Chapter 4

BRONWYN

Cold flooded every inch of me.

I tore out of the room and down the stairs. Two of Darius's security guys stepped in front of the front door.

"Move. I have to get to the hospital."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Calder. Nobody leaves without Mr. Calder's okay."

My hands were shaking so badly I could barely dial. "Darius, it's Althea. She's crashing. She needs a doctor right now."

A pause on the other end.

"Bronwyn, if you tell the same lie twice, people stop believing it." He sighed. "Be good, okay? Ophelia and Milo are being treated. As soon as they're stable, I'll come get you myself and take you to see Althea. I told you, she has a whole team. She's stable."

My throat was raw. The tears came anyway. "Darius, please. I'm not lying. She's dying."

The line went dead.

Every second I stood there was a second Althea didn't have.

So I got down on my knees on the marble floor in front of two men who were paid to keep me in.

"Please. Please, just let me go. I'm begging you."

My voice cracked. I couldn't see through the tears.

One of them looked away. "Mrs. Calder... please don't make us do this."

My phone rang again. Teresa.

"Ms. Meritt, we're losing her. She doesn't have much time."

I ran back upstairs, climbed over the balcony rail, and let go.

I landed wrong. Pain shot up my left leg. I didn't care. I limped across the back lawn, out the side gate the guards weren't watching, and flagged down the first car I saw.

When I got to Althea's room, she was barely breathing.

"Where are the doctors? Where is everybody?"

Teresa looked helpless. "Ophelia and Milo came in with food poisoning. They pulled every available doctor for them."

Darius's family funded half this hospital. Of course they did.

That left only one option: find him.

I'd barely turned the corner when I ran into Genevieve.

"What are you doing here? Ophelia and Milo aren't out of danger yet. Don't you dare start a scene."

"Mother—a doctor—please. Just one. Althea—she's dying."

Genevieve frowned. "There's an order to these things. Once they're stable, we'll send someone down to her."

Then her voice went cold. "That woman has no business taking a doctor away from my Ophelia."

Something in me broke.

"I'm your daughter," I said. "Your real daughter. Why can't you love me?"

She sighed, like I was being tiresome. "I gave you the Croft name. Your place in this family. The Calder match. What more could you possibly want?"

"Now go. You'll frighten Ophelia and my grandson."

"Let me see Darius. Please, just let me talk to him—"

She slapped me. I staggered back into the wall.

There was nothing left to do but drag myself back to Althea's room.

She looked so small in that bed. When she heard my voice, her eyes fluttered open.

"Bronnie," she breathed. "Stop making yourself small for me."

"You've always been the best thing in my life. Always."

I choked. "Mom, hang on. Just hang on. I'll fix this, I swear."

She smiled, just barely. Then her hand slid out of mine.

"Mom?"

I broke down. "Please. I don't have anything left. Please don't leave me."

She was the last person in the world who was mine. And she was gone.

I used whatever strength I had left to make every arrangement for her myself.

Then I went back to the house that smelled like Ophelia, picked up the suitcase I'd already packed, and got into the car Elisar had sent.

DARIUS

Ophelia and Milo were fine.

The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with Ophelia's stomach. Milo's rash turned out to be from the new bubble bath. I was too relieved to wonder why no one had found a trace of peanut.

Ophelia sat on the hospital bed with Milo asleep against her chest, tears running down her face.

"What if it had been worse, Darius? What if something happened to me? What happens to Milo then? He doesn't have anyone."

I looked at my son—his tiny fist curled in her sweater—and made up my mind.

"He has me. As of today, Milo is my heir. Calder Capital goes to him."

Something flashed in her eyes. I told myself it was relief.

Then her face crumpled with worry. "But Bronwyn... She can blame me, that's fine. But what if she takes it out on our son?"

"She won't dare," I said. "I know how to bring Bronwyn around. Althea's care still goes through me."

Bronwyn had called earlier, crying about Althea. I'd stop by Althea's room in the morning and smooth things over.

My phone rang. Grant, my assistant. He didn't bother with hello.

"Mr. Calder, we've got a problem. Mrs. Calder's core patent and her shares—Elisar just bought all of it."

I was on my feet before he finished. "Where's Bronwyn?"

"We can't find her, sir." His voice shook. "She's gone."