Chapter 2
I carried Maya into the house myself.
She refused to let anyone else touch her until our family physician arrived, and I did not argue. For the first hour she barely spoke. She drank in small amounts, held one hand over her stomach, and watched every doorway as if she expected my mother to appear in it.
That frightened me more than Evelyn’s threats.
The physician finally told me Maya and the baby were stable enough for the moment, though both needed rest and careful monitoring.
I went back downstairs.
The seven relatives were still there.
So were Evelyn and Nathan.
Good.
Rafe, my security chief, placed the recorder in the center of the dining table.
My mother laughed.
“You’re going to let a cheap machine turn you against your family?”
I sat opposite her.
“No.”
I looked around the table.
“You did that yourselves.”
Nathan leaned forward. “Maya manipulated this. She probably recorded pieces and—”
I pressed play.
His own voice interrupted him.
“She keeps asking why the north captains met without Caleb.”
Silence.
Then Evelyn:
“Because she listens when she should be grateful.”
Nathan again.
“She saw the garden meeting.”
My mother sighed on the recording.
“Then she should have remembered she married into this family. She did not inherit the right to question it.”
Maya had not been locked away because she argued with Evelyn.
She had seen something.
I looked at Nathan.
“What garden meeting?”
He said nothing.
One of the seven relatives, Uncle Martin, shifted in his chair.
I noticed.
Evelyn noticed too.
“Don’t start trembling now,” she snapped. “You all wanted the same thing.”
Martin looked at her.
“I wanted Caleb to stop cutting the old captains out.”
“And how exactly did starving my wife accomplish that?”
No answer.
Nathan finally spoke.
“Maya made you soft.”
There it was.
I almost smiled.
“My wife is carrying my child.”
“That’s the problem.”
The room changed.
Nathan realized what he had said.
Too late.
I leaned back.
“Explain.”
His eyes moved toward Evelyn.
Again.
My mother always believed people looking to her before answering proved respect.
That night, it looked like ownership.
She folded her hands.
“If that baby is born, you will never step back.”
I stared at her.
“From what?”
May you like
Her expression stayed cold.
“From the chair that was never supposed to become permanent.”
