Chapter 2 - THE MEN WHO ASKED ABOUT HER BABY
Audrey knew something was wrong before Julian finished reading the security report.
Not because of what it said.
Because Julian Cross stopped breathing for half a second.
Most people would never have noticed.
Audrey did.
She had grown up around men who survived by controlling their faces. Julian had served her grandfather for nearly twenty years. He could receive news of a federal investigation while calmly finishing an espresso.
But now his jaw tightened.
“Julian?”
“We’re leaving.”
Graham stepped forward.
“What happened?”
Julian ignored him.
He touched the discreet microphone beneath his collar.
“Bring the car to the service entrance. Now.”
The atmosphere inside Belladonna changed instantly.
Three men near the private dining rooms moved toward Audrey.
Graham stared at them.
“What the hell is happening?”
Audrey pushed herself carefully from the chair.
Her baby shifted painfully beneath her ribs.
Sloan had gone unnaturally still.
Audrey saw it.
And so did Julian.
He stepped toward Sloan.
“You know something.”
Sloan laughed too quickly.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Two men entered Donna DeLuca’s apartment tonight.”
“That has nothing to do with me.”
Julian had not mentioned the apartment.
Silence.
Sloan realized her mistake.
Graham turned toward her.
“How did you know where they went?”
“I assumed.”
“No,” Audrey said softly. “You didn’t.”
Sloan grabbed her purse.
“This is insane.”
She moved toward the restaurant entrance.
A man in a dark suit quietly blocked her path.
Sloan stopped.
“Move.”
He didn’t.
Graham looked from Sloan to Audrey.
For the first time that evening, his arrogance had disappeared.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Sloan looked at him.
Something almost like pity crossed her face.
“You really have no idea what company you built, do you?”
Graham froze.
Then every light inside Belladonna went out.
Someone screamed.
Audrey felt Julian grab her arm.
“Down.”
A gunshot shattered the front window.
Guests dropped beneath tables.
Glass exploded across the marble floor.
Graham instinctively lunged toward Audrey.
Julian reached her first.
He shielded her body while security surrounded them.
Another shot struck the wall.
Then came silence.
Audrey’s heart hammered.
Her hand went immediately to her stomach.
The baby moved.
Alive.
“Audrey!”
Graham’s voice came from somewhere in the darkness.
“I’m okay.”
Emergency lights flickered on.
Sloan was gone.
The doorway where the guard had been standing was empty.
Graham stared at it.
Then at Audrey.
“She set this up.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“You knew she was involved with those companies.”
“I suspected.”
“And you came here anyway?”
Audrey met his eyes.
“I came because whoever stole money from Mercer Atlantic has been using your company to reach mine.”
Graham’s face changed.
“What?”
Julian looked at Audrey.
She nodded.
He opened another folder.
This one had not been intended for Graham.
Inside were transaction records.
The three shell companies connected to Mercer Atlantic had transferred almost $18 million during the previous eleven months.
The money had moved through Boston, Delaware, the Cayman Islands, and finally into accounts connected to a holding company called Redhaven Capital.
Graham recognized the name.
“That’s one of Sloan’s consulting clients.”
“No,” Audrey said.
“It’s her father’s.”
Graham stared at her.
“Sloan told me her father was dead.”
“He is.”
Audrey paused.
“But Redhaven wasn’t created by him.”
“Then who?”
Julian answered.
“Victor Barrett.”
Sloan’s uncle.
The name meant nothing to Graham.
But it had haunted the DeLuca family for twenty-three years.
Victor Barrett had once worked for Anthony DeLuca.
Until $40 million disappeared.
Until two witnesses vanished.
Until Catherine DeLuca—Audrey’s mother—agreed to testify.
Three days before the hearing, Catherine died in what police classified as a highway accident.
Audrey had been eleven.
No charges were ever filed.
Graham looked toward the shattered window.
“You think Sloan got close to me because of Audrey?”
“We think Sloan got close to Mercer Atlantic because Audrey unknowingly gave your company access to DeLuca-backed credit,” Julian said.
The words hit harder than Graham expected.
He remembered Sloan appearing at a conference eighteen months earlier.
Her interest in his company.
Her effortless charm.
Her questions about financing.
Her fascination with Audrey.
Where did your wife grow up?
Does she still have family?
Why doesn't she attend board meetings?
At the time, Graham had interpreted Sloan’s attention as admiration.
Now every conversation felt different.
His phone rang.
His CFO.
Graham answered.
“Talk.”
“Graham, we have another problem.”
“What now?”
“The board called an emergency meeting for tomorrow morning.”
“Fine.”
“They’re discussing removing you.”
