Chapter 6
The next question came from Marco.
“Why now?”
Ryan looked at him.
Marco gestured toward the pregnancy.
“You have been married three years. Emily has been a Bennett the entire time. Why did the isolation become this systematic only after she got pregnant?”
Linda’s expression changed.
James saw it.
Emily did too.
Ryan answered carefully. “Pregnancy made everything harder.”
“That isn’t an answer,” Marco said.
James remembered something then.
Six months earlier, Ryan had asked for a larger role in Bennett business. Not command. Not officially. He wanted to become the regular liaison between James and several younger crews.
James refused.
At the time, Ryan accepted it politely.
Three weeks later, Emily began returning fewer calls.
James looked at him.
“You asked me for East River.”
Ryan’s jaw tightened.
Emily frowned. “What’s East River?”
“A cluster of Bennett crews,” Marco said. “Ryan wanted operational influence.”
Ryan snapped, “Temporary coordination.”
James ignored the euphemism.
“I said no.”
Linda stood slowly.
“And you shouldn’t have.”
Emily turned.
There it was again.
Not about marriage.
Not entirely.
Linda continued. “Ryan is the father of your grandchild. He is married to your only daughter. Yet you still treat him like an outsider who should be grateful to sit at the table.”
James looked at her.
“He married Emily.”
“Yes.”
“He did not inherit me.”
Linda’s mouth tightened.
Ryan said nothing.
That told James enough to keep going.
“You thought the baby changed your position.”
Ryan finally looked at him.
“It should have.”
Emily stared.
“Why?”
Ryan’s expression hardened as if the answer were obvious.
“Because once the baby is born, I am the father of Bennett blood.”
The room went silent.
Emily lowered her hand from her belly.
James looked at his son-in-law differently.
May you like
Ryan did not merely want Emily separated from her father emotionally.
He wanted to become the only man standing between James Bennett and the next generation of his own family.
