Chapter 6 - THE FALSE EMERGENCY
Emma refused to cancel.
Adrian nearly lost his mind.
“If Evelyn knows where you’ll be—”
“Then changing everything tells her we know.”
“You are not bait.”
“I didn’t say I was.”
“It sounds remarkably like bait.”
Emma folded her arms.
“I need my thirty-five-week appointment.”
“We can bring Sloan here.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“No.”
He paced across the bedroom.
She watched him.
“You’re doing it again.”
He stopped.
“What?”
“Trying to make fear sound like authority.”
His jaw tightened.
Then he exhaled.
“What do you want?”
“A normal appointment.”
“There is nothing normal about this.”
“As normal as possible.”
Adrian looked toward Nathan.
Nathan shrugged.
“She has a point.”
Adrian gave him a look of betrayal.
Nathan added, “A heavily secured point.”
They developed a plan.
Emma would attend normally.
Plainclothes security would surround the clinic.
Dr. Sloan would be informed.
No one else would know.
At 10:42 the next morning, Emma entered through the front doors.
Adrian walked beside her.
“You’re hovering.”
“I’m walking.”
“You’re walking like you intend to kill the furniture.”
“I dislike the furniture.”
She almost smiled.
The appointment began normally.
Blood pressure.
Measurements.
Heartbeat.
Then a nurse Emma had never seen entered.
“Dr. Sloan has been called downstairs,” she said. “There’s an emergency.”
Emma looked at Adrian.
Something felt wrong.
The nurse approached with a syringe.
“This is your steroid injection.”
Emma frowned.
“What steroid injection?”
“For fetal lung development.”
Adrian stepped between them.
“Dr. Sloan never mentioned one.”
The nurse froze.
Then ran.
Nathan appeared from the corridor.
The woman made it six feet.
Security stopped her.
The syringe hit the floor.
Dr. Sloan emerged seconds later, confused.
“I wasn’t called anywhere.”
The clinic locked down.
Police were summoned through a trusted contact.
The syringe was sent for testing.
Emma sat trembling on the examination table.
Adrian crouched in front of her.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I brought this into your life.”
“You didn’t put that syringe in her hand.”
“My family did.”
“Adrian.”
He looked down.
Emma touched his face.
It was the first affectionate contact she had initiated since the divorce.
His eyes closed against her palm.
“We’re still here,” she whispered.
Hours later, lab results came back.
The syringe contained a medication that could have caused a dangerous drop in Emma’s blood pressure.
The fake nurse refused to speak.
But Nathan found her phone.
One deleted message had been recovered.
DO NOT HURT THE MOTHER. ONLY END THE SUCCESSION.
Emma stared at the screen.
Adrian walked out of the room.
She followed him.
He stood in the hallway with both hands against the wall.
“Adrian.”
“I need a minute.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
She had never seen him cry.
Not at his father’s funeral.
Not during their divorce.
Not once.
Now his eyes were wet.
“She was going to kill my daughter.”
Emma wrapped her arms around him.
For several seconds he did not move.
Then he held her.
Carefully.
As though both she and the child between them were made of glass.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair.
Emma closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“I loved you every day.”
Her breath caught.
“Adrian—”
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
He pulled back.
“I need you to know because I let you believe the opposite. Whatever happens to me, our daughter should never grow up thinking her father didn’t love her mother.”
Emma could not answer.
Nathan appeared at the end of the corridor.
“We found Evelyn.”
Adrian straightened.
“Where?”
“She’s at the estate.”
Emma blinked.
“What?”
“She drove through the front gate ten minutes ago.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“She knows we identified her.”
“Looks that way.”
“Why would she go there?”
Nathan’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face darkened.
“Because she isn’t alone.”
“Who?”
Nathan lowered the phone.
“Carlo.”
They returned under heavy security.
Evelyn and Carlo sat in the library.
No weapons.
No guards.
Evelyn looked perfectly composed.
Carlo looked twenty years older.
Adrian entered first.
Emma followed despite his objections.
Evelyn looked at her belly.
Something cold moved through her expression.
“You always were inconvenient, Emma.”
Carlo turned on his wife.
“Enough.”
Adrian stared at them.
“You tried to kill my child.”
Evelyn’s gaze returned to him.
“I tried to prevent a disaster.”
Carlo stood.
“She acted without me.”
Evelyn laughed.
“Don’t pretend innocence now.”
Carlo’s face twisted.
“I agreed to the divorce. I agreed to scare Emma away. I never agreed to murder.”
“You were happy enough to spend the money.”
Adrian’s eyes moved between them.
“What money?”
Evelyn smiled.
“Your father’s.”
Carlo looked sick.
Adrian stepped forward.
“What did you do to my father?”
Evelyn’s composure finally cracked.
Carlo whispered, “Adrian…”
“What did you do?”
Carlo looked at the floor.
“The crash wasn’t meant to kill them.”
The room went silent.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Emma reached for his hand.
Carlo continued.
“It was supposed to frighten your father into giving me control of the company.”
Adrian’s voice was almost inaudible.
“My mother was in that car.”
“I didn’t know she would be.”
Adrian lunged.
Nathan caught him.
Emma shouted his name.
Adrian stopped inches from Carlo.
His entire body shook.
Then Evelyn laughed softly.
Everyone turned.
“You still don’t understand,” she said.
She looked directly at Adrian.
“Carlo didn’t arrange the crash.”
Carlo closed his eyes.
May you like
Evelyn smiled.
“I did.”
