“Why, of course. Anything to make you more comfortable.”
I didn’t blink. “And I will expect your resignation as CEO before the end of autumn.”
My step-brothers tensed. I wasn’t done.
“It’s over, Darius.” I held his gaze. Every second lost in the stare of his decay-brown eyes rotted me from the inside out. “You forced me into this war, and now I’m ending it.”
He sipped his drink. “How so?”
“I plan to destroy the things you value most. Your family. Your power. Your company.”
“Ambitious.”
I gestured to my step-brothers. “I’ve taken your sons. I’ve inherited a stake in your company. I will seize complete control of the corporation before claiming every corner of the Bennett Empire for my own.” I lowered my voice, smiling so the suits and gowns mingling between paintings wouldn’t decipher my threat. “And after? You will have nothing to protect you from me.”
Darius arched an eyebrow to Nicholas. “She’s feisty tonight.”
I owned it. “I’m far more challenging when you don’t have me bound and gagged.”
“Pity we have no gag tonight.”
“You never will again.”
Darius stilled, his leer chasing the shivers along my spine. My stomach twisted, but I didn’t dare let the sickness take me. Not now.
I needed this moment. This closure. This pride.
And Darius existed only to crush it.
“My little Sarah. You seem so different from the last time I saw you. No tears. No screaming.”
I stiffened. Nicholas didn’t react.
“Now here you are, poised and graceful. You’ve really changed during your travels.” Darius words slithered over me. “Something gave you this confidence to confront me, to punish me for all those terrible things I did. It does make a father proud to see his daughter with such spirit. Such glow. So full of…life.”
Nicholas took my hand. I swallowed the bile.
“Celebrate your momentary freedom. I won’t tolerate this insult in public, but I assure you…” His words penetrated and pained. “I will reclaim what is mine.”
He reached for me but took only the champagne from my grasp.
“So good to see you again, my dear.”
I trembled. “The pleasure was entirely yours.”
“It always is.”
He brushed past us. I couldn’t wait. I refused their guiding hands and escaped from the gallery to dart into a supply closet and let the sickness pass, undignified, in a janitorial sink.
It wasn’t possible. It shouldn’t have been possible.
No one could tell. Not yet.
I heaved into the darkness. Nicholas rubbed my back as Reed and Max covered the entrance, ensuring no wayward guest crossed my moment of weakness.
I recovered, but the dread coiled in my emptied stomach.
Darius knew.
My morning sickness sucked more at night. I wasn’t sure how that was possible.
I flopped into my third bed of the week, too exhausted to even wrap the blankets over me. That was fine. Less to untangle when I inevitably got sick.
It was like the baby tried to escape from my mouth. That was a more horrifying proposition than what would happen in seven months.
In six and a half months.
When we wouldn’t be able to run anymore.
My family hadn’t visited our summer home in Santa Barbara since before Dad’s chemo. I hardly recognized the beach house—though it wasn’t like we spent much time here. Dad forced Mike and Josiah to work even on vacation, and Mom had an irrational fear of jellyfish, rip tides, and whales. When I was little, most of the vacations ended early from arguments, harvest crises, and sunburn.
But I’d missed the beautiful house. What was intended to be a multi-million dollar home-away-from-home stood empty and hollow without Dad’s tirades from the kitchen or Mike and Josiah testing their boogie boards on the staircase.
It was hardly a home without a family.
Nicholas knocked at my door. I claimed my childhood room with the pink walls, a queen bed, and a bay window—Hamlet’s preferred seat. Nicholas didn’t question the posters or books on the shelves. I rose before he poked through the antique dollhouse in the corner.
“Max will stay with you tonight.” Nicholas buttoned his suit jacket. “Reed will be back in the morning. I’ll fly in from San Jose tomorrow afternoon once I meet with a prospective client.”
He tried to reassure me, as if I’d be worried without him close.
And I was.
But every night I pushed him from my bedroom as my world tore apart. I couldn’t let him stay. I’d only fall back into his embrace. Surrendering to that desire would end in our disaster.
I loved Nicholas Bennett with every shudder of my breaking heart, even if it was his cruelty, greed, and ambition which first trapped me within his captivity.
I had bound myself to a monster and imagined I was safe.
I trusted the demon while praying for salvation.
I was a fool.
Nicholas delivered on his promised evil, and yet his hand guided me into a perfect submission that soothed my fears and crumbled the defenses that shielded me from his control.
I loved him, and, because of my own weakness, I made him the most dangerous man to my unborn child.
“I’ll be back as quickly as I can,” he said.
“Because you think I need protection, or because you think I’ll run?”
Nicholas wasn’t insulted. “Because you need me. Because our baby needs me.”
“Please don’t talk like that.”
“Sarah, nothing in this world will stop me from loving you. And there isn’t a damn thing you can do to keep me from my son.”
“Nick—”
“The pregnancy changes nothing.”
“It changes everything.”
“Only if you let it.”
I squared my shoulders, though my full height was nothing compared to Nicholas’s strength, his poise, the solid force of his authority. “Don’t pretend to understand how I feel.”
“Then tell me how you feel. Talk to me, Sarah.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“That’s not true.”
“For us, it has to be.” I stared into his eyes. “I’m pregnant. I’m six months from losing everything my family ever built. My future is ruined because Darius Bennett lusted for more wealth.”
“You think I would take your farm from you?” he asked. “Sarah, you still hold the entirety of the Josmik Trust. You have more influence over my company than I hold over your fields.”
I closed my eyes. “I won’t have this same fight with you.”
“Then stop fighting and start trusting me. For once. This will be over soon, and then you and me…” He touched my cheek. “You, and me, and our son can start our family, and I can give you every comfort and security you deserve. Sarah, I’d give my life to keep you two safe.”
I pressed my finger against his lips, marveling in the warmth and memory of how they once memorized every inch of my body. Now they murmured dangerous possibilities.
“Please don’t say that,” I whispered. “It might come true.”
“I have too much to live for. So many depending on me.”
His hand slipped low, touching my tummy.
Nicholas and I once swore to reveal all our secrets. No more hiding contracts or assumed infertilities, vengeful boards or family tragedies. We promised, we vowed it to each other, and our fragile bond frayed as every lie was revealed.
It wasn’t secrets separating us now. It was that truth I couldn’t give, and the honesty that bore only pain. What would happen if the baby was a product of hatred and violence?
If it wasn’t Nicholas’s son?
If it wasn’t a male heir?
“Get some rest.” Nicholas reluctantly pulled away. “I’ll return as soon as I can.”
He closed the door behind him, and I collapsed on the bed.