Garrison’s voice was cold. Matter of fact. Why do you think he was so invested in helping you?
It wasn’t kindness. It was obsession. Laura couldn’t breathe. He said he was protecting me.
From what? From me? Garrison laughed bitterly. I’m a dying old man hooked up to an oxygen tank.
Daniel Nation is the one you should be afraid of. Laura stood up, clutching the twins.
I need to go. Wait. Garrison’s voice was sharp. I’m not telling you this to upset you.
I’m telling you because you need to understand something. Daniel was paid to find you and bring you to me.
Everything he’s done has been part of that job. He said he stopped working for you.
People say a lot of things for money. Garrison pulled out another folder. This one thick with documents, bank statements, emails, contracts.
I have documented proof that Daniel Nation received $50,000 from me 8 months ago. I have emails showing he agreed to locate you and report your movements.
I have photographs proving he followed through. This is what I paid for. Laura felt tears burning her eyes.
Why are you showing me this? Because you’re my daughter and someone needs to protect you from men who see you as a means to an end.
Garrison stood up slowly, leaning on his cane. Daniel Nation is not your friend. He’s not your savior.
He’s an employee who got too involved with the assignment. Laura left the mansion in a days.
The driver took her back to the apartment and she sat in the car for a long time before going inside, staring at the building where she’d thought she was safe.
The photos kept flashing through her mind. Daniel watching her, following her, documenting her life like she was some kind of project, some kind of specimen to be studied.
When she finally went upstairs, Daniel was waiting in the hallway. We need to talk, Laura said.
Daniel followed her inside. He looked tired, worried, like he knew what was coming. Garrison showed you, he said.
It wasn’t a question. The photos? Yes. Laura set the twins in their cribs, then turned to face him.
You’ve been watching me since I was pregnant. Yes. You photographed me without permission. Yes.
You were paid $50,000 to stalk me. Yes. Daniel didn’t make excuses, didn’t try to explain, just stood there and took it.
Why? Laura asked. Why keep doing it after you stopped working for him? Daniel was quiet for a long moment.
Because I needed to know you were safe. Even when I couldn’t be near you, I needed to know George wasn’t.
He stopped. I know how it looks. I know it’s wrong, but I couldn’t just walk away.
I couldn’t stop caring what happened to you. So, you watch me from the shadows like some kind of creep?
Yes. Laura laughed bitterly. At least you’re honest about it. I’ve lied to you about enough things.
The least I can do is tell you the truth now. Daniel’s voice was hollow.
Garrison hired me to find you and bring you to him. I followed you for months.
I documented everything. Your routines, where you went, who you saw. I was going to hand over the evidence and collect my final payment.
What changed? I saw how George treated you. I saw you protecting your stomach when he’d push you.
I saw you crying in the car after he’d scream at you in public. I saw the bruises you tried to hide.
Daniel met her eyes. And I realized if I brought you to garrison, he’d use that pain.
He’d manipulate you with promises of rescue. So I didn’t tell him where you were.
I cut contact. I tried to stay away until the night in the park. Until I saw them kick you and those babies into the street and I couldn’t be a spectator anymore.
I had to do something, anything. Laura wanted to scream. She wanted to throw him out.
She wanted to tell him he was no better than George or Garrison or any other man who’d ever tried to control her.
But a small part of her understood because hadn’t she been watching him too, studying his movements, his patterns, trying to figure out if he was safe?
The apartment, Laura said. Is it really yours? Yes. Bought and paid for with my own money.
The formula, the cribs, all of it. I bought all of it. No one else’s money.
No strings attached except my own guilt. Except the strings of your guilt. Daniel flinched.
Yes. Laura sat down on the couch. I don’t know what to believe anymore. Garrison says you’re obsessed with me.
You say you love me. How do I know what’s real? How do I know any of this is real?
You don’t, Daniel said quietly. That’s the problem with being lied to. You can’t trust anything anymore.
Even the truth sounds like manipulation. He walked to the door. For what it’s worth, he said without turning around.
The only thing I’ve ever wanted was for you to be free. Free from George.
Free from Garrison. Free from me. I wanted you to have choices. Choices I didn’t even know I had because you hid the truth from me.
I know. Daniel’s hand was on the door knob. I’ll leave you alone now. The apartment is yours.
No conditions. The deed is already in your name. You never have to see me again.
I’ll disappear if that’s what you want. He opened the door. Daniel. Laura said. He stopped.
“Did you mean it when you said you loved me?” Daniel turned around and in his eyes, Laura saw the answer before he spoke.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I love you. I’ve loved you since I saw you tell George to go to hell in a grocery store parking lot when you were 6 months pregnant.
You were magnificent. I’ve loved you through every terrible decision I made after that. And I’ll love you when you tell me to never come back.”
He left. Laura sat in the quiet apartment and realized something terrible. She believed him and she had no idea what to do with that.
Chapter 7. The choice. George showed up 3 days later. Laura was feeding River when she heard the knock.
She looked through the peepphole and felt her blood turn to ice. George stood in the hallway wearing a new suit that probably cost more than he’d ever spent on her in their entire marriage.
His hair freshly cut at an expensive salon. He looked sober, clean, almost like the man Laura had fallen in love with when she was 19 and stupid enough to believe promises.
