Chapter 6
Daniel reached for the door handle.
Not to open it.
To lock it.
Claire saw the movement before anyone else.
“Don’t.”
He froze with his fingers inches from the metal.
Sophie pushed herself up higher, wincing from pain.
“Daniel, why would you lock the door?”
He looked trapped.
“I’m protecting us.”
Claire’s eyes narrowed.
“From whom?”
No answer.
Evelyn’s voice turned low.
“Claire, you have made your point. Leave now and we can discuss this privately later.”
Claire looked at her.
“Privately is how you buried him once.”
Evelyn flinched.
Sophie caught it.
So did Daniel.
The room was no longer divided between Claire and them.
It was dividing around facts.
Claire watched Evelyn’s hands on the baby.
Careful.
Too careful.
The newborn was calm, swaddled safely, his face turned toward the pearls at Evelyn’s neck.
Evelyn’s fear did not make her careless with him.
Good.
Claire needed to know that.
Daniel shifted again, blocking Claire’s view of the bed.
“Claire, listen to me. You are walking into something you don’t understand.”
She gave him a cold look.
“That’s the first honest thing you’ve said.”
His jaw tightened.
“There are reasons.”
“For faking death?”
He did not answer.
“For letting your wife grieve?”
Still nothing.
“For letting your mother comfort me beside an empty coffin?”
Evelyn whispered, “You have no idea what that cost me.”
Claire stared at her.
The sentence was so obscene that, for a moment, even Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“What it cost you?” Claire asked.
Evelyn lifted her chin.
“I lost a son.”
“No,” Claire said. “You relocated one.”
Sophie looked as if she might be sick.
Daniel turned toward her.
“Sophie, don’t let her twist this.”
Sophie’s voice shook.
“Did your mother know you were alive?”
Daniel’s face closed.
That was answer enough.
Sophie looked at Evelyn holding her baby.
“Give him to the nurse.”
Evelyn stiffened.
The sentence changed everything.
Until then, Sophie had been confused.
Now she was becoming protective.
Evelyn did not move.
Claire saw the danger in that hesitation.
The footsteps outside shifted again.
A shadow passed beneath the door.
May you like
Daniel stepped back from the handle as if burned.
Read Chapter 7 👉 Because Sophie asking for her baby back made Evelyn reveal how much control she thought she still had.
