Chapter 4

ELORA

All thirty-five pounds of her nearly knocked all the air out of my lungs. Luna's tiny arms were around my neck in a chokehold. All the tension that kept my spine locked for the past 8 hours dissolved right there, and I dropped my chin onto her shoulder.

She pushed back to arm's length, her stare flat and dead serious.

"You said you were coming yesterday. You didn't come."

"Chloe and I decorated the whole room."

"Did you, now?" I kissed my teeth as I brushed her curls out of her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, baby. Mommy got really, really busy yesterday. Boring adult nonsense."

When I saw that my excuse didn't wipe the pout off her face, I quickly reached into my tote bag.

"What if I told you..." I slowly pulled out an item from my handbag with a suspenseful smile. "...I got ambushed by a giant yellow rig on my way here, and it specially asked for you?"

"Ta-da!"

I presented the toy with style. She'd been asking for it all week.

Eyes wide, Luna snatched the plastic box from my hands, letting out a loud squeal of joy.

"My new truck!"

"Do you like it?"

Luna flung herself at me again, this time smacking a kiss on my cheek before disappearing down the corridor. I could hear her tearing mercilessly at the plastic wrapper while announcing to her other toys that there was a new member of the association.

"I'll make some tea," Chloe said, a small smile on her lips.

She grabbed the handles of my bags and dragged them off towards a bedroom, while I followed.

Surviving four years inside the Vandermere ecosystem was real. But the life here, within the walls of Chloe's apartment, was my actual reality, hidden from everyone outside of those same walls.

Now, to perform the magic trick where you hide an entire pregnancy and child for four years, you didn't need much.

For the most part, it required a husband who didn't really care that you existed. Keeping quiet about my pregnancy was that easy. The next challenge was hiding my growing belly. And all I had to do to solve that was walk up to Cedric on a Tuesday afternoon and tell him I was taking a six-month wellness sabbatical in France.

He didn't even ask what clinic I was going to or why I needed to leave. By the time I returned to the mansion six months later, Luna had been born. I made Chloe take full custody of her on paper, and when I walked back into the house a mother, no one noticed a thing.

Chloe set a cup of hot tea in front of me before taking her seat at the island as well.

"Cheers to 'boring adult nonsense' finally being over," Chloe raised her mug slightly before her first sip.

"Well... not really." I refrained from touching my tea for at least twenty seconds as punishment for letting Chloe cheer before I revealed the truth.

"He refused to sign it."

"What?"

The absolute confusion on her face. Girl, me too.

"Why wouldn't he? Wasn't that exactly what he'd been dreaming of?"

"Turns out he and Arthur made a deal. Cedric doesn't get the second half of his inheritance unless we hit at least six years in marriage. So one more year before anything happens."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"I really wish I was."

Her shoulder sagged with a heavy exhale as she set the mug back down, staring at me.

"So what? You were just supposed to sit in that house and continue being the good little invisible wife for another year so he can collect his money?"

"He probably did. He's always operated under the assumption that I have nowhere else to be. But I left the papers on his desk and told him to call me when the clock runs out."

She sighed again. "This is just crazy. God rest Arthur's soul, but he did do quite a number."

Yeah, I'd thought the exact same thing more than once. It was easy to paint the old man as a puppet master who pulled all the strings and was still doing so from beyond the grave. But I couldn't even fault the old man that much. I had a choice to say no from the very beginning and I didn't.

A six-year trust though. Wasn't that a bit too much? Maybe Arthur wasn't as oblivious to our problems as we'd thought and he decided that legally binding Cedric for six years would be enough time to force us to work things out.

Unfortunately, not even ten years could fix anything.

We both heard Luna run noisily down the hall with her electric toys screaming all the way with her.

"Luna, slow down!" I pushed off the stool. "You're going to slip and hurt yourself!"

Chloe took another sip from her mug. She didn't even flinch at the noise.

"If she burns off all that adrenaline now, she might actually sleep through the night," she said.

I watched my daughter make another lap around the sofa and let out a breath. "How are things with her preschool?"

"I got an email this morning. They put Luna on a waitlist."

"A waitlist?" I frowned. "You said her application was solid."

"It was. But to buy your way off the waitlist before Monday requires a priority development fee. It's a crazy sum of money. I was going to suggest we just apply somewhere else."

I glanced at Luna where she was playing. "Did she like the school when you took her to visit?"

"She loved it. She thinks she's going back there on Monday."

"Then we'll get her off the waitlist."

I left the kitchen and walked down to the guest room. I unzipped the front pocket of my suitcase, pulled out my laptop, and carried it back to the kitchen island. I flipped it open and bypassed the standard login screen. Then I tunnelled through my VPN.

"I just need to approve a few more pending requests," I told her, pulling up the master spreadsheet. "Once their fees clear, the cash will hit your account by morning. Use it to cover the fees."

Chloe leaned over and watched the screen too.

"Are you sure?"

"Give me a second."

I scrolled down the long list of names sitting in the queue. I just needed to batch-approve twenty of these applications and we would have more than enough money for even the whole year.

I kept scrolling past influential names I recognised, until my finger halted on the trackpad.

Row 14. Priority waitlist. Requesting two all-access passes.

Victoria Vandermere.

Now, why the hell was this witch on my fucking list?