Genevieve
Chapter thirty-four
My mind was still spinning.
Pregnant.
…Maybe pregnant.
Late. Too late.
And now—
Reid’s wrists were in cuffs.
Everything inside me numbed, the room shifting in a way that made it hard to breathe. His eyes snapped to mine the moment metal touched his skin, and I couldn’t look away or even think.
His stare was the last steady thing I felt before the agents yanked him forward. He didn’t resist. But his eyes never left mine.
“Reid…” My voice cracked. I moved before I knew what I was doing. My steps were following him, heels clicking against the floor, my hands itching to reach out even though I wasn’t sure what I intended to do if I reached him.
“Genevieve—” Raymond’s hand clamped around my arm and I ripped out of his grasp so hard he stumbled.
The shock on his face barely registered in my mind.
Because all I saw was Reid, taller than the agents, being dragged from behind, jaw tight, eyes still locked on me as if my panic was the only thing in the room he cared to watch.
They were inching closer to the elevator, and the closer they got, the more the tears began to build in the corner of my eyes.
An FBI agent stepped between us, blocking my path. “Ma’am, you need to stay back.”
“No—please—” My voice broke. I moved again, and he stopped me, firmer this time, forcing me to stand still as the elevator arrived with a mocking chime.
Reid still didn’t look away once. Not even when the doors opened or when they pushed the button.
The last thing I saw was him. Shoulders squared, expression unreadable, eyes still on mine as the metal doors slid shut and took him from me.
I need you by my side for this… For once, I need you to stay with me.
He made me promise, and still he was taken away from me.
I turned away, wiping away a tear before I was stopped in my tracks again, my heart now pounding in my ears, realization dawning as Raymond stood at the entrance of the conference room, almost stunned.
I tried to keep my composure, tried not to show how distraught I was to see the man I loved taken from me in the blink of an eye… but it didn’t work.
“Genevieve…” His voice came low, my name coming out of his mouth like a reprimand. His eyes held a million questions, gazing at me like I was unrecognizable… God, I didn’t even recognize myself.
“What was that?” he asked quietly. His voice was steady when he spoke, but there was a tremor beneath it, pain, betrayal, something deeper.
I opened my mouth to speak, my words dying on the helpless shrug as another tear slipped from my eye. “I… I don’t know, Raymond.”
His jaw tightened, just barely, rage simmering beneath his skin.
His eyes flicked down, following the path I’d taken after Reid only moments ago before going back up to my face.
I could feel the realization of the situation hitting him in real time.
I stepped forward, panic rising somewhere under the anguish my chest felt buried under, but he lifted a hand, stopping me. He seemed almost… defeated.
His eyes softened for one impossible second, like a memory he was reliving, a past wound that had been reopened. What he’d witnessed looked too much like history repeating in front of him.
Then, almost as if he never felt it, his eyes hardened, his steps firm and final as he approached me. “You do know,” he murmured. “You know exactly what that was.”
My breath stuttered. “Raymond—”
He shook his head, a bitter scoff escaping him. “I should’ve seen it sooner. I thought you were better than this… the one woman in this family I believed had enough dignity, enough restraint, to hold the damn line.”
The words hit like a slap.
“But who would’ve known Genevieve Devereaux would be the one to drag this family’s name through filth again? After everything we’ve survived… after everything I did to protect you.”
My stomach twisted.
He exhaled through his nose, frustration and something older, something bruised and broken, darkening his features.
“But I see now…” he whispered, eyes sliding over me with a cold, disappointed assessment.
“You’re no different… History repeats itself in this family.
And apparently—” his gaze cut downward, a deliberate insult ”—so do the women who can’t keep their loyalties or their legs where they belong. ”
My breath hitched. “Raymond, please, just listen—”
“I don’t want to hear any more excuses,” he seethed.
“Whatever you think you’re doing,” he said, voice low and lethal, “it stops now. If you want this family to have any dignity left…” His jaw tightened.
“You will collect yourself. You will act like the woman—” his voice sharpened ”—the fiancée, the mother you’ve claimed to be. ”
Three weeks had passed since Reid was taken into custody.
I’d spent three weeks without his voice, his eyes on me, his warmth, his presence…
Alone. Going through the motions in hospital waiting rooms with forced smiles, feeling like a prisoner in my own home.
Yet somehow, the days still kept moving.
