Chapter 10
The brothers turned on Arthur emotionally before they ever turned physically.
That was worse for him.
He had built his life around being necessary.
Now eight men were discovering they had been competing for a place he never intended to give any of them.
Theo spoke first.
“You were going to raise Clara’s baby.”
Arthur corrected him.
“Our baby.”
I moved.
Antonio caught my arm.
Not to stop me permanently.
Only long enough for me to hear the rest.
Arthur looked directly at me.
“You think because you married her, Bennett blood became yours?”
“My child was never property.”
“Every child belongs to a name.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“Every child belongs to themselves before they belong to your pride.”
Arthur laughed.
“You sound like Helena.”
Good.
I hoped I did.
Then Marcus admitted something.
Arthur had already prepared a nursery at the mountain estate.
Months ago.
Before Clara knew the sex.
Before she was showing.
Before any of the brothers understood why.
We found it upstairs.
Perfect.
Cold.
A crib.
Bennett crest above it.
No photographs of me.
No photographs of Clara.
Only Arthur’s family.
I stood in the doorway and could not breathe for a moment.
They had planned a future for my child in a room where neither parent existed.
Elias looked sick.
“I didn’t know.”
“You knew enough.”
He accepted it.
Good.
Inside one drawer, I found a small blanket embroidered with one word.
HEIR.
I picked it up.
Arthur had called the baby future.
The room proved he meant it literally.
When I returned downstairs, I placed the blanket in front of him.
“No more lies.”
Arthur looked at it without shame.
“I would have made the child strong.”
I thought about Clara unconscious.
Our baby gone.
Then I looked at the eight sons he had spent decades making afraid of one another.
“No.”
May you like
I said it quietly.
“You would have made another one of you.”
