Not law.
Not title.
Social recognition.
Old captains.
Retired branch heads.
May you like
Men and women who could not remove me directly but could fracture obedience if enough of them decided I had become too emotional to lead.
And tonight, Delilah had staged my son’s terror to manufacture evidence for them.
