Chapter 4
Evelyn pushed a stack of baby blankets off her chest, her fingers trembling as she touched her swollen, crimson cheek. The pearls around her neck had snapped, rolling across the floor like scattered teeth. For the first time in her sixty-four years, the terrifying realization of who her son truly was settled into her bones. Daniel was not the boy she had groomed to obey her; he was the undisputed sovereign of an empire built on blood and discipline.
"Daniel... how dare you," Evelyn rasped, her voice shaking violently as she leaned against the broken frame of the display shelf. "I am your mother. I gave you life."
"And Clara gave life to my son six days ago," Daniel replied, his baritone slicing through her words. He looked down at Marissa, who was slowly pushing herself up from the floor, clutching her bruised scalp. "Marissa. Talk. Now."
Marissa crawled forward, stopping three feet from Daniel’s boots. Her hands shook so hard she could barely point toward the dining table.
"She... she locked her in the cold storage cellar beneath the kitchen, Boss," Marissa wept, tears cutting tracks through her pale skin. "The moment your jet took off for Boston three days ago. Mrs. Evelyn said the staff wasn't allowed to feed her. She took Mrs. Clara's painkillers away. She said if Clara wanted to live in this house, she had to earn her food."
Daniel’s jaw tightened until the skin over his cheekbones pulled taut. "What else?"
"She made her scrub the kitchen flagstones on her hands and knees yesterday morning," Marissa choked out, her voice breaking into a ragged sob. "Six days after a C-section! Mrs. Clara was bleeding through her dress, begging for water so she could nurse the baby! But Mr. Victor... Victor poured the water into the sink right in front of her. He told her if she didn't sign the papers, they'd make sure she bled to death before you got back!"
A low, guttural sound tore from Clara’s throat on the carpet.
Daniel crossed the room in two strides, handing Noah gently to Marissa. "Take him into the master bedroom. Lock the steel bolt. If anyone approaches that door, shoot through the wood."
Marissa nodded frantically, clutching the newborn against her chest as she darted through the service corridor.
Daniel knelt beside his wife. He slipped his arms beneath her knees and shoulders, lifting her frail, feverish body from the floor. Clara gasped, her eyes fluttering open just enough to see his dark silhouette.
"Daniel..." she whispered, her voice barely a thread of breath. "My baby... they took Noah..."
"I have him, Clara," Daniel murmured, his lips pressing against her hot forehead with an intensity that bordered on reverence. "Our son is safe. I'm home."
Clara’s fingers weakly gripped the lapel of his suit. "She said... she said you were never coming back. She said you arranged the marriage to get an heir... and that you told her to throw me away."
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Daniel’s heart hammered against his ribs like a sledgehammer. He turned his head toward Evelyn, who was trying to pull herself to her feet among the scattered diapers and toys.
"Dr. Bennett is already on the helicopter," Daniel said, not looking at his mother, his voice as smooth and terrifying as deep water. "And by the time he lands, someone in this room will be begging for their own life."
