by Lana Grayson
Nicholas was a lot of things—handsome, confident, devoted. He was also a Bennett. His arrogance masqueraded as charm, but the world hadn’t offered him everything he dreamed. Instead, he took it. Seized it on the back of a motorcycle, seduced it from an enemy, and stole it from a father who no longer deserved the respect of his son.
It wasn’t a speech. It was his coronation.
He rose to the band’s stage and accepted the microphone from the conductor. The lights focused over him, and every eligible and not so eligible woman in the room sighed.
The shadows captured his chiseled chin and jaw line, and the tuxedo tailored the strength of his shoulders and chest. If pride were truly sin, then every moment with Nicholas had bathed me in hellfire.
“I want to thank you all for attending.” His voice needed no microphone. The party would’ve stopped breathing if it meant capturing his every word. “This is a monumental day for the Bennett Corporation, but this will be only one of many. I foresee success, prosperity, and many more celebratory moments in our future.”
The audience applauded. I recognized a lot of people—some friends of my family and others people of wealth and fortune that had pledged their loyalty to Darius Bennett. Dad would never have tolerated a moment like this.
And he would have disowned me long before Bumper was ever a concern.
“These next few months will come with many challenges and changes,” Nicholas said. “But I’m pleased to begin this new path. This company has always been forged on a legacy of family and pride. Lessons passed father to son. I am fortunate to take this opportunity and expand that vision. For the first time, the Bennett Corporation will be overseen by the entire family.” Nicholas made the decision himself, one of his first, one he had planned for so long. “I am dividing my portion of this company equally between my brothers and me, as it should have been done long ago.”
Reed hooted from the crowd. “That means the next round is on me!”
Nicholas didn’t yet regret that decision though the few chuckles and demands for the highest caliber whiskey rumbled through the people. I searched, but Max didn’t hide in the shadows.
He wasn’t here.
I hated that it no longer surprised me.
“It isn’t just the leadership of the Bennett Corporation that’s changing,” Nicholas said. “It is our future. Sarah Atwood is the fourth member of our Board of Directors, a name which—just a year ago would have crumbled the very foundation of the Bennett Headquarters to the ground…brick by brick, if memory serves.”
He was right.
And if he wasn’t careful, I’d still do it.
His words drew the attention to me, and by extension, sparked a fury of whispers primarily concerned with my visible little Bumper. His gaze fell on me too.
Oh, Christ. He was serious about revealing it.
“Sarah Atwood is not simply a member of this board. I am in love with her.”
The hormones didn’t like this. I flushed as genuine surprise raged through the audience. The astute ones in attendance quickly did the math on my condition.
“Sarah’s position on our board isn’t the first blending of Bennett and Atwood,” he said. “And I am beyond proud and excited to announce the pending arrival of the next generation of our families in just four months.”
Dad would be rolling in his grave. Probably Mike and Josiah too. Nicholas’s call for a toast silenced most of the gossip, but I was the one who needed the drink the most.
Reed edged his way to my side. He faked a pout.
“All that, and me and Max don’t even get a credit in this union?”
“Be glad it’s Nicholas announcing it and not your father.”
The toast passed with clinked glasses and general merriment, but Nicholas replaced the microphone. I caught his glance as Max stormed through the crowd.
Max took my arm. Squeezed too hard.
His eyes were rimmed red, and his hands shook. Either his patience or his liver would give out first, but the Bennetts refused to talk about it, even when Max crashed a formal party in jeans.
“Come on, baby,” he said. “We’re getting you out of here.”
He looked ragged, but his voice was cold and sober. A genuine applause rose from the crowd.
And I knew why we had to leave. I shook Max away and refused to run.
I expected it.
Why hadn’t they?
As if he planned the very moment to coincide with his son’s speech, Darius Bennett sauntered into Nicholas’s celebratory party with a grand, serpentine smile, shaking hands with friends and greeting those who hadn’t been told of his sins, lies, and perversions.
The Bennett Board of Directors, with the exception of Bryant Maddox, resigned with full honors and every respect. That included Darius, even if his sudden departure perplexed all who knew him.
I anticipated a fight, bloody and brutal and rife with more abuses than I endured before. But Darius chose another path. It wasn’t peace, it wasn’t retreat.
Now was the fruition of whatever deviancy he planned.
And the room cheered for him. Shook his hand. Spoke compliments and wished him well on his upcoming retirement.
They praised a hero.
I didn’t cower in the shadow of my rapist.
And neither did my step-brothers.
“Darius!” One of the Bennett division presidents called to him, breaking through a conversation to pat his shoulder. “Didn’t figure on you joining us! Thought you’d be pleasure cruising somewhere in the Bahamas by now.”
“Please, Kevin. I’m retired…not dead.”
And I regretted that every minute of the day.
Darius drew to his full height, an inch shorter than Nicholas. Reed and Max pulled me closer, but I didn’t need their help. I straightened if only to ensure Darius saw the visible bump and realized he could do nothing to me. A shielding as strong as Kelvar protected me, offered by the most innocent and vulnerable.