Graham went silent.
“On what grounds?”
“Unauthorized vendor transfers. Failure of oversight. And—”
“And what?”
“The board received evidence that your signature approved all three shell-company contracts.”
Graham stared across the restaurant.
“I never signed them.”
His CFO hesitated.
“Your signature is on every page.”
The call ended.
Graham lowered the phone.
For the first time in years, he looked genuinely lost.
Audrey remembered that expression.
Boston.
A tiny apartment.
Rejection letters scattered across the floor.
It’s over.
She had sat beside him then.
She had rescued him.
A dangerous instinct rose inside her now.
Help him.
Audrey crushed it.
She was no longer responsible for saving Graham Mercer from every consequence of Graham Mercer.
Julian guided her toward the kitchen exit.
Graham followed.
“Audrey.”
She kept walking.
“Audrey, wait.”
She stopped.
Graham approached more slowly.
Rain streaked the alley beyond the service entrance.
“You knew something was wrong with the company,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Audrey looked at him.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
He frowned.
“You told me procurement numbers looked strange.”
“I gave you forty-seven pages.”
Graham remembered.
He had not read them.
Sloan had been waiting downstairs that evening for a charity dinner.
He had told Audrey to stop involving herself in matters she did not understand.
His stomach turned.
Audrey saw recognition appear in his face.
“Yes,” she whispered. “That night.”
Graham looked away.
“I was wrong.”
“That doesn't fix it.”
“I know.”
“No, Graham. I don't think you do.”
Her voice never rose.
That made every word worse.
“You didn't just cheat on me. You taught everyone around you that dismissing me was the price of earning your approval.”
He had no answer.
A black SUV pulled into the alley.
Julian opened the rear door.
Audrey moved toward it.
Then pain ripped through her abdomen.
She gasped.
Her hand caught the side of the car.
“Audrey?”
Julian caught her.
Another pain came.
Sharper.
She looked down.
A dark stain spread across the lower portion of her dress.
Graham went white.
“No.”
Audrey's knees weakened.
Julian shouted for the driver.
Graham reached her just as she collapsed.
For one terrible second, Audrey found herself against the chest of the man who had abandoned her.
His hands shook.
“Hospital,” he shouted.
Julian was already calling ahead.
Audrey looked up at Graham.
Fear filled his face.
Not fear for his company.
Not fear for his reputation.
Something older.
Something she remembered.
“Don't let anything happen to him,” Graham whispered.
Audrey's eyes filled.
“You said he wasn't yours.”
Graham flinched as though she had struck him.
“I was angry.”
“You said it where reporters could hear you.”
“I know.”
“You wanted the world to doubt my child.”
“I know.”
Another contraction seized her.
She cried out.
The SUV tore through Manhattan.
Julian sat opposite them, phone pressed to his ear, arranging a private medical team.
Graham held Audrey's hand.
She tried to pull away.
He released her immediately.
That hurt more somehow.
Twenty minutes later, hospital doors opened.
Doctors rushed Audrey inside.
Graham followed until a nurse stopped him.
“Family only.”
“I’m her husband.”
Audrey heard him.
Even through the pain, she turned.
“Ex-husband.”
The nurse looked between them.
Then the doors closed.
Graham stood alone beneath fluorescent lights.
Julian approached.
“You should leave.”
“No.”
“She doesn't need you here.”
“That's my son.”
Julian studied him.
“Interesting.”
Graham's eyes hardened.
“What does that mean?”
“Three hours ago, you publicly questioned whether he was yours.”
Graham looked away.
Julian stepped closer.
“You want to know the difference between regret and love?”
Graham said nothing.
“Regret is wanting the pain to stop after you've caused it. Love is changing even if the person you hurt never comes back.”
Julian walked away.
Graham sat down.
For the first time in years, he had no assistant to call.
No attorney who could solve the problem.
No money that mattered.
At 2:17 a.m., a doctor finally emerged.
Graham stood.
“So did Julian.”
The doctor's expression was grave.
“Ms. DeLuca is stable.”
Graham exhaled.
“And the baby?”
A pause.
“We stopped the premature labor for now.”
For now.
Graham closed his eyes.
The doctor continued.
“But there's something else.”
Audrey's security team had requested a toxicology screen because of the suspicious circumstances surrounding the attack.
The doctor held up a report.
“We found traces of a medication in her blood that she was never prescribed.”
Julian's face became stone.
“What medication?”
“A drug capable of triggering uterine contractions.”
Graham stopped breathing.
Someone had not merely been watching Audrey.
May you like
Someone had been trying to make her lose the baby.
And only three people had known what she drank at Belladonna that night.
