Chapter 7
Gavin finally admitted pushing Sienna.
Not because he became honest.
Because denying it stopped helping him.
“She blocked the door.”
I stared.
“She is thirty-eight weeks pregnant.”
“She was hysterical.”
Sienna laughed once.
“Hysterical.”
There it was.
Dismiss the fear.
Then use the reaction as evidence.
“What happened?”
She answered.
Gavin wanted her to attend that morning’s estate breakfast.
Two capos were supposed to be there.
He planned to tell them I had agreed in principle to give him East Harbor after the baby arrived.
False.
Sienna refused.
He called her ungrateful.
She tried to leave.
He grabbed her wrist.
She pulled away.
Then he shoved her backward against the SUV.
Mila saw everything.
“And then?”
Sienna looked at Marjorie.
Her mother-in-law took Mila downstairs.
Sabrina followed with scissors.
Not immediately.
They first demanded that Mila promise she “didn’t see anything.”
Mila refused.
She said:
“Daddy pushed Mommy.”
Again.
And again.
A child insisting on one truth adults wanted erased.
That was when Sabrina cut the braid.
Marjorie held her still.
I looked at Gavin.
“You knew?”
He said nothing.
Sienna answered.
“He was there at first.”
My vision narrowed.
“You watched them take her?”
His face hardened.
“I thought Mom would scare her. That’s all.”
That’s all.
The sentence evil uses when it wants comparison.
Not as bad as it could have been.
Therefore acceptable.
I leaned closer.
“You let your daughter be terrorized because she told the truth about you.”
He whispered:
“I didn’t tell Sabrina to cut her hair.”
“No.”
I nodded.
May you like
“You only created the reason.”
That was enough.
