“Don’t ask about that woman again.”The gun did not waver. Neither did the patriarch’s voice.“This isn’t going to be your last warning — I don’t want you feeling like we’re in some duel. But I will not tolerate this kind of insult a second time.”Lombard didn’t answer. He kept his eyes on the man holding the gun — on the finger resting along the trigger guard, on the breathing, slow and bored, of somebody who had done this many times before and expected to do it many times again.Then, at some silent order from the patriarch that Lombard never saw pass between them, the man lowered the weapon.“You can leave now,” the patriarch said, reaching for his water again. “Oh — but I almost forgot to tell you this. Since we are this close now, considering our relationship. I want you to have a chat with Toby again. I promise you, she is a very nice woman. And I’m not saying that just because she is my granddaughter.”Lombard looked at the patriarch with something dan

Vivienne handed a cup of water to Drake. He collected it with a hand that was barely stable.“Your wife okay?” she asked, worry in her voice.Drake nodded. “Yes. She’s fine.”“She has called me like two times since you got here. You’re sure I don’t have to answer her calls?”“She what?” Drake almost choked on the water he had just started drinking. “How did she know I’m here?”“She — well, she just called me. I have no idea if she actually knows you’re here.”“Did you rat me out?”“Drake, I’m sorry, but I thought you two were having some bit of a problem or something. I had to check in with her by text. But I didn’t know she’d conclude you were here.”“Wow. This is exactly the only reason why I hate women,” Drake spat, dropping the cup onto the table. “You are all just so wild, and you make a man start wondering whether he’s the crazy one or not. The only woman I have ever met in my entire life who wasn’t like the rest of you was my mother!”“Yes

When Julian was young — around ten or so — she was bullied at school. She told her father about it the day he came back from a business trip.That was the first time she learned that her parents could go crazy when it came to protecting their own.They didn’t just get the kid punished. They got him expelled. They burnt a fortune on lawyers, on court cases that stretched across months — and by the end of it, the boy and his parents had to leave the city entirely, because no school in it was willing to so much as look at his application again.She was ten. The boy had taken her lunch money twice.She should have remembered that story tonight, before she assumed she knew what her parents were capable of.Tonight, she had called Vivienne to ask if Drake had gone there again, and Vivienne had texted back that yes, he was with her. Julian was already on the drive over when her parents called and told her not to even try going.“Do not go to that estate tonight, Jul

“Who is she?” Vivienne’s voice went on, clearly not to Abigail at all. “And why are you even answering her call while driving?”“Hey — what’s up, Abigail? You okay?” That was Lombard, calling from somewhere in the background, over engine noise.“You don’t hang up that call,” he added, in a tone that made it very clear he was not joking.“I know her type. And I can tell you for a fact, she’s no better than the one you just came from,” Vivienne said harshly — still at full volume, still directly into the phone.“Hey, what’s up? You don’t have to be mad just because a woman is calling your brother,” a third voice chipped in from somewhere else in the car. Another woman entirely.“Vivienne.” Lombard again, sharper now. “I have a pregnant woman and a legal emergency in this car. Pass. The. Phone.”“I’m just saying what everybody is thinking—”“Vivienne.”Abigail sat there, phone to her ear, feeling like she had fallen face-first into a situation she had ne

Rowan crawled out of a bed he did not remember entering, in a room he did not recognize.He looked around. Nobody there. Then it all came back to him in one ugly rush — everything that had led him here in the first place. The cleaner must have gotten him somewhere safe. He owed her for that. He counted out some notes from his wallet, then changed his mind, emptied the entire wallet instead, and dropped all of it on the table in sight.He found his way outside. Nobody around the house. Nice. Exactly what he needed.He flagged a cab. “Home,” he told the driver, then corrected himself with his address, because the driver was not his personal assistant and did not know where home was. The whole ride, he turned it over — the last thing he could ever have expected to happen to him had happened. And to make matters worse, the Belmont family was already ringing his phone, probably wanting him to come and explain himself over the attic. Well. Since he was never going to need thei