“Why would you do that?” Drake was on his feet and in Lombard’s face. “Get out!”Lombard met him halfway. “I didn’t come here for you. Don’t make me turn this on you,” he warned, harsh and low.“I don’t want you here anymore!” Drake snapped right back. “Ever since you came into my life, it has been—”“Save that bullshit story for another year.” Lombard cut him clean off. “Think about your wife and your kid, right now. Use your fucking brain, sicko!”The old man, watching his beaten son-in-law square up against the intruder, was genuinely surprised by the turn of events — but he was not the type to waste a gift.“Bring the men,” he said to his wife, exercising his power from the safety of the far wall.She had already called them. They reached the door moments later — five of them, each one noticeably huger than the men who had come with Lombard. And one way or another, it was immediately obvious that these five had never once heard of the Cataract t

“What is this about?” the patriarch of the C&R Consortium asked at the other end.“He came here just now and took my son-in-law away from me. And that isn’t even the worst part. The worst part is that my daughter now looks at him like he’s some hero.” The old man kept his voice level. Calm was the only dignity he had left tonight, and he intended to spend it carefully. “We should send him to where we sent Clara. I don’t want to be dealing with an emotional child.”“Hm.” A considering pause. “Well — I’d thought, since he’s a man, we could leave him be. Men know how to sit quietly with their grief. That was the whole design. But if this is where things stand… then he isn’t leaving us much of a choice, is he?”“I want it done as fast as possible. I’ll come over to yours tonight.”“Yes — come, let’s talk it over some beer. It’s been a while since we did that.” A warm chuckle traveled down the line, the kind exchanged between very old friends. “I think the last time was when you told me yo

At the other hospital — the one Rowan had rushed his father into — the nurses and everyone present had been whispering among themselves for a while now. It had been hours. Every nurse and doctor coming out of that room wore the same face and offered the same nothing — eyes sliding past him, clipboards hugged like shields, footsteps accelerating exactly as they drew level with his chair. He had watched the pattern repeat six times. Seven. And it was officially getting on Rowan’s nerves. Yes, fine, he had brought his father here to be treated — but that did not mean all these people got to walk past him like he didn’t exist. He had every fucking right to know what was happening in there.He stood up. His chair scraped the floor loud enough to turn heads.“What happened to my father?” He grabbed the next doctor who came out — fistful of white coat, zero preamble.“Sir — your patient — we are still—”Rowan slapped the words straight out of the idiot’s mouth before he could finish.“I ask

“Just because you’re always thinking about someone doesn’t mean you have to get married to them,” Toby was saying to the patriarch — who didn’t appear to be listening to her at all, despite being the one who had summoned her here in the early hours of the morning to come and read to him.He was feeling nostalgic, he’d said. About the past, when he used to be the one reading to her. Now he wanted the roles reversed. There was no sense or logic anywhere in that — but Toby had already dumped logic several hours ago, right around the time she’d finished pulling threads from the men about what the old man had really been up to lately.“Why have you stopped?” He raised a brow at her, lifting his eyes off the chessboard he was playing against himself. He was genuinely the first person you’d ever see running a full game solo. Some years back he had declared that this was one of the habits that kept him sharp — that he could outsmart even himself — all of that grand-sounding rubbish that made

The information had already reached Lombard that Abigail had left with Alice. He made sure she was okay, then quietly assigned some of his men to follow at a distance and keep eyes on her — the kind of eyes she would never know were there.Then he went back to the hospital to see Finn.The boy was mid-conversation with one of the nurses when Lombard walked up to the doorway. He had no idea what the full topic was — but the one line he did catch from Finn was enough to make him wonder exactly how this guy was moving this fast this soonThe kid was telling the nurse that she looked nice with her hair down, and asking why she ever packed it up at all.Lombard’s immediate professional diagnosis: they must have fed him some grade of anesthesia that loosens the brain at the hinges.He waited outside for the nurse to leave — no need to embarrass her — and caught her for an update instead.“He’s fine now. He just needs a bit more rest,” she told him when she came back around some minutes late