Chapter 6 - The Baby Remains Sleeping
The newborn stayed asleep through the first collapse of her family’s lie.
Her tiny face was turned toward the window.
Her white swaddle rose and fell with soft breathing.
City daylight shimmered behind her bassinet.
Julian looked at her as if seeing the stakes for the first time.
Not inheritance.
Not reputation.
Not family control.
A child.
His child.
Clara’s child.
A baby who had not yet opened her eyes to the world and already had adults fighting over where she belonged.
Eleanor followed his gaze.
“Julian, think of her future.”
“I am.”
“With Clara unstable—”
“Stop using that word.”
Eleanor’s mouth closed.
Julian’s voice was low, shaking.
“Say it again and I will ask why you needed her labeled that before the doctor came back.”
Dominic stiffened.
Clara stared at Julian.
The sentence changed something in her face.
A small, impossible thing.
Hope.
Eleanor saw it and panicked.
“Dominic, give me the folder.”
Dominic hesitated.
Julian noticed.
That hesitation was new.
Eleanor noticed too.
“Dominic.”
He did not move quickly enough.
Julian stepped forward and placed one hand flat over the portfolio.
“No one puts that near her.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Remove your hand.”
Julian leaned closer.
“No.”
The word filled the suite.
Clara pulled the blanket higher, shielding herself, but her gaze stayed fixed on Julian’s back.
He was standing between them now.
Not perfectly.
Not early enough.
But finally.
Eleanor’s face flushed with fury.
“You have no idea what she has done to this family.”
Julian turned.
“What did she do?”
Eleanor’s lips parted.
No answer came.
May you like
The silence was louder than any accusation.
Read Chapter 7 👉 Because Eleanor kept naming Clara as the danger, but when Julian asked for the danger, she could not name anything real.
