Chapter 8

"I don't know."

Eleanor dropped those three words and turned to go.

Ethan followed and dropped to his knees.

"Please. Tell me where she is. I can't breathe without her. You're my mother — can you really watch me die?"

"Ha."

Eleanor looked at her son kneeling in front of her and felt something between exasperation and grief.

"You'll die without her? Ethan. How can you say that with a straight face? If you truly loved her, that woman and her son wouldn't be standing in your house right now. You and your father really are the same. The only difference is that I never had Aria's clarity. That's the one thing I actually respect about her."

She glanced once more at Vivienne. Eleanor's presence was the kind that made people fold. Vivienne's usual confidence crumpled under that gaze. She dropped her eyes and went quiet.

Eleanor noticed. She said nothing, looked away, and left.

Even though she hadn't spoken directly to her, Vivienne felt hollowed out. She reached back and braced herself on the table to keep standing.

She couldn't wait until tomorrow. She had to move tonight.

That night, Ethan moved Vivienne to the guest room.

Alone, he sat in the bedroom he and Aria had shared for five years. He looked at the empty crib. He looked at the small clothes in the wardrobe that his son had never gotten to wear. His chest was going to split open.

He hated himself for not believing Aria. He hated himself for letting Vivienne beat her for three days. For letting it go on until Aria's body was wrecked and her fever spiked to the point where she nearly didn't make it. He hated that it took all of that before he told Vivienne to stop.

Aria was terrified of pain. She was afraid of needles. She always had been.

He couldn't let himself think about those three days.

"I'm sorry. Aria. I'm sorry. Baby. Daddy made a terrible mistake. When I find out the truth, I'll get justice for both of you."

Deep in the night, Vivienne crept out of the guest room.

She knew Ethan's study had a safe. He'd changed the combination to her birthday once, to prove he loved her.

He hadn't changed it back yet.

She slipped into the study and entered the code. The safe opened.

Cash. Jewelry. She packed everything into a bag, then moved to collect her son and leave.

The next second, every alarm in the Manor went off.

Before she could react, the study door was kicked open by guards.

And Ethan was standing behind them.

Vivienne froze. "You're still awake?"

Ethan looked at her, cold. "What are you doing in here at this hour?"

"I couldn't sleep. Just walking around."

"What's in the bag?"

"Nothing. Just some books."

Ethan nodded at a guard. The guard took the bag from her and unzipped it.

Cash. Jewelry. All of it visible.

In that moment, Ethan finally came all the way awake.

"You were going to steal from me and run. My mother told me to test the boy, and that's when you realized you couldn't afford to wait until morning."

He picked up the paternity report from the guard — someone had already run the test while they were at the hotel.

He opened it slowly.

No biological relationship found between Ethan Thorne and the child in question.

When Vivienne saw the report, she shattered.

She fell to her knees beside him, shaking, crying. "I'm sorry, Ethan. I thought he was yours — I only slept with one other person before you, just once, I didn't think it would —. The baby doesn't know whose blood runs in him. But he already calls you dad. If you wanted, you could still be his father —"

Ethan hadn't thought anything could surprise him after everything. He was wrong.

He stepped back and kicked her squarely in the chest.

She hit the floor hard, coughing up blood. It spattered across the study floor.

Every guard and servant in the room went completely still.

But Vivienne still wasn't finished.

"Ethan — if you kick me a hundred times and it makes you feel better, I can take it. Aria's gone. Your son is gone. You need a mate and a child. Vivienne and her son could fill that place. We could be a family —"

Before she finished, a guard's phone buzzed.

The guard transferred the call to Ethan immediately. "Alpha. The men who handled the kidnapping — we found them. They wouldn't talk at first. Now they've admitted it: the woman who ordered them to take Vivienne and frame Mrs. Thorne was Vivienne herself."

The guard put it on speaker. Everyone in the room heard.

"We also confirmed — the pup who died belonged to you and Mrs. Thorne. Vivienne arranged the burial herself."

Vivienne stood very still.

Even then, she tried to deny it. "It's false. Someone's setting me up — it has to be Aria. Ethan, believe me. I didn't do it."

Ethan looked at her. All he felt was disgust.

He thought about the pup he'd been so desperate to have. The pup Aria had carried and protected through every hard day of that pregnancy. He'd spent the day his son was born confessing to an affair.

And now he knew: his son was dead. His mate was gone. Because of this woman.

The servants found their nerve one by one. They started kneeling and speaking.

"Sir. There's something we've been afraid to tell you. The day Vivienne said she was bathing your son — she wasn't bathing him. She aimed the showerhead directly at his face. That's almost certainly how he got sick."

"That's right. Mrs. Thorne was telling the truth. You didn't believe her. She must have been so alone."