Chapter 9
Savannah did not apologize to me.
Good.
This was not the room for that.
She looked directly at Victor.
“You told me my baby would be protected.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“It will be.”
“By who?”
Silence.
There.
She understood.
“If Logan failed tonight, what happened to us?”
Victor looked irritated.
“Savannah.”
“What happened?”
He sighed.
“You would have been moved somewhere comfortable.”
Moved.
Not welcomed.
Not elevated.
Stored.
Her face crumpled.
Logan had promised marriage.
Victor had promised status.
Neither planned to give her autonomy.
She put one hand over her stomach.
“My baby was just scenery.”
No one answered.
She laughed once.
Ugly.
Then reached into her coat.
A phone.
Logan’s.
“He kept messages.”
Victor went still.
That was worth more than any confession.
Messages did not decide guilt in a legal sense.
I did not care.
They revealed hierarchy.
Victor giving exact instructions.
Wear Catherine’s necklace.
Put the replacement crib in the nursery before Bianca arrives.
Make sure Ruby’s clothes are visible outside.
Do not touch the baby.
Provoke Bianca, not the nanny.
Camera goes live at six.
The precision turned my stomach.
He had storyboarded my breakdown.
Then one message:
If Bianca stays calm, Logan escalates.
I read it twice.
Escalates how?
Savannah answered.
“He was supposed to break the crib in front of you.”
He did.
“And if that failed?”
Her eyes filled.
“He was supposed to tell you he wanted custody of Ruby.”
The room went silent.
Not because he could simply take her.
Because the sentence itself was designed to destroy me.
Take the child.
Take the nursery.
Take the necklace.
Install the mistress.
Every pressure point.
My father looked at Victor.
“You planned to weaponize a newborn’s mother against herself.”
Victor’s face remained cold.
“She is the head of Ashford operations. She should be able to withstand pressure.”
There.
The ugliest justification yet.
Hurting me became a leadership test.
I looked at him.
“And Ruby?”
He said nothing.
May you like
My daughter had never been a person inside his equation.
Only the most effective lever.
