Chapter 6
I showed Ethan the message.
The color left his face.
He took the phone like it might explode in his hand.
Then he looked toward the estate window.
Sarah was gone.
“Get in the car,” he said.
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
I knew then he was terrified.
Security drove us straight back to the hospital.
Dr. Peterson met us at the entrance.
He had already been warned.
The babies were checked again.
Still strong.
Still fighting.
I cried when I heard the heartbeats.
Ethan cried too, but silently, with one hand covering his eyes.
“I want a restraining order,” he said.
Michael Reyes, the attorney Ethan hired that night, nodded.
“We’ll file emergency protection. Against Sarah directly. Possibly others, depending on the digital trace.”
“Others?” I asked.
Michael looked at the message.
“This is too stupid for Sarah if she’s under investigation.”
Ethan frowned.
“You think someone else sent it?”
“I think your mother is cruel. I don’t know yet if she is reckless.”
That sentence stayed with me.
By evening, the police traced the message to a prepaid phone.
Bought near the estate.
The security camera at the store showed a man buying it.
Not Sarah.
Her brother.
Uncle Graham.
He had hugged me at the wedding.
He had called me beautiful.
He had helped Sarah threaten my unborn children less than twenty-four hours later.
When the police brought him in, he claimed Sarah had nothing to do with it.
He said he was protecting the family.
That phrase again.
The family.
As if my babies were not family.
As if I was a stain on a bloodline.
The emergency order was granted the same night.
Sarah could not come near me.
Could not call.
Could not send messages.
Could not use others to contact me.
She broke it before sunrise.
Not with a call.
With a delivery.
A baby gift arrived at the condo.
Two tiny silver rattles.
A card tucked between them.
For the twins, if they survive their mother.
Ethan shattered.
Not loudly.
He sat on the floor with the card in his hand and stared at nothing.
I lowered myself beside him.
“She wants you broken,” I said.
He looked at me.
“I let her near you.”
“You were trained to.”
His face twisted.
“That sounds like an excuse.”
“It’s not. It’s a map.”
He breathed out shakily.
“And where does it lead?”
“To a choice.”
He nodded.
Then he called Michael.
By noon, Sarah was arrested for violating the protective order.
The footage of her assistant dropping the package at the courier office was clear.
The assistant cried and confessed within an hour.
Sarah had dictated the card.
Sarah had paid cash.
Sarah had smiled while doing it.
That evening, I saw her mugshot online.
Perfect hair.
Pearls.
Cold eyes.
I expected relief.
Instead, I felt tired.
Ethan stood behind me.
“I thought I’d feel better.”
“So did I.”
He touched my shoulder gently.
“Are you afraid?”
I answered honestly.
“Yes.”
His voice broke.
“Of her?”
I placed my hand over my stomach.
“Of what fear does to babies. Of what stress does to bodies. Of what happens when families call cruelty love.”
Ethan sat beside me.
“Then we build a different family.”
I looked at him.
“Words are easy.”
“I know.”
He took off his phone and placed it between us.
“I blocked every relative who defended her. I removed her from the trust. I gave Michael permission to cooperate with investigators fully, even if it damages the company.”
I stared.
“That company is your inheritance.”
May you like
He looked at my stomach.
“No. This is.”
