Chapter 14
The recording went out.
Not publicly.
To my people.
The men whose loyalty mattered.
Within minutes, phones began vibrating.
No one in the room answered theirs.
They didn’t need to.
Victor stared at me.
“You just humiliated your wife.”
I looked at Natalie.
“No.”
“She humiliated herself.”
Natalie’s face twisted.
“I’m pregnant.”
“I know.”
“You’re doing this to the mother of your son.”
“You slapped my daughter.”
“She pushed me.”
Lily’s head snapped up.
I turned slowly.
“What?”
Natalie froze.
There it was.
Blame.
Automatic.
“She grabbed my dress.”
Lily whispered:
“I wanted cake.”
Natalie looked at her.
“You were whining.”
I stepped between them.
“You hit a three-year-old because she wanted her birthday cake.”
“She wouldn’t stop.”
“You coached her to lie about me.”
“She refused.”
“You packed her away.”
“She isn’t mine!”
The room went silent.
Natalie heard herself.
Too late.
Lily’s face emptied.
No tears.
That hurt more.
I turned to my guard.
“Take Lily upstairs.”
She grabbed my hand.
“No.”
I crouched.
“I’m coming.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
Victor laughed softly.
“There. Every time.”
I looked back.
He smiled.
“She pulls and you move.”
I stood.
“Correct.”
His smile faded.
“That’s not weakness.”
I walked Lily to the stairs myself.
When I returned, Mercer was speaking quietly with Dominic.
Planning even now.
I smiled.
“You’re still trying.”
Mercer shrugged.
“Men rarely stop because a room becomes uncomfortable.”
Victor said:
“You need to negotiate.”
“With whom?”
“Us.”
I almost laughed.
“You don’t have Lily.”
Silence.
“You don’t control my guards.”
Silence.
“You don’t control the recording.”
Nothing.
“And Mercer just told you he planned to discard you.”
Victor’s face hardened.
I leaned closer.
“So tell me what exactly you still own.”
No answer.
Noah raised Ethan’s phone.
“One thing.”
Everyone turned.
He looked terrified.
But he spoke.
“Dad has messages from Grandpa.”
Ethan went white.
Noah continued:
“They started before Aunt Natalie married Uncle Sebastian.”
Natalie looked at Victor.
Victor looked away.
I felt the story shift again.
This conspiracy had not begun with the birthday.
Or the pregnancy.
May you like
Or even Mercer.
It had begun before Natalie became my wife.
