Chapter 2 - THE PROMISE
Daniel spent the next twenty minutes insisting that Sebastian had lost his mind.
He called the bodyguards thugs.
He called the trust issue an accounting misunderstanding.
He called Evie emotional.
He never apologized for hitting her.
That omission told Sebastian more than any explanation could have.
Evie sat in the blue drawing room with an ice pack against her cheek while Dr.
Helen Ward, the family physician, checked her blood pressure and listened to the baby's heartbeat.
The steady rhythm coming through the monitor made Evie's eyes close with relief.
“The baby sounds strong.”
“Is stress dangerous?”
“Stress is not what I am most worried about.”
Helen looked at the bruise blooming across Evie's face.
“Has he hit you before?”
Evie opened her mouth.
No came automatically to mind.
Then she remembered Daniel gripping her wrist two months earlier until his fingerprints stayed visible for a day.
She remembered him kicking a bedroom door hard enough to crack the frame when she locked it during an argument.
She remembered him throwing her car keys into the pond because she had tried to drive to her sister's house after midnight.
He had never slapped her before.
But suddenly the distinction felt dishonest.
“Not like this.”
Helen's eyes softened without becoming pitying.
“That is not the same as no.”
Evie looked away.
The door opened and Sebastian stepped in alone.
He waited until Helen finished, then took the chair across from Evie.
For the first time since entering the house, he looked old.
“What promise were you talking about?”
Sebastian rested both hands on his cane, though Evie had never seen him use it for support.
“A promise I made to your father, Noah Mercer, six days before he died.”
Evie stared at him.
“My father died in a boating accident.”
“Yes.”
“You weren't even in the country.”
“That is what Daniel believes.”
A cold thread moved through her spine.
Sebastian pulled a small brass key from his pocket.
“Your father asked me to meet him in Boston.”
“Why?”
“Because he believed someone inside Cross-Mercer Group was trying to strip his voting rights before the annual reorganization.”
“My father never told me any of this.”
“He was trying to keep you out of it.”
“That worked beautifully.”
Sebastian accepted the bitterness.
“Noah believed the safest structure was to place his shares in trust for you, with a second transfer triggered by the birth of your first child.”
Evie gripped the ice pack more tightly.
“Why would my baby matter to a corporation?”
“The child does not matter to the corporation.”
Sebastian's eyes hardened.
“The child matters to the people who want control of the trust.”
Evie suddenly remembered Daniel's enthusiasm about starting a family.
He had wanted children almost immediately after their wedding.
When Evie said she wanted to wait, he had called her selfish.
When she finally became pregnant, Daniel had changed.
At first he had been attentive.
Then, around the fourth month, he began meeting lawyers without explaining why.
Lauren, hired as a strategy consultant, started appearing at every family dinner.
Evie felt sick.
“What happens when the baby is born?”
“You retain legal ownership through the trust, but the child's branch becomes irrevocable.”
“Meaning Daniel can't force me to sell?”
“Not directly.”
The word directly landed like a warning.
Sebastian continued.
“If you were declared incapacitated, your spouse could petition to act as temporary guardian of certain family interests.”
Evie's fingers went numb.
“He's been telling people I'm unstable.”
Sebastian said nothing.
That silence was an answer.
Evie stood too quickly and had to catch herself on the chair.
“Who has he told?”
“Board members.”
Her breath stopped.
“Employees.”
She stared.
“Two doctors, apparently.”
“What doctors?”
“We are still finding out.”
Evie thought of every moment Daniel had watched her cry and then said she was overreacting.
Every time he had provoked an argument and then recorded only the end of it.
Every time he had told her she was forgetful.
Every time medication appeared beside her water glass and he said the obstetrician had approved it, though she never remembered asking.
She pressed a hand to her stomach.
“I never took the pills.”
Sebastian looked up sharply.
“What pills?”
Evie described them.
He went very still.
“We need the bottle.”
“It was in my bathroom.”
They both looked toward the ceiling.
The upstairs wing was where Daniel had tried to run.
Sebastian stood.
The brass key was still in his hand.
“What does that open?”
“A safe your father had installed in my private office twenty-nine years ago.”
“Why would my father have a safe in your office?”
Sebastian hesitated.
“Because we trusted each other before our families became enemies.”
Evie had grown up hearing that Sebastian Cross and Noah Mercer were business rivals who tolerated each other for profit.
Now every family story seemed to be turning inside out.
Sebastian moved toward the door.
Evie followed.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“You just told me my husband may be trying to make me look mentally incompetent.”
“Which is exactly why I want you away from him.”
“You had twenty-nine years to protect me with secrets.”
Her voice sharpened.
“I'm done being protected by not being told the truth.”
Sebastian studied her for a long moment.
Then he nodded once.
They crossed the hall under the watch of two bodyguards.
Daniel was in the library with Lauren, both separated and guarded.
When Lauren saw Evie walking toward the stairs, she called out.
“Evie, be careful.”
Evie stopped.
Lauren's smile was gone, but her voice was almost gentle.
“You've been under so much pressure lately.”
Daniel stared at Lauren as if willing her to stop.
Lauren continued.
“You don't always remember things correctly when you're upset.”
Evie's stomach dropped.
There it was.
The script.
The exact language Daniel had used for months.
Sebastian stepped between them.
“Do not speak to her.”
Lauren folded her arms.
“I was trying to help.”
Evie looked directly at her.
“No.”
She lowered the ice pack.
The bruise was fully visible now.
“You were trying to establish a pattern in front of witnesses.”
For the first time, Lauren looked impressed.
Then every light in the house went out.
The darkness was total.
Someone screamed from the corridor.
A second later, the alarm system began to howl.
Evie heard running feet above them.
Sebastian grabbed her arm.
“Stay with me.”
Then came a crash from the second floor.
Glass shattered.
A man's voice shouted.
“The bedroom safe is open!”
Emergency lights flickered on.
Daniel was still in the library.
Lauren was still beside him.
But one of the bodyguards who had been guarding the stairs was gone.
Sebastian stared at the empty post.
May you like
Evie realized the conspiracy was larger than Daniel and Lauren.
Somebody inside Sebastian's own security team had just chosen a side.
