Chapter 4
Brenda came to the hospital at midnight.
I knew because the hallway changed.
Nurses stopped talking.
Shoes moved quickly.
Someone outside my door said, “Ma’am, you can’t go in there.”
Then Brenda’s voice cut through the glass.
“That woman is carrying my grandchild.”
I sat up too fast.
Pain shot through my side.
Rocco woke instantly from the chair.
“What is it?”
“She’s here.”
His face went hard.
He moved to the door before I could stop him.
Brenda stood in the hallway wearing a cream coat, her hair perfect, her cheek bruised from the gift table.
She looked at Rocco like he had broken her heart.
“Baby, come here.”
He didn’t move.
“Don’t call me that.”
Her eyes watered on command.
“She’s turning you against us.”
“You hurt her.”
“She is destroying your family.”
“She is my family.”
Brenda’s face twitched.
Then she saw me over his shoulder.
“You little snake,” she said.
A nurse reached for the phone.
Brenda raised her hands.
“I came peacefully.”
Gary appeared behind her.
“No, you came because Preston warned you I had the papers.”
For the first time, Brenda looked afraid.
Only a flash.
But I saw it.
Gary held out his hand.
“Leave.”
Brenda laughed.
“You think you can scare me? I built this family while you played king.”
“You built nothing.”
“I protected our name.”
“You tried to kill a baby.”
Her face hardened.
“That baby is a mistake.”
Rocco took one step forward.
“Say that again.”
Brenda looked at him, and something cruel slid into her eyes.
“You think she loves you? She’ll have her own child now. You’ll be nothing.”
Rocco went pale.
I pushed myself up.
“Rocco.”
He didn’t turn.
Brenda smiled because she saw the wound land.
“That’s how it works, sweetheart. Women like Audrey survive by replacing.”
I pulled the blanket aside.
The nurse tried to stop me, but I stood anyway.
My legs shook.
My side burned.
But I walked to the door.
“Listen to me,” I said.
Brenda’s eyes narrowed.
“You don’t speak to me.”
“I’m speaking to him.”
Rocco finally looked at me.
I held out my hand.
“You are not being replaced. Not today. Not ever.”
His face crumbled.
He came to me so fast I almost lost balance.
I wrapped one arm around him and one arm around my belly.
Brenda stared at us like the sight offended her.
Gary looked away.
Maybe because he was crying.
Then Brenda’s phone rang.
She glanced at the screen.
Her expression changed.
Not fear.
Rage.
She answered.
“What?”
We all heard Preston shouting through the speaker.
“They froze the accounts.”
Gary’s mouth tightened.
Brenda stared at him.
“You didn’t.”
“I did.”
“You have no right.”
“I have every right.”
Preston yelled again.
“Mom, the investigator found the shell account.”
Brenda hung up.
The hallway went silent.
Gary stepped closer.
“What shell account?”
Brenda’s face went blank.
Too blank.
That was when I understood.
The eighteen million wasn’t the whole secret.
It was just the door.
Gary’s attorney whispered something to him.
Gary turned to me.
“Audrey, I need you to tell me something.”
My stomach clenched.
“What?”
“Did Preston ever ask you to sign anything after the pregnancy?”
I thought of the folder he brought home two weeks earlier.
Estate updates, he called them.
Routine.
I hadn’t signed because I was too tired and nauseous.
I looked at Gary.
“Yes.”
Brenda closed her eyes.
Gary’s face became stone.
“What happened to those papers?”
“In my nightstand.”
Brenda stepped back.
Gary pointed to one of his men.
“Get them.”
Brenda tried to run.
The bodyguard caught her before she reached the elevator.
And as she screamed, my phone buzzed in my hospital bag.
A blocked number.
May you like
I answered without thinking.
Preston’s voice whispered, “If those papers come out, Audrey, none of you are safe.”
