Chapter 5 - The Bedroom Door
Grant dragged Ava upstairs under the excuse of “calming her down.”
He did not grab her in front of the table. He was too careful for that. He put his hand around her wrist and smiled tightly at the relatives.
“We’ll be right back,” he said.
Ava tried to pull away in the hallway.
“Let go.”
Grant’s fingers tightened.
“You almost ruined everything.”
Behind them, Lila had stepped away from the kitchen doorway, still holding her phone. She did not follow openly. She knew Grant too well for that. Instead, she moved quietly down the hall and stopped near the bottom of the stairs, listening.
Inside the bedroom, Grant shut the door.
Ava backed toward the bed.
“You were going to make my father lie,” she said.
Grant laughed once. “Your father doesn’t know what’s best for you.”
“He knows me.”
“He knows the poor little girl you used to be,” Grant snapped. “Not the woman carrying a Whitlock child.”
Ava’s hand moved to her belly.
“Our child.”
Grant’s eyes changed.
And for the first time, Ava understood the difference mattered to him.
He stepped closer. “You think you’re walking out of here with my baby?”
“I’m walking out with my baby,” Ava said, voice shaking.
“You don’t have the money for that.”
“I have enough truth.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
Grant looked toward the office door down the hall, then back at her.
“You sent the folder to someone.”
Ava said nothing.
His face hardened.
Then his gaze dropped to the bed.
To the white pillow.
Ava felt the blood drain from her face.
“Grant,” she whispered.
Downstairs, Henry stood from the dining table.
He had heard raised voices through the ceiling.
Carol tried to stop him.
“Henry, don’t interfere in a marriage.”
Henry stared at her. “That’s my daughter.”
Lila’s phone was already recording when Grant leaned over Ava.
By the time Henry reached the stairs, the bedroom door was closed.
By the time he touched the banister, Ava’s voice came through the ceiling, thin with panic.
“Please… I’m carrying your child.”
Then Grant’s voice followed.
Cold.
Clear.
“That baby is the only reason I married you.”
Henry stopped moving.
May you like
The whole house seemed to stop with him.
And Lila, standing at the foot of the stairs, recorded every word.