She didn’t open the door. “Laura,” George called through the wood. “Please, I just want to talk.
5 minutes, that’s all I’m asking. Go away. I know I messed up. I know I hurt you.
His voice was thick with emotion. But I’ve changed. I’m in therapy now. Aa meetings every single day, sometimes twice a day.
I want to be a better man. His voice cracked with what sounded like genuine emotion.
I want to be a father to my sons. Laura looked at River at his tiny, perfect face, completely innocent and unaware of the man on the other side of the door and felt rage burn through her chest.
They’re not your sons, she said through the door. You gave up that right when you kicked us into the street.
I was drunk. I was angry. I wasn’t thinking straight. George pressed his hand against the door.
She could hear it. But I’m sober now. 60 days clean. I have a chip and everything.
And I’ve been talking to your father. He thinks we should give it another shot for the boys.
Laura’s hand froze on the bottle. What? Garrison called me last week. Said he wanted to meet with me.
We talked about what’s best for River and Stone. We had lunch at his club.
He agrees they need a stable two parent home. George’s voice turned pleading. He’s offered to set us up in a house, a real house with a yard.
Give me a job in his company. VP of operations, Laura. Six figures. Support us as a family.
All you have to do is come home. Laura put River in his crib and opened the door just enough to look George in the eye.
She wanted him to see her face when she said this. “Listen to me very carefully,” she said, her voice cold as ice.
“I will never come back to you. Not for money, not for the boys, not for anything in this world.”
But Garrison said, “I don’t care what Garrison said. He doesn’t control my life.” Laura’s voice was steel.
“You hit me. You screamed at me. You pushed me downstairs. You made me believe I was worthless.
That I should be grateful you even looked at me. And now you want me to forgive all of that because you’ve been sober for 60 days.
I’ve changed. People don’t change in 60 days. They just get better at hiding who they are.
Laura started to close the door. Don’t come back here. George shoved his foot in the doorway.
His face changed, twisted into something uglier. You can’t keep my sons from me. I have rights.
Parental rights. You have nothing. The birth certificates list you as the father, but you told everyone those babies weren’t yours.
You denied them publicly. You have no legal claim. I’ll sue for custody. Garrison will back me up.
He’ll give me the best lawyers money can buy. The best in the state, the best in the country.
George smiled. And it was the same cruel smile Laura remembered from all those nights when he’d enjoyed watching her cry.
And he will. He’s already said so. Laura felt ice slide down her spine. Why would he do that?
Because he wants you married. Respectable, raising his grandsons in a proper family with a mother and father.
George leaned closer, his breath hot through the crack in the door. He thinks Daniel Nation is a bad influence.
Wants him out of your life completely. And if I’m the father of your children, Garrison can make sure that happens.
He has judges in his pocket, Laura. You can’t win this. The door slammed in George’s face.
Laura stood there shaking. River and Stone both crying now. They’d picked up on her distress and felt walls closing in around her.
Garrison was trying to control her life, using George as a weapon, threatening to take her children if she didn’t comply.
This was what he’d meant by strings attached. She called Thaddius Crane. Tell Garrison I want to meet with him today, right now.
The lawyer’s voice was smooth, unbothered. Of course, Miss House, I’ll arrange it immediately. Mr.
Houses available this afternoon. Laura showed up at Garrison’s mansion two hours later, the twins in her arms and fury in her eyes.
Garrison sat in his usual chair, looking pleased with himself, satisfied, like a cat that had caught a mouse.
I see you spoke with George, he said. You had no right to contact him.
I had every right. Those are my grandsons. I want them raised properly with structure and discipline.
Garrison gestured to the empty chair. Sit down, Laura. Let’s discuss this like adults. There’s nothing to discuss.
I’m not going back to George. Then you’ll lose custody of the boys. Garrison’s voice was cold.
Final matter of fact. George will sue. I’ll fund his legal team, the best family law attorneys in the state.
I’ll testify that you’re an unfit mother, homeless when you gave birth, uneducated, living off the charity of a man with questionable motives who’s been stalking you.
No judge will give you custody when presented with those facts. Laura felt the room spin.
You can’t do that. I can and I will unless you agree to my terms which are marry George live in the house I provide five bedrooms pool good schools in the district let me guide the boy’s upbringing make sure they have the house name and legacy in return you’ll have security stability and the $50 million trust fund I’ve established for you separate from the 400 million 50 million more than the 400 million and he’d promised less than what she deserved, but enough to ensure she’d never struggle again.
Enough to buy her compliance. “What about Daniel?” Laura asked. “He’ll be removed from the situation completely, restraining order if necessary.”
Garrison’s eyes were hard as diamonds. “I don’t want that man anywhere near my grandsons.
He’s unstable, obsessive, dangerous.” Laura looked down at River and Stone. They were sleeping peacefully, unaware their future was being decided like a business transaction, like a merger or acquisition.
I need time to think, she said. You have 24 hours. Then George files for custody and I file affidavit supporting his claim.
Garrison leaned back in his chair. I’m dying, Laura. I want to know my grandsons will be raised properly before I go with discipline, structure, and the right values.
Is that so much to ask? Laura left without answering. She walked for hours, the twins heavy in her arms, her mind spinning.
Garrison could take them. He had the money, the lawyers, the influence, the connections, judges who owed him favors.
