Genevieve
Chapter forty-three
By the time I padded downstairs, the lights in the hallway were dimmed, the only light from the low golden glow spilling from the living room.
My steps faltered as I saw Gregory standing at the bar cart he frequented on stressful nights, mornings… any time really.
I thought he’d gone to bed already.
I was wrong.
His back was to me as I entered. Shoulders stiff. One hand braced on the cart. The other setting down a half-empty whiskey glass with a soft click that sounded entirely too loud in the quiet room. I paused in the doorway.
My stomach tightened before my mind caught up, but I forced a gentle tone anyway, the one I used whenever I had to slip back into that role. It felt fake more and more these days.
“Ready for bed?” I said softly, but he didn’t look at me just yet, turning to lean against the wall, his shoulders slumped, posture heavy.
My heart swelled in pity. Force of habit, maybe even a hint of guilt as my feet padded their way over to him, feeling obligated to carry old traditions like it was any other day.
“Greg, come on,” I said gently. “Let’s get you to bed.”
His head finally lifted, bloodshot eyes boring into mine. “I went through Reid’s office today.”
My eyebrows furrowed. Why would he—”Why?“ I asked.
He shrugged, careless on the surface. “His assistant was planning to clear it out anyway. And it won’t matter soon, right? Not like the Feds aren’t going to take every scrap of it if he’s put away for good.”
My hand shook by my side, but I crossed my arms, hoping it would hide the jittery feeling I had all of a sudden.
I swallowed. “Were you… looking for something?”
“I don’t think so,” he muttered, sniffing softly before he reached over, grabbed the glass and downed the rest of his drink. He placed the cup down, leaning back against the wall as if it eased him.
Meanwhile I was coming out of my skin, my mind racing at the possibility of… well, anything. The time felt like it was mocking me, moving at a pace that made me so anxious. Every second stretched too long.
“Did find something though.” He reached into his back pocket, pulling out something that made my blood run cold. The fabric hung shamefully from his finger.
“Found this in a drawer,” he muttered. “Did you know he keeps things of yours in there?”
My lips pressed into a thin line, my eyes lingering on my thong that my fiancé held in his hand.
Was I surprised Reid kept things of mine? No. If anything, a sick, stupid part of me, the part that had been long starved for affection, for being wanted, felt the familiar heat of being claimed and possessed by him in even just the smallest of ways.
But now was not the time for that kind of thinking. Not when the sight of him claiming me only made bile rise in my throat.
Greg pushed off the wall, throwing the thin fabric onto the floor. “Found something else in there…” he murmured. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”
He stepped closer, my foot taking one back out of instinct. My heart clenched hard enough to hurt. Tears blurred my vision immediately, as I shook my head.
He shook his own head. “You and I both know that’s not true, Genevieve…
” His voice lowered into something I’d never heard from him before.
“You’ve been acting differently ever since he came back…
Eugene too. He doesn’t even acknowledge me anymore these days.
Doesn’t wait up like he used to, doesn’t care anymore if I’m even there or not.
It’s almost like Reid stepped into my role… and fit just fine.”
He rubbed a hand across his jaw, eyes lowering to my stomach for a moment before finding mine again. He continued walking to me, his steps predatory, his eyes lethal, his expression calm, almost lethargic. I felt like running. But I couldn’t. My body felt pinned under his gaze.
“I just kept thinking about when you were pregnant with him,” he began, and the ache in his voice was unmistakable. “I didn’t question anything… I would never question my son,” he said softly.
“Greg—” I tried. But he cut me off.
“Because why would I?” he asked gently. “You were mine. You were supposed to be mine. I was good to you. I gave you everything. The name, the house, the life.” He stopped in front of me, close enough that I could smell the whiskey on his breath.
“And the whole time…” He let out a broken laugh.
“You were pregnant by my bastard brother?”
The words landed like a slap to the face. My lips parted but nothing came out. No defense, no explanation, nothing that would’ve made any of it better.
So I said the one thing I’d been waiting to say since Reid came back into my life.
I swallowed hard. “I’m leaving you.”
The words came out before the fear could catch them. His eyebrows lifted just slightly in amusement.
“You’re leaving me?” he repeated softly, testing the taste of the words on his tongue.
