“Give me a second.”
I press the voicemail and hold the phone to my ear.
His voice explodes from the speaker—urgent and strained.
Caden, it’s happening. Priscilla’s making her move to sell Haven Crest. She’s pulling strings I didn’t even know she had. You need to get home. Now. I mean it—drop everything and come back before she signs anything. Call me when you get this.
The message ended.
I froze.
Kamiyah stares at me, worry instantly tightens her features. “Caden?”
I don’t waste a second. I hit speed dial. My lawyer answers on the second ring. “West? What’s?—”
I quickly fill him in on Ethan’s voice mail. “I need you to place an offer for a Haven Crest,” I say, my voice sharp, commanding. “Anonymous. High enough that Priscilla accepts it without question.”
He hesitates. “How high are we talking?”
“As high as it takes,” I snap. “Make it a number she can’t ignore.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CADEN
The longest minutes of my life weren’t the ones spent in battle, or negotiation, or even standing at my mother’s bedside while machines did the breathing she no longer could.
They were the ones spent waiting.
Waiting for a call.
Waiting for an email.
Waiting for Priscilla to decide the fate of Haven Crest—the place Kamiyah’s parents built, the only thing tethering her to the sister she refuses to give up on.
I pace the length of our living room, phone in my hand, pulse in my throat. The city spreads below our penthouse like a glittering trap. Every light feels like an eye watching us, waiting for the first crack.
Kamiyah sits curled on the couch, her knees tucked to her chest, her eyes tracking me with quiet tension. She’s trying to be calm, for me, for both of us, but her fingers tremble whenever she brushes her hair back.
“Nothing yet?” she asks softly.
“No.” I check my phone again. “It shouldn’t take this long. Any normal person would have seen that bid and accepted it on the spot.”
“Priscilla isn’t normal,” Elena murmurs.
No.
She’s a predator.
Cold. Calculated.
And nothing motivates her more than control.
I rake a hand through my hair. “I don’t trust her. Or Maxwell. If they see something off in the paperwork, if they sense the bid is connected to me?—”
“She’ll reject it.” Kamiyah finishes quietly.
I nod, jaw tight. “And come after us harder.”
