Chapter 17 - Marcus Chose Me
For the first time in my life, Marcus Reed looked old.
“Explain.”
He sat in a dark room somewhere I could not identify.
“Reginald had Henry. He wanted the Hart Child Key. Henry refused. Reginald threatened Lucas.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
“I was already in the facility.”
“Yes.”
“Then what did you sign?”
“A transfer order. I moved Lucas out under a sealed protective program.”
“That sounds like saving him.”
“It was.” Marcus looked at me. “The price was Evelyn.”
My skin went cold.
“Reginald agreed to release Lucas if I gave him enough data to build a domestic profile on you.”
“You gave him my life.”
“I gave him public records, schedules, archived biometrics. I believed it would buy time.”
“It bought him a woman with my face.”
“I know.”
Lucas stepped toward the screen.
“You separated me from my family because you thought Reginald would trade me for Evie?”
“Yes.”
“And Dad?”
“Henry refused treatment after he learned the deal. He said if Reginald could reproduce Evelyn, the only protection left was for both Hart children to disappear from the same network.”
My father had not been murdered in one clean moment.
He had been cornered by choices built from other people’s secrets.
I hated that more.
Marcus sent one last file.
A current location for Reginald Vale.
Blackwood Capital headquarters.
“He is calling an emergency board meeting,” Marcus said. “He intends to use the forged Lucas authorization to invalidate the Hart conversion and restore Julian’s control.”
Julian shook his head.
“I won’t accept it.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “If the board believes Hart Meridian committed fraud, the protocol collapses.”
Lucas looked at me.
“What are you thinking?”
I remembered my old risk models.
Do not defend the position your opponent expects you to defend.
Change the position.
“I’m not going to prove the transfer was fake.”
Julian frowned. “Then what?”
“I’m going to let Reginald prove it was real.”
Lucas smiled slowly.
“That sounds terrible.”
“It is.”
Penny looked up from her coloring book.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Are you going to work now?”
After Marcus confessed, I went into the hospital stairwell because I could not let Penny watch me fall apart.
Lucas followed but stayed one landing below.
“You can go away,” I said.
“No.”
“I don’t want company.”
“I know.”
That was the correct kind of brotherly disobedience.
I sat on the step.
For years, Marcus had been proof that some men could be trusted after Dad died and Lucas disappeared. He handled Mom’s estate. He reviewed my prenup. He attended Penny’s christening.
Now I had to hold two truths at once.
He loved us.
He traded access to me.
I pressed my palms to my eyes.
“Why does everyone who loves me decide I’m the acceptable cost?”
Lucas answered quietly.
“Because you look like you survive things.”
I lowered my hands.
“That is not a compliment.”
“I know.”
He sat beside me.
“Strong people get volunteered for pain by people who call it confidence.”
That sentence stayed with me.
When I went back upstairs, I did not feel stronger.
I felt clearer.
There is a difference.
I kissed her forehead.
“For the first time in a while.”
---
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