Chapter 2 - Shadows of the MatriarchA mother’s love can build an empire, but a matriarch’s greed can tear apart the souls of her own blood.
The heavily armored convoy moved swiftly through the rain-slicked streets of Manhattan, bypassing our usual estate in Midtown and heading straight for my private, off-the-grid safehouse in Upstate New York—a fortress built into the granite cliffs overlooking the Hudson River.
Inside the car, Posie had succumbed to sheer exhaustion, her small head resting on Mave's lap as she slept. Mave gently ran her fingers through the girl's soft, dark-blonde curls.
"Three years ago," Mave began, her voice barely louder than the hum of the engine, "the morning after you proposed to me in Florence... I went to the doctor because I had been feeling sick for weeks. That's when I found out I was six weeks pregnant."
My heart pounded viciously against my ribs. "You were pregnant before you vanished?"
Mave nodded, wiping a tear from her cheek. "I was overjoyed. I bought a small silver rattle. I was going to tell you at dinner that night. But when I got back to our apartment... your mother was waiting inside with four armed enforcers."
I squeezed my eyes shut, rage boiling beneath my skin like liquid fire. Evelyn Hail. My formidable, cold-hearted mother, who had ruled the Hail crime syndicate alongside my father until his death, and who had spent the last five years trying to control every move I made.
"What did she say to you?" I asked through gritted teeth.
"She showed me photos of you," Mave whispered, her voice trembling. "Photos of you meeting with the Ashford family. She told me that your father’s final wish was an alliance with the Ashfords to end the forty-year war. She said if I stayed, if I brought a 'nobody's child' into the Hail family, the Ashfords would view it as an insult and execute you. She said my pregnancy would destroy your life."
"She lied," I rasped, leaning my elbows on my knees, burying my face in my hands. "She manipulated you to secure her own political power!"
"I didn't believe her at first," Mave wept. "I told her I loved you. I told her we could run away together. But then she pulled out a gun, Garrett. She aimed it at my stomach. She gave me a choice: take five hundred thousand dollars, drop my phone in the river, and never step foot in New York again... or die in that apartment, along with your unborn baby."
A deafening silence fell over the limousine.
Wesley, driving in the front seat, glanced back through the rearview mirror, his face dark with shock and disgust.
"I didn't take her money," Mave added softly, looking down at Posie. "I took my savings, caught the first bus out of the city, and changed my name. I worked three jobs in New Jersey just to afford rent and diapers. But two months ago... Posie got sick. She has a rare kidney disorder. The treatments exhausted every penny I had. I came back to New York today... to beg a charity foundation for a job."
I looked at the cheap plastic folder in her lap—the job applications she had been trying so desperately to protect from the rain.
I stood up from my seat, dropping to my knees on the floor of the moving limousine, placing my hands over hers.
"I didn't know, Mave," I swore, tears finally spilling down my cheeks as I looked into the eyes of the only woman I had ever truly loved. "I searched for you for two years. I almost killed myself trying to find a trace of you. My mother told me you accepted a bribe from a rival family and ran to Europe."
Mave stared at me, her eyes widening in realization. "She... she told you that?"
"Yes," I said, kissing her cold, damp knuckles. "And for three years, I lived in a living hell, believing the woman I gave my heart to was a traitor. I agreed to marry Coraline only because I didn't care about my life anymore. I was empty."
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I turned my head, looking at little Posie sleeping peacefully on Mave's lap. I reached out a hand, my thumb gently brushing over the girl's soft, rosy cheek.
"She will get the best doctors in the world," I vowed, my voice echoing with absolute authority. "And as for my mother and the Ashfords... they are about to learn what happens when you steal three years of my life."
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