Chapter 16 - Grant’s Last BargainGrant requested a private meeting.
Naomi said no.
Elias said absolutely not.
Ruth said she would rather dine with wolves.
I agreed.
But I did not go alone.
The meeting took place in a guarded interview room with cameras recording every angle. Grant sat on the other side of the table in county-issued gray, his charm finally stripped down to bone.
He looked smaller.
Not sorry.
Smaller.
“You came,” he said.
“I came for answers.”
“I can give them.”
“In exchange for what?”
He smiled faintly. “You are your father’s daughter.”
I waited.
Grant leaned forward.
“Vivienne has a second file. Not Bluebird. Blackbird.”
Naomi, behind the glass, shifted visibly.
“What is Blackbird?”
“Insurance.”
“Against whom?”
“Everyone.”
“Where?”
Grant shook his head. “Immunity first.”
I stood.
Panic flashed across his face.
“Mara, wait.”
I looked down at him.
He had mistaken my presence for negotiation. Men like Grant always mistake access for power.
“You tried to take my child out of the country.”
“I was trying to keep her from Vivienne.”
“You were trying to sell her access before Vivienne cut you out.”
His silence answered.
I turned toward the door.
Grant’s voice cracked.
“I loved you once.”
I stopped.
For a moment, the room filled with ghosts.
Our first date.
His hand at my back.
His smile when Ellie was born.
The version of him I had defended to Ruth, to my father, to myself.
Then I looked back.
“No,” I said. “You loved being chosen by me.”
His eyes darkened.
“You think you’ve won because people pity you online? This family eats its daughters alive.”
“Not this one.”
Grant laughed bitterly.
“You still don’t understand. Bluebird wasn’t created to protect Ellie from me. It was created to choose who controls the archive when the family turns on itself.”
He leaned closer.
“And the archive doesn’t open for money. It opens for blood.”
I felt the sentence settle into me like frost.
“What does that mean?”
Grant smiled again.
“There it is. Fear.”
I walked back to the table.
He whispered, “Vivienne doesn’t need custody forever. She only needs Ellie inside the Kingsley estate on succession ground, with a guardian’s signature and a blood verification.”
My stomach twisted.
“The closed hearing,” I said. “The guardianship order.”
He nodded.
“She wasn’t trying to raise Ellie. She was trying to bring her to the estate legally.”
“Why?”
May you like
Grant’s smile faded.
“Because tomorrow is the third succession review.”
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