Audrey stared at the text from Jenna. It was a perfectly crafted missile of faux concern, designed to burrow under her skin. Cole always said that man was bad news.
She didn’t reply. She deleted it. An act of defiance that felt small and useless against the onslaught.
Kian was pacing the small apartment, his phone pressed to his ear. The lover was gone, replaced by the magnate. His voice was clipped, cold, a weapon.
“I want a full financial workup on Cassandra Thorne. Everything. Past ten years.”
He listened for a moment.
“I don’t care about the cost. I want to know who paid for her hairstylist this morning. I want to know who bought the goddamn tissue she was crying into. Dig.”
He was a force of nature. A hurricane of controlled rage. Part of her was in awe of this power, the power now aimed squarely at protecting her. But another part, a small, cold part, felt the distance growing between them. He was in his world now, a world of lawyers and private investigators and corporate warfare. She was just… standing in his kitchen.
The TV was still on, replaying clips of Cassandra’s tearful performance. The chyron screamed: STERLING HEIR ACCUSED OF ABANDONMENT.
Abandonment.
The word echoed in the quiet space of her mind. It was the primal fear, the one that had kept her tied to Cole for so long. The fear of being alone. And now, she wouldn’t just be alone. She would be alone and pregnant.
She wrapped her arms tighter around her stomach.
Kian saw the gesture. He ended his call abruptly. “They’re on it,” he said, his voice softening as he crossed the room to her. “My team is the best in the world. We’ll tear this apart, Audrey. I promise you.”
“I know,” she said, trying to make her voice sound stronger than she felt. “It’s just… seeing it. A woman and a child. It’s my mother’s strategy. It’s designed to hit me exactly where I’m most afraid.”
“And it’s a lie,” he said fiercely, his hands coming to rest on her shoulders. His gaze was intense, willing her to believe him. “Look at me. That is not me. I would never, ever do that.”
“I know,” she repeated, a whisper this time. She did believe him. But Beatrice’s attack was brilliant in its cruelty. It wasn’t meant to convince Audrey that Kian was a liar. It was meant to show Audrey what the world would believe. It was meant to isolate her.
Her phone buzzed again.
She flinched. Another text from Jenna? A news alert?
She looked down at the screen. An unknown number.
A picture message.
Her thumb trembled as she opened it.
The photo was dark, grainy, taken as if through a window or from a distance. It was Kian and Cassandra. They were at a table in what looked like a dimly lit, expensive restaurant. Kian was leaning in close, his hand covering hers on the table. Cassandra was smiling, a soft, intimate smile. They looked like lovers sharing a secret.
It was a lie. It had to be a lie. It was too perfect, too staged. It was exactly what Cole would do.
Her heart hammered against her ribs.
A second message came through from the same number. No picture this time. Just words. The final, poisoned arrow.
He will abandon you too.
Audrey’s breath hitched.
Cole.
It was him. He wasn’t stalking her from his car anymore. He was stalking her from inside her own head. He knew her deepest terror and had just served it up to her in a single, devastating sentence.
He had taken Beatrice’s public lie and made it a private threat.
“Audrey? What is it?” Kian’s voice was laced with concern. He tried to look at her phone, but she instinctively turned the screen away, clutching it to her chest.
She couldn’t show him. She couldn’t let Cole’s poison infect this fragile sanctuary they had built. Showing him would mean letting Cole win, letting him get inside the one safe place she had left.
“It’s nothing,” she lied, her voice tight. “Just… the museum. The press conference for the pendant is this afternoon.”
He searched her face, his brow furrowed. He knew she was lying, but he didn’t push. His own phone buzzed again, demanding his attention.
“Okay,” he said slowly, his eyes still on her. “I have to take this. It’s London. But we’re not done talking.”
He stepped away, turning toward the window as he answered the call, his voice dropping back into the clipped tones of command.
She was alone again.
She looked back down at her phone. At the picture. At the words.
He will abandon you too.
Cole’s threat wasn’t just about Kian. It was a reflection of her own worst fear. The fear that she wasn’t enough. That she would be left. That her baby would grow up without a father.
She knew the photo was doctored. She knew Cole was a monster. She knew Kian was fighting for her.
But the poison was already in her veins.
She stared at the image of the man she loved looking intimately at another woman, the woman the world now believed he had left. And in that moment, standing in the heart of the storm, with ten days until she knew the truth, she felt utterly and completely alone.