Chapter 2

The penthouse on Fifth Avenue was silent. The marble floors reflected the city lights, cold and unforgiving. Beverley stood in the center of the living room, the silence pressing against her eardrums.

She walked down the hallway. The door to Aiden's room was slightly ajar. She pushed it open.

The room was untouched. The bed was perfectly made, the dinosaur throw blanket folded at the foot. The Lego Star Destroyer sat half-finished on his desk.

She walked over to the desk. She picked up the stuffed T-Rex that sat next to the Lego set. It was soft, worn from being hugged too tight. She pressed it against her chest, burying her face in the fake fur. It smelled like him. Like crayons and little boy sweat.

The sound of the front door unlocking echoed through the apartment.

Beverley didn't move. She listened to the heavy footsteps, the rustle of a coat being taken off.

Ellwood Stevenson appeared in the doorway of Aiden's room. He smelled like gunpowder and cold night air, mixed with a heavy floral perfume that wasn't hers.

He saw her and his brow furrowed. His eyes narrowed into slits.

"What are you doing here?" His voice was ice. "I had Evelyn tell you to stay somewhere else tonight."

Beverley looked at him. She didn't clutch the dinosaur tighter. She didn't cower. She just looked at him, her eyes flat and empty.

He pulled at his tie, loosening the knot. "Ryan came home today. Kaleigh was so relieved. You should be happy for them."

The words hit her like a physical blow. Her grip on the T-Rex tightened until her fingernails dug into her palms.

"Aiden?" she said. Her voice was a rasp. "What about our son?"

Ellwood scoffed. He stepped into the room, his posture rigid. "What about him? Where are you hiding him this time?"

Beverley stared at him. The disbelief was a physical weight on her chest. "He's dead, Ellwood."

Ellwood froze for a fraction of a second. Then, a sneer twisted his lips. "Don't play games with me, Beverley. It's pathetic."

He stepped closer, his presence dominating the small room. "You think this little stunt will get my attention? Hiding him because you're jealous?"

"He died on the table," Beverley said, her voice rising, the numbness cracking. "They couldn't save him."

Ellwood's hand shot out. His fingers wrapped around her wrist, squeezing tight. The pain shot up her arm.

"Don't you dare joke about that," he snarled, his face inches from hers. "It's sick."

She tried to pull away, but his grip was iron. "I'm not joking. I signed the papers tonight."

He let go of her wrist, shoving her back a step. He looked at her with pure disgust.

"You're unbelievable. You think I don't know what you're doing? You've been desperate since the day you crawled into my bed. You think faking a tragedy will make me forget you're just a Vaughn? A gold-digger who trapped me into a marriage?"

The words were venom. They slipped under her skin, but the pain couldn't reach her heart. It was already dead.

"You don't know anything about sacrifice," Ellwood continued, pacing in front of her. "You sit in this penthouse, wearing my money, while Kaleigh suffers. You have no idea what she went through for me in Bogota."

Beverley's body went rigid.

Bogota.

The word was a trigger. Her mind was dragged back seven years. The damp dirt. The gunmetal taste of fear. The sound of machetes hacking through the jungle. The agony in her own body as she used their last vial of purified water to clean the gash on his leg, knowing it was his only chance to stave off infection. The memory of forcing herself to drink from a murky, leaf-choked stream, the fever that followed, and the deep, unshakable chill that had settled into her bones ever since. The chronic hypothermia that still haunted her, making every winter a battle for survival.

She had knelt in the mud, praying to a god she didn't believe in, begging them to take her life and spare his.

She had done that. Not Kaleigh.

Her hands began to shake. The memory was a physical ache in her bones. But she looked at Ellwood's face-twisted with admiration for a woman who had done nothing-and the words died in her throat.

What was the point? He wouldn't believe her. He never had. Kaleigh had woven her lies so thoroughly that Ellwood had rewritten history itself.

Ellwood mistook her silence for guilt. He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.

"Listen to me, Beverley. Don't you dare go near Kaleigh. You and Aiden combined aren't worth a single hair on her head."

Aiden isn't worth a hair.

The words echoed in her head. She remembered six months ago. Aiden had accidentally spilled a bowl of soup Kaleigh had brought over. Ellwood had dragged the screaming boy into the storage closet and locked the door. He had been in there for four hours.

"Aiden is dead," she whispered, the reality of it finally hitting her with brutal clarity. "And you killed him."

Ellwood laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. "You're insane."

He turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Beverley stood alone in the dark room. She looked down at the T-Rex in her hands. The shaking stopped. The grief stopped. All that was left was a cold, burning fury that settled in her stomach like a stone.