He salivated pure venom. Had anyone seen, if anyone had ever thought to listen for my silent screams, they never would have let my step-father look upon me with such pleasure.
“I wouldn’t miss this event for the world,” Darius said. “Such a lovely party, such a happy occasion. And just look at my beautiful daughter.” He drew closer, waiting for his sons to intervene and cause a scene. They didn’t, and I stilled as he laid a hand over my belly and squeezed. “Hello, my dear. You’re looking absolutely radiant.”
I’d be sick.
Vile, crawling shivers pierced my spine.
His touch was an infection, a sickness of hatred and vile intentions. He meant to watch me squirm, to claim that part of me which wasn’t his, had never been his, and would never, ever belong to him.
I swallowed the bile and accepted the brush of his lips against my cheek in greeting. As long as it wasn’t his sickening, fat tongue in my ear again, I’d endure it. Nicholas forced himself between us, crushing his father’s hand in a stiff grip.
“Glad you made it,” Nicholas said. “You should be here to share in this momentous event.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it, son. Especially the announcement about the newest addition to our family.”
“Sarah and I are very excited.”
“As am I. Proud as can be.” The words coiled over my throat. “If only her family were here as well. I’m sure Mark would be thrilled about our little Bennett. And Josiah and Michael…” He didn’t deserve to speak their names, not after the hell he put me through in watching their fatal crash over and over. “Such a shame their lives ended before they became uncles...isn’t that right, Max?”
Max?
I glanced at my step-brother, but he didn’t answer. Nicholas pulled Darius from the gathered audience. His voice lowered, a lethal growl.
“What do you want?”
“A moment with my daughter.”
“No.”
“Then we can speak here.” His gaze fixated on my belly. “Though I do
ubt this is a conversation which should pass beyond family.”
His tone was the striking of a match in room filled with explosives. I didn’t trust it. I was certain he aimed a gun, but I didn’t know which of my step-brothers would suffer the bullet. It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. I nodded to Nicholas.
Five minutes in the shadow of the demon was five minutes I’d forever lose to nightmare and shame. I’d ensure it was the last time I spoke with him.
That anyone spoke with him.
Nicholas led us to an unoccupied storage room, a small area muffled from the party by the humming of the florescent lights. The door closed behind us, and my step-brothers stood between me and the monster who had yet to make his move.
“A stirring speech, Nicholas,” Darius said. “Though you really must annunciate more. Do this family some justice and use a bit of bravado.”
“What do you want?” Nicholas asked.
“Am I not permitted to attend my own son’s celebration? You’ve done it, Nicholas. Secured the Bennett Corporation for yourself. Bloodied your fists and earned your keep.” He snorted. “I should think I’m entitled to a bit of caviar for giving you this opportunity.”
“You’ve given me nothing.”
“I gave you a name. A purpose. A legacy.” Darius tilted his head. “And you ruined it. You’ve tarnished our family with this union. The girl is your whore, not someone deserving of quarter of the company. And still you parade her around, free, as if the child is yours.”
“It is.”
“And I’ll permit you to take credit for the heir, if only because the world would not understand my coupling with Sarah.”
“Coupling?” I refused to avert my gaze. “You raped me.”
“Many times, my dear. Many times.”
“And yet, here I stand. I’ve taken your family. I’ve stolen your company.” I raised my chin. “Hard to be ashamed of a little coupling when I’ve conquered the only things that ever gave you pride.”
“When the bastard is born, I will be bursting with pride.”
“It isn’t your child.”
“Call it father’s intuition,” he sighed. “Call it probability. Why lie? Why stand there and blush and giggle and whisper all those sweet nothings into Nicholas’s ear when you know the truth? They had three months to take you, rape you, force a child into that womb.” He extended his arms. “Tell them how long it took me to mount you, how long it took me to create our child—”
Nicholas rushed forward, striking his father and slamming him into the wall. His voice grated with rage.
“She isn’t yours!”
My hand reflexively twisted over my belly.
Oh no.
“Sarah isn’t yours,” Nicholas grunted. His forearm pressed into Darius’s neck. “The baby is my son.”
No. His reaction was too violent, too visceral, too quick.
Darius’s eyebrow perked just as Nicholas corrected himself.
Darius glanced to me, as though looking upon my body would reveal everything we hid about Bumper. My heart thudded, wracking against lungs that threatened to collapse in a breathless scream.
“Leave,” Nicholas rasped. “While I still give you the chance.”
“I never thought I’d see the day when my son defended an Atwood.”
“I said leave.”
“After all these years, after all these tragedies.”
Nicholas tensed. He looked to Reed and Max. “Take Sarah home.”
“The blood has always been bad between our families, particularly since her father attempted to murder you and your brothers. A shame he succeeded in only killing your mother.”
Reed took my arm. Darius called to me.
“All this ugliness worked out for the best, don’t you think, Sarah? Now you have a new lover and a little bundle of joy on the way. How fortunate your father succumbed to cancer so we could steal you.”
“Fuck you,” I whispered. Reed ushered me to the door.