“I can’t—I can’t stay here anymore.” My voice was shaking. “None of this is safe. For me. For the kids. I’ll figure something out, I’ll—”
“With who?” His tone sharpened. “Who exactly are you going to run to, Genevieve? The man sitting in a cell?” A humorless laugh left him. “He can’t even save himself right now.”
His jaw tensed as my breath stilled.
“You have nowhere to go. No accounts. No access. Nothing in your name that isn’t tied to mine.
” His voice dropped lower. “You think I didn’t plan for this?
You think you’re taking my children?” His voice was deadly as I was trapped between him and the wall behind me.
“You think I’m letting you walk out of this house with them? ”
I forced the words out. “They’re not your children.”
He paused for a moment, scoffing as he glanced down at my stomach. When he looked at me again, his eyes were darker than anything I’d seen from him.
“For your sake,” he said quietly, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.”
“You can’t keep me or them trapped here, Gregory.”
“You’re going to drag my kids out of their home,” he whispered, taking another step until my back hit the wall, “to chase a man who can’t even walk outside? A man who, for all anyone knows, may never see the light of day again?”
My throat closed. “You don’t understand,” I breathed. “You don’t—”
“Oh, I understand perfectly,” he cut me off.
“Wherever they take him, whatever hole they drop him into, you think that’s a life?
Visiting rooms and glass partitions and a man who can’t even walk outside.
You think you’re taking my children into that?
We’ll see what the court says about that when I file for custody. ”
“We’re—we’re not married. And you hold no legal rights over them.”
“I don’t need a marriage certificate to prove you’re unstable,” he snapped, his hand hitting the wall beside me, my body flinching in response.
“A federal investigation, a collapsed company, a fiancée sneaking into prisons, a pregnancy you can’t explain?
” I shied away from his penetrating gaze, his voice growing with fake sympathy.
“You think any judge is putting children in your care?”
My knees nearly buckled.
Finally he stepped back. “You want to leave?” His voice softened.
“Fine. Leave.” He tilted his head. “But you go alone. You walk out that door…you walk out without Eugene, without that baby, and without the last shred of your reputation and dignity… because I will fucking ruin you. By the time I’m done? You might as well be in hiding too.”
A tear slipped down my cheek before I could stop it.
A dangerous smile graced his lips. “You do that? You go to him?” His eyes darkened completely. “And you give the judge all the proof they need to take them from you permanently.” My chest caved. “And Reid?” he added softly. “He won’t be able to protect you this time.”
I entered Eugene’s bedroom, closing the door behind me gently, watching him sprawled across his bed, cheek squished into the pillow, breathing soft. My hand drifted to my stomach protectively, my back pressing against the door as I slid down, my legs bent underneath me as tears escaped.
I didn’t know where else to go… who to call, what to do, how to fix any of this. But somehow I’d called the only person I could think of, the only other person besides Reid I could trust.
He picked up on the second ring. “Genevieve?”
Alexander sounded half-asleep, half-alert. Probably knowing no good news came from me at this hour.
My breath shook, voice coming out in a low whimper. “Alex… I—I don’t know what to do.”
Immediately, the sleepy rustling on his end stopped. “What happened?”
I pressed a hand to my mouth, tears streaming down my face no matter how hard I tried to blink them back.
“He… he threatened to take them.” My voice cracked. “He said—he said if I leave, I lose custody. That the courts wouldn’t—that they’d never give them to me.”
A heavy slew of curses slipped from his lips. “Jesus Christ. Genevieve. Why the hell didn’t you call me earlier?”
“I couldn’t—” I swallowed, breath hitching. “He cornered me. And—and I don’t know what to do. I can’t stay, I can’t leave. Reid is leaving soon. I have no one. I—”
“Hey, hey, stop.” His voice sharpened, cutting through the panic he had no idea how to control. “Just—just hold on a minute.”
The cold from the floorboards crept up my spine, my hand tightening around the phone as my other arm curled tighter around my stomach.
“I’m trapped, Alex.” The words came out raw. “I’m trapped and I don’t know what to do.”
Another curse came through the phone.
“Give me a second, just give me—” His voice cut off, the line switching to a dialing tone before there was silence. And then—
“Vieve?”
His voice came through, low, rough, dark, and still somehow the only sound in the world that made my lungs remember how to work. I pressed the back of my head against the door, eyes squeezing shut as another breath shuddered out of me.
“Reid—”
“What’s wrong?” His voice wasn’t gentle. I could tell he was ready to tear apart whoever put me in this state.