Chapter 12
Emily surprised everyone by refusing to leave the room.
James wanted her resting.
Marco suggested she had already heard enough.
Even one of the capos quietly offered to continue the discussion downstairs.
Emily said no.
“For months everyone decided what I could handle.”
That ended the argument.
She sat on the padded bench where Linda had fallen earlier and looked directly at Ryan.
“What happened if Dad never gave you East River?”
Ryan’s face tightened.
“Emily.”
“No.”
She waited.
The answer came from Linda.
“Then you stayed here.”
Emily looked at her.
“With him?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
Linda shrugged.
“As long as necessary.”
The casualness of it made James feel colder than rage ever could.
Emily continued.
“And the baby?”
Ryan finally spoke.
“With us.”
“Us meaning you.”
“I’m the father.”
“And I’m the mother.”
“No one said you weren’t.”
Emily almost smiled.
“Then why does every version of your future depend on me being too isolated to choose anything?”
Ryan had no answer.
James understood the deeper plan then.
Ryan never needed to remove Emily physically.
He needed her dependent.
Pregnant.
Cut off from her father.
Surrounded by people who repeated that leaving meant failure.
After the baby arrived, exhaustion would make the walls even higher.
Then Ryan would control the child’s access, Emily’s access, and eventually James’s access to both.
Linda called it building a household.
Ryan called it respect.
The truth was simpler.
They wanted a gate.
And they wanted Ryan standing in it.
Emily rested one hand across her belly.
“My child is not your bridge into Bennett.”
Ryan’s face changed.
She removed her wedding ring.
Not dramatically.
May you like
She simply slid it from her finger and placed it on the bench beside her.
“And neither am I.”
