Chapter 3
I walked into the hospital waiting room and saw my mother sitting beside the woman I had almost married.
For a second, neither of them noticed me.
Brooke’s wedding gown was still on.
The train was dirty from the chapel floor.
Her veil was gone.
My mother still wore the silver dress she had chosen for my wedding.
They looked less like enemies caught in the same disaster and more like allies waiting for instructions.
Then Brooke saw me.
“Luke.”
I raised one hand.
“Don’t.”
My mother stood.
“Please listen.”
“You told Grace I didn’t want my child.”
Her face changed.
That was enough.
“Luke.”
“You did.”
“I was trying to prevent you from making a terrible mistake.”
My vision blurred with anger.
“A baby?”
“No.”
“Grace?”
My mother’s jaw tightened.
“You were throwing your future away.”
Brooke stood too.
“Exactly.”
I laughed.
I could not help it.
Both women looked shocked.
“You two actually rehearsed this.”
My mother lowered her voice.
“Grace was chaos.”
“She was a single mother.”
“She had debts.”
“So?”
“She was not from our world.”
I stared at her.
“Our world?”
“The Bennett Foundation. Your father’s company. Your responsibilities.”
Brooke moved closer.
“You were about to become CEO.”
“I did become CEO.”
“Because your mother saved you.”
I looked at Brooke.
“By forging messages from me?”
Her face hardened.
“You were confused.”
“You stole my phone.”
“You left it at your mother’s house during the Chicago trip.”
I looked at my mother.
She did not deny it.
A wave of nausea hit me.
“You gave Brooke access?”
“I gave her the passcode.”
I stepped back.
“You helped her impersonate me.”
“I helped end something that would have destroyed your future.”
“No.”
My voice rose.
“You destroyed my future.”
People in the waiting room turned.
I did not care.
“You took seven months of my child’s life.”
Brooke flinched.
“So it is yours?”
I stared at her.
“You knew it was.”
“She said it was.”
“There’s a DNA report.”
Brooke’s mouth tightened.
“That test could be manipulated.”
“Stop.”
I moved closer.
“For once, stop lying.”
My mother looked toward the hallway.
“Can we discuss this privately?”
“No.”
Her face tightened.
“Luke.”
“No more private conversations.”
Detective Moreno appeared near the nurses’ station.
She was listening.
Good.
I pointed toward Brooke.
“Did Nathan hurt Grace?”
Brooke went still.
“My brother would never hurt a pregnant woman.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“He was trying to get her to stop harassing us.”
“By making her sign papers?”
“She was demanding money.”
Behind me, a voice said, “I never demanded anything.”
Grace.
I turned.
She stood several feet away in a hospital gown and robe, one hand on an IV pole.
A nurse hovered near her.
Ava held her free hand.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” I said.
Grace ignored me.
She looked at Brooke.
“You offered me money.”
Brooke’s face twisted.
“You came into our lives looking for it.”
Grace laughed weakly.
“Your lives?”
She looked at me.
“When Brooke first came to my apartment, you and I had been together for nearly two years.”
I turned toward Brooke.
“She called me Luke’s mistake.”
Brooke stepped forward.
“I was protecting him.”
Grace’s expression changed.
“No.”
“You wanted him.”
“I loved him.”
“You didn’t even know him.”
Brooke snapped, “I’ve known him since college.”
“And he still chose me.”
That hit.
Brooke’s composure cracked.
“I was supposed to be standing beside him.”
Grace whispered, “So you erased me.”
Silence.
My mother stepped between them.
“This conversation is helping no one.”
I stared at her.
“That’s what you always do.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“You take control when someone says something you don’t like.”
“I’m your mother.”
“And Grace is the mother of my child.”
Brooke’s face went white.
I said it again.
“My child.”
Something changed in me as the words left my mouth.
I had not held the baby.
I had not heard a heartbeat.
I had not known the baby existed until hours earlier.
But the truth landed fully now.
I had a child coming.
And people I trusted had deliberately kept that from me.
My mother’s eyes filled.
“Luke, I was thinking about your future.”
“You don’t get to decide my future.”
“I have spent my entire life protecting you.”
“From what?”
“From becoming your father.”
That stopped me.
My father had died when I was twenty.
Everyone described him as kind, brilliant, generous.
My mother rarely spoke negatively about him.
“What does Dad have to do with this?”
Her lips pressed together.
“Nothing.”
I stepped closer.
“You brought him up.”
“Luke.”
“What happened with Dad?”
Brooke looked uncomfortable.
That told me she knew something too.
I turned on her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Brooke.”
She looked at my mother.
My mother said sharply, “Don’t.”
I laughed again.
“Unbelievable.”
Grace touched my arm.
“Luke.”
I looked at her.
She seemed tired.
“We should go back.”
I nodded.
Detective Moreno stepped toward my mother and Brooke.
“I need both of you to remain available for formal interviews.”
My mother’s face hardened.
“Am I under arrest?”
“No.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
Moreno smiled without warmth.
“That is your right.”
Brooke followed her.
Before she reached the elevator, she turned toward me.
“You’re making a mistake.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
I looked at Grace.
“I already made one.”
Brooke’s eyes filled.
Then the elevator doors closed.
Back in Grace’s room, the nurse settled her into bed.
Ava climbed into the chair beside her.
I sat across from them.
Grace looked at me carefully.
“What did your mother mean about your father?”
“I don’t know.”
“You looked scared.”
“I’m angry.”
“That too.”
I rubbed my face.
“There were always things about his death she refused to discuss.”
“How did he die?”
“Heart attack.”
“How old?”
“Forty-eight.”
Grace frowned.
“You told me he was healthy.”
“He was.”
The question had bothered me for years.
I had accepted the official explanation because grief made questions feel disloyal.
Now everything my mother had ever told me felt unstable.
My phone rang.
Detective Moreno.
She had barely left.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Bennett, I need to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Does your mother have access to the Bennett Foundation archives?”
“Yes. Why?”
“We found one of the payment receipts in Grace’s envelope.”
My stomach tightened.
“What about it?”
“The funds didn’t come from Brooke.”
“Then from Nathan?”
“No.”
I looked toward Grace.
“Where did they come from?”
Moreno paused.
“The Bennett Foundation.”
I stopped breathing.
My father had created that foundation.
My mother had run it after his death.
“How much?”
“Multiple transfers totaling eighty thousand dollars.”
Grace heard.
Her face went pale.
“I never took it.”
Moreno continued.
“Somebody did.”
“Who?”
“That’s what we need to determine.”
After we hung up, Grace shook her head.
“I refused every payment.”
“I believe you.”
“What if they made it look like I accepted?”
“They probably did.”
Ava had fallen asleep in the chair.
Grace watched her.
Then whispered, “There’s another reason I came back.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The shelter worker who helped us found something attached to the payment records.”
“What?”
“A name.”
“Whose?”
Grace reached for my hand.
“Your father’s.”
I stared at her.
“My father has been dead for twelve years.”
“I know.”
“What was his name doing there?”
“I don’t know.”
She swallowed.
“But the account used to threaten me existed before he died.”
My heart hammered.
Grace continued.
“And Luke…”
“What?”
“The account wasn’t created to target me.”
I waited.
“It had been used before.”
“For who?”
Grace looked terrified.
“Other women.”
I stared at her.
“What women?”
“I only know one name.”
“Tell me.”
Grace whispered it.
“Caroline Bennett.”
I went cold.
Because Caroline Bennett was my father’s younger sister.
May you like
My aunt.
And according to my mother, Caroline had died by suicide when I was sixteen.
