Chapter 5 - The Overnight Siege
By ten o'clock that evening, the house was finally quiet.
Owen and Lily were fast asleep upstairs in Owen’s bedroom. I had moved Lily’s bedding into his room so they could sleep side-by-side; the fear in their tiny eyes had dissolved the moment Grant’s car sped away down the gravel drive, but I wanted them to feel entirely safe.
I sat at the kitchen island with a mug of warm chamomile tea, watching Natalie Brooks unpack a stack of legal folders across the quartz countertop. Natalie was forty-five, with sharp gray eyes, iron-gray hair pulled into a tight bun, and a reputation for making high-powered Manhattan executives cry during depositions.
“Grant’s attorney, Richard Sterling—who happens to be his second cousin—has already called my cell phone six times,” Natalie said, taking a sip of her coffee. “They’re panicking, Maya. They realized that if the forensic audit goes before Judge Henderson on Monday, Grant isn't just looking at a bitter divorce. He’s looking at federal indictment for tax evasion and grand larceny.”
“Good,” I said, resting my hands over my round belly. Little baby girl was kicking furiously, as if reacting to the residual adrenaline flowing through my system. “Did Grant sleep at his office?”
“He tried to,” Natalie laughed softly, pulling a fresh document from her briefcase. “But the building management locked him out. Since Sterling Holdings LLC owns the lease on his executive suite, and the LLC is under injunction, the building security guards escorted him off the premises at nine-thirty. He’s currently staying at a cheap airport motel near LaGuardia.”
I let out a slow, steady breath. For eleven months, I had lived with a knot of pure terror in my chest, waking up every morning wondering if today was the day Grant would realize I was investigating him. Now, seeing him stripped of his power, his luxury cars, and his corporate arrogance in less than four hours felt surreal.
“We can’t relax yet, Maya,” Natalie warned, her voice turning serious. “Grant is a cornered animal. Men like him—men who derive their entire self-worth from control and money—don't go quietly into the night. He’s going to strike back, and he’s going to use the only leverage he thinks he has left.”
“The children,” I murmured, my blood running cold.
“Precisely,” Natalie nodded. “Richard Sterling is going to file an emergency ex parte motion tomorrow morning at eight o’clock, claiming you are mentally unstable due to late-stage pregnancy hormones and that you are alienating the children from their father. He will demand immediate temporary physical custody of Owen and Lily.”
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I set my tea mug down with a firm snap.
“Let him file it,” I said, my eyes blazing with fierce determination. “Because what Grant doesn't know is that every single conversation he’s had in this house for the last ninety days was recorded by our nursery security system.”