Eugene was curled against my chest now, warm and heavy from exhaustion, his little eyes still wet from the tantrum he’d almost thrown after eating his snack, but I knew he was just cranky. He was a bit more needy these days, more clingy, more irritable.
He’d begun missing Cara and Reid, the people who were present, who cared to be there… It got easier as the days passed, but there was a part of me afraid he’d forget them. I sat on the floor beside his bed, my back against the frame, legs tucked to the side as I held him.
It had also been three weeks since I realized I missed my cycle, two weeks since I visited my OB/GYN to confirm.
And the only person I wanted to tell… the only one who deserved to know… was sitting in a federal holding facility with no contact allowed.
I swallowed hard, tightening my hold around Eugene. Newman Trust had collapsed in a single week.
The FBI seized everything. Every floor, every server, every file, every last cent tied to the Newman name. They froze accounts, shut down departments, hauled out boxes in front of cameras that had been waiting on the sidewalk.
As it stood currently in the public eye, the Newman legacy, or what was left of it, was gone.
Standing up, I eased Eugene onto his bed, tucking the blanket up to his shoulders as his little fingers loosened from my sweater. He settled quickly as I placed a small kiss on his forehead, brushing the hair from his little face before stepping out of his room.
Downstairs, I could hear laughter, light-hearted joyful laughter like we weren’t in the middle of a shitstorm. I smoothed out my sweater dress, my fingers twitching with unknown nervousness as I descended the steps. Approaching the dining room, the attention of the room was diverted to me.
I had done my best over the last few weeks to keep a low profile, ignore Gregory’s growing distance, tread lightly around Raymond after what he’d said… but there was another issue.
“Genevieve, it’s good to see you,” Cheryl beamed, her smile not reaching her eyes in a way that was genuine.
She was here again. The woman who had somehow slithered into this house, unnoticed at first, then suddenly everywhere, filling the spaces I used to hold together. Raymond sat at the table beside her quietly, observing me just like he’d done since the day Reid went to prison.
I returned a forced smile to Cheryl. “Same here.” Then I made my way to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. My throat felt dry, the air in the home thick and suffocating almost.
I tuned out what conversation it was they were having in the next room over, and when my chamomile honey tea was finished, I did my best to leave unnoticed. However, Gregory appeared before me.
“Oh, Gen, stay,” he said softly, stepping into my path before I could ghost out of the kitchen. “We were just about to discuss some things.”
His tone was gentle, almost tentative. But it felt like he didn’t know how to talk to me anymore even if he felt obligated to play the part of the “attentive” fiancé in front of his father and… her.
My grip tightened around the mug.
“Discuss what?” I asked, keeping my voice even.
“We’re sending out a statement this Friday. Telling the press that the Newman family is cooperating fully with the investigation, we have complete confidence in the integrity of our assets, and business will soon continue as usual.”
Raymond was quiet at the end of the table, but I could still feel his eyes on me as Gregory continued, “Cheryl has a contact at the Journal.” She smiled brighter.
“He’ll run an op-ed all about the family facing adversity, legacy of service to the city, that kind of thing.
It’ll build interest and reframe the narrative before the Feds comment on it. ”
I mulled it over for a brief moment before muttering the words I meant to say only in my head. “What about Reid?”
Gregory paused for a moment, the distinct look of anger and jealousy crossing his features at the mention of his brother.
“Reid got us into this mess and is serving time for what he did,” he said. “The statement doesn’t mention him. He’s no longer a part of this family, Gen. He never was. Sooner we stop acting like his absence is something to mourn, the better positioned we are when this is over.”
That made me pause, looking around at the table to see if anyone had caught the shift of blame onto the man who was brought in to save face. But Cheryl was nodding along and Raymond still hadn’t said a word.
Gregory had run Newman Trust into the ground for years. Now all of a sudden, Reid was the one to blame? The one who had been brought in to fix what Gregory had spent years quietly destroying. Everyone in this room knew that. But no one voiced it aloud.
Finally, Raymond spoke. “The Newman name has survived worse than this with or without Reid. We don’t need to involve his name in things while he’s in custody.” And on that note… that topic of discussion was over.
The conversation moved on before I’d finished processing what was happening. Deciding not to linger for longer than I needed to, I set my mug on the counter and left the room. No one even batted an eyelash when I did.