Chapter 6
Marjorie denied it.
Too fast.
“It was a charity dinner.”
Sabrina laughed nervously.
Her fingertips worried at one broken nail.
“You gave him her schedule.”
Marjorie’s eyes flashed.
“Sabrina.”
Nico said nothing.
That silence pressed harder than interruption.
Sabrina continued.
Years earlier, Marjorie learned Sienna was attending a hospital fundraiser.
She encouraged Gavin to go.
Not to seduce her.
Not explicitly.
To meet her.
To remind Nico that the Coles still existed.
Gavin went.
Then something inconvenient happened.
He liked Sienna.
Sienna liked him.
What began as resentment became real enough for Gavin to marry her.
Marjorie hated that version of the story.
Because love made Gavin less useful to her anger.
Sienna watched him.
“Was any of it real?”
Gavin’s eyes finally softened.
“Yes.”
She inhaled.
He stepped forward.
“Sienna—”
Her hand rose.
He stopped.
“You pushed me.”
His face closed again.
The softness vanished.
Power had always been Gavin’s fallback when emotion failed.
Nico saw it.
So did Sienna.
Gavin’s voice became harder.
“You were going to destroy everything.”
“What?”
“The accounts. Dominic. My mother. Sabrina.”
Sienna stared.
“So you pushed your pregnant wife.”
“You were leaving.”
Sienna’s expression changed.
Nico looked at her.
“You were?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Nico’s eyes tightened.
Again, another secret.
Sienna continued.
“I planned to take Mila and stay at the lake house until the baby came.”
Gavin laughed bitterly.
“Stay?”
His hand curled against the chair.
“You had divorce papers.”
Nico turned toward his daughter.
Sienna did not deny it.
“I had a consultation.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Her eyes met his.
There it was again.
Fear.
Not of physical violence.
Of what Nico would do with the information.
“You would have ended it for me.”
Nico’s mouth opened.
She continued.
“You would've removed Gavin from every contract. Every property. Every room.”
Her voice lowered.
“And I needed to know I could leave because I chose to.”
Nico looked away.
Sienna had hidden abuse from him partly because his protection felt too much like another form of control.
That truth hurt.
Then Gavin reached into his jacket.
Nico’s bodyguards shifted.
Gavin removed a folded document.
He placed it on the table.
“Show him this too.”
Sienna looked at it.
Her face drained.
A series of hidden transfers.
Approved by:
SIENNA FERRANTE COLE.
Nico slowly looked at his daughter.
Gavin’s confidence returned.
“You want to know why she didn't tell you sooner?”
May you like
He leaned back.
“Because she was in it with us.”