Darius’s voice rose, calling to me, taunting me.
“If we knew you’d be so amenable to this arrangement, we wouldn’t have waited to murder your brothers.”
The room spun.
Murder.
A sickness churned in my belly, frozen by the chill piercing my spine. I turned, slowly, every movement an ache against the crushing agony of that memory, that horrible vision of flames and metal and my brothers’ last moments.
“What did you say?” I whispered.
Reed tugged on my hand. “Sarah, let’s go.”
“What did you say about my brothers?”
Darius’s grin spread with vile delight. “Josiah and Michael would have been great leaders for Atwood Industries. They certainly would never have sold a multi-billion dollar research idea to us, and their children would have kept the company protected within the Atwood line. Not like you, my dear.”
“Tell me about my brothers!”
“What did you think happened, Sarah? They impeded our takeover.”
“You’re lying.”
“Pilot error. Mechanical error. It’s fortunate the investigators couldn’t scrape up what bits remained of your brothers to identify the true cause of their deaths. Hard to have a homicide investigation if there’s nothing left but ash.”
“You’re fucking lying!”
“If it’s any consolation, it was much quicker and far less harrowing than putting a bullet in their brains. Your mother wouldn’t have survived her sons’ murders. A one-in-a-million tragedy was cruel, but less damaging to her fragile health.”
My chest ached in a pained gasp.
I’d never take a full breath again.
“It isn’t true,” I whispered.
“Max can tell you exactly how he did it,” Darius said. He nodded. “Go on, son. Tell your little sister how proud I was of you…that crash was one of the few times you didn’t disappoint me.”
I’d scream if I didn’t fear the sickness rising.
Max didn’t meet my eye.
It couldn’t have been true.
It wasn’t.
I looked to Reed. He no longer reached for my hand.
No.
Not now. Not after everything. Not this.
“Nick?” I begged him. “Nick, please. Tell me he’s lying.”
His silence was a knife to the heart.
I should have known. I should have protected myself. I should have run when I had the chance.
The Bennetts lived only to cause me suffering and betrayal.
And now they had everything. My child. My family’s empire. My research.
My pride.
My heart.
I had nothing left for them to destroy.
They knew.
The whole time. Since my brother’s deaths. Since they first captured me. Hurt me.
Bred me.
Darius. Reed. Nicholas.
They knew.
Max murdered my brothers, and they never told me.
Because they knew what I would do.
The limo delivered me to the penthouse, but I only made it as far as the farm-themed nursery. My purse dropped as my lungs tightened, the sickness rose, and everything hurt.
Too much.
My inhaler eased some of the pressure, but this wasn’t a pain caused from troublesome lungs or shock.
This was misery.
Darius forced me to endure Josiah and Mike’s deaths, binding me to a chair and replaying the video and cockpit recordings of their screams over and over until my mind shattered. I tried to kill him, but the slice was too far from his heart.
I might have ended it then.
I might have stopped the lies. Saved my body. Prevented the rape.
But nothing I did would have saved my brothers. Not from the plans Dad had for them and not from the Bennetts. Darius plotted their deaths from the instant Dad announced his cancer. Their fate sealed when they formed the Josmik Trust.
And then I let my brothers’ murderers kidnap me.
Take me. Befriend me.
Love me.
Nicholas promised we’d be a family.
Reed cherished me like his own sister.
And Max?
Fury stole my thoughts. I clutched the little bump as I sat, rocking as if to the cradle the life that was yet to be born.
No one was left to cradle me.
The sharpness scared me more than anything, and I could no longer tell what was me, what was Bumper, and what was the sorrow.
It wasn’t worth the risk to run. I didn’t want to threaten what was already in such danger.
I waited, tears on my cheeks, as the minutes passed. I didn’t know what else to do, how else to make the pain stop. My voice wavered as I sang a little song to the baby.
It didn’t seem to help.
I repeated the second verse of the gentle nursery rhyme my mom used to sing to me when I was young. The door opened.
I expected Nicholas.
Max loomed instead.
Everything about him turned dark and rough. He stood as an unrecognizable blur of my own tears and his forlorn grief.
He waited before me, but I didn’t stop my song, not even to curse him, to scream for him to leave me alone.
My voice weakened over the melody as I forgot the words and repeated lines I already sang. Twice I hummed, looping over the song. My hands cradled my tummy.
“What are you doing?” Max asked.
The first real words he spoke to me, and he barked them. As though Max had no idea how to hold a real conversation. How to be a gentle man. How to treat the one he hurt the most.
Just like he had warned so many times in the past.
Max refused to look at me. I didn’t dishonor my brothers by averting my gaze, no matter how much I needed a moment away from the darkness.
I hated to answer him.
I hated more the rage swelling in me. It wasn’t good for me or Bumper.
“Bumper usually bumps more than this,” I said. “Stress is bad for the baby, and...she hasn’t kicked for a long time. Singing is supposed to be soothing since she can hear my voice.”
“Did you call Nick?”
As if he deserved to be with me. I had no one else to call. No one else who would understand why I crumbled in such grief.