Chapter 2 - THE MONSTER AT THE DOOR
“Keep them in the panic room,” I whispered to my security chief over the intercom, my voice steady despite the ice sliding through my veins. “Do not let her up. I’m coming down.”
I turned to my sons. Theo was still gripping the photograph, his gray eyes—so agonizingly like his father’s—wide with unasked questions. Finn had stepped protectively in front of his brother, sensing the shift in the room's atmosphere.
“Mom?” Finn asked, his voice wavering.
“Everything is fine, my loves,” I lied smoothly, dropping to my knees and pulling them into a tight embrace. “A business associate is downstairs causing a fuss. Patricia is going to stay with you in the safe room, just for a few minutes. We’re going to watch a movie, okay?”
Once the heavy steel door of the safe room clicked shut, the maternal warmth drained from my face, replaced by the ruthless CEO who had built a billion-dollar empire from nothing. I stepped onto the private elevator, watching the numbers tick down to the lobby.
Eleanor Hartwell stood in the center of my gleaming marble lobby, flanked by two hulking bodyguards. She looked exactly as she had seven years ago: dripping in diamonds, wrapped in a chinchilla coat, radiating aristocratic disdain. But as the elevator doors parted and I stepped out, her smug expression faltered. She wasn't looking at a terrified, pregnant twenty-one-year-old waitress anymore. She was looking at Norah Kingsley, the woman who owned the very building she was standing in.
“You’ve done well for yourself, playing the victim,” Eleanor sneered, her voice echoing in the cavernous space.
“Get out of my building, Eleanor,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper, yet carrying the weight of an executioner's blade. “Before I have my men throw you into the Seattle rain.”
“You’re not going to that party, Norah,” she snapped, stepping forward. “I paid you to disappear. I made sure Cole believed you took a buyout and ran off with another man. If you show up with those... those bastards, I will destroy your little hotel chain.”
I laughed, a harsh, humorless sound. “You’re looking at the woman who bought out the European market last week. You can't destroy me. But you just gave me every reason to destroy you. You knew about my sons. You watched me at the hospital. And you left that threatening note on my invitation.”
Eleanor paled slightly. “I don't know what you’re talking about regarding a note. But heed my warning, Norah. Cole is finally marrying a senator’s daughter. Do not ruin my family.”
“You ruined it yourself,” I replied. “Security, escort Mrs. Hartwell out. If she returns, have her arrested for trespassing.”
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As her guards were muscled out by my security team, Eleanor screamed, “He will never believe you!”
I walked back to the elevator, my hands clenched into fists. I hadn't planned on attending Cole’s ridiculous Christmas gala. But looking at the red ink on the invitation upstairs, and realizing Eleanor had been tracking my children, everything changed. I wasn't running anymore.
