Chapter 10

He wiped the blood from his mouth.

Then he walked down the hall to Serena's room.

She was sitting on the bed, humming something soft and private, coaxing Noah toward sleep. She looked up when the door opened and her face broke into warmth. "Holden. You came — Noah was just asking about—"

His hand closed around her throat.

She went very still. Her face reddened immediately, her fingers flying up to claw at his wrist. The words dissolved into nothing.

"What did I ever do to you?" His voice was barely controlled. "When did I ever wrong you, that you'd betray me like this?"

She couldn't answer — her mouth was open and working silently, no air getting through.

"Don't bother. The proof's already in front of me." His grip tightened. "A child that isn't mine. My daughter dead because of you. Quinn — gone because of you."

"I want her life back. I want you to give her back to me."

Serena's eyes were filling with something beyond fear — a pure, blank terror. She scratched at his hands and made a sound like tearing cloth.

Noah woke to the noise and sat bolt upright.

One look at what was happening and the little boy's face went white.

"Dad — please, let go—"

"Get out."

Holden didn't even look at him. Noah had been so careful around him. Holden had always been careful with him too. Until now.

He aimed a kick at the boy. Noah stumbled back against the wall.

The guards appeared in the doorway. "Get rid of him," Holden said.

One of the guards came in and took the boy by the arm. Noah bit down hard on the guard's hand, thrashed free, and launched himself at Holden's legs, pushing with everything he had. "Let go of my mom!"

The shove wasn't enough to bring Holden down, but the surprise of it made his grip slip. Serena crumpled to the floor, gasping, clawing in great heaving breaths.

She looked up at the man who had been warm and easy with her for years, and didn't recognize him.

He knew.

How had he found out? Quinn was dead. It was almost done — just one more step and everything she'd worked for would have been hers—

She watched Holden bind Noah's hands. She watched him come back toward her.

She started backing away. "Holden. Listen to me. Whoever told you this is lying — Noah is yours, I swear he's yours—"

"Quinn jumped off her own free will, that had nothing to do with—"

Holden looked at her with a smile that made her want to disappear. "I know everything. Stop."

"You arranged the explosion. You had Abby killed. You had her set up so that she'd be the one they came for on that cliff, to get her out of the way." His voice was almost calm. "You wanted the Blackwood fortune. The company. Everything."

It's not her fault. It's his. He should have chosen better. He should have—

And then, slowly, in the quick-twisting part of her mind that had always been good at reading angles — Serena paused.

Quinn was extraordinary. Anyone who'd ever been in the field with her knew it. The kind of person who kept her nerve while live explosives went off two feet away.

That kind of person didn't walk off a cliff because she was broken.

Serena's heart lurched.

She reached for the thought like a drowning person reaching for anything at all. "Holden — wait. Listen. What if Quinn isn't dead?"

"Think about it. She survived the year Abby died. That didn't stop her. Nothing stops Quinn. You really think she'd just—"

Holden went very still.

The truth was, he'd never quite believed it either. He'd only told himself he did because the alternative — that she was alive somewhere and had chosen not to come back — was somehow worse.

But now—

Three years ago, she had tricked him into signing the divorce papers and walked out of his life. She had already done this once.

She could absolutely have faked her death.

Hope flared so suddenly it almost hurt.

Serena saw the change in his face and exhaled. She started sliding sideways toward the door, inch by careful inch.

Holden's foot came down on her hand.

"You think this changes anything for you?"

"You wanted money. Power. Everything that comes with the Blackwood name." His voice was very quiet. "You'll spend the rest of your life without any of it."