Chapter 3 - The Sanctuary in Hill CountryWhile Luke’s intelligence network scrambled across Houston, I sat on the porch of a secluded stone cabin tucked away in the pine forests of Fredericksburg.
The cabin belonged to my late mother’s oldest friend, Evelyn—a woman who had known me long before I became Paige Delaney, long before I entered the high-stakes, shadow-draped world of Houston’s elite.
Evelyn set a mug of hot chamomile tea on the wooden table beside me, wrapping a warm fleece shawl over my shoulders.
"He’ll look for you, Paige," Evelyn said gently, watching the morning fog lift from the pine trees. "Luke Delaney isn't the kind of man who lets anything he considers his walk away."
"I'm not his property, Evelyn," I spoke softly, my voice calm, steady, and unbroken. "And I refuse to let my daughter grow up in a house where love is traded like a business contract and loyalty is tested through betrayal."
I rested my hands over my swollen stomach, feeling another sharp kick from our baby girl.
"I spent five years carrying the weight of my father's death," I continued, looking down at my hands. "I moved to Houston believing Luke's father was the monster who destroyed Thomas Barrett. But three years ago, after I married Luke, I found my father’s private diary hidden in an old safe-deposit box."
Evelyn tilted her head. "And what did it say?"
"Luke's father didn't destroy my father," I revealed, tears pricking the corners of my eyes. "My father was trying to save the Delaney Foundation from an internal embezzlement scheme executed by my own sister, Claire, and her lover—a rogue director inside Luke's syndicate."
When my father discovered what Claire had done, she panicked. She framed him using falsified documents, froze his assets, and allowed his heart to collapse under the stress.
I had abandoned my investigation three years ago because I realized Luke was as much a victim of his family's past as I was. I had fallen in love with him for real—with the man who held me during my nightmares, the man who built an oak crib with his own hands, the man who promised to protect me.
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And yet, at the first sign of doubt, Luke had thrown our marriage away and walked into my sister's trap.
"He has to face his own shadows, Evelyn," I whispered. "Or he will never be fit to be a father to our daughter."
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