She leaned in, close enough that I felt her breath against my skin. “They’ll move me somewhere no one visits. No Mary. No window.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “No tree.”
She pulled back slightly, studying me.
“You did that on purpose,” she said, her voice low and tight. “Running around like some wild thing. Jumping out of trees. Letting him see you like this—” She let out a shaky breath. “You think I don’t see what you’re doing? You think I don’t know you’re trying to get his attention?”
She snapped her fingers in front of my face. “I’m not stupid, Chloe. I see everything in this house.”
“Olivia?” Killian’s voice came from downstairs. “Come here.” He was saving me.
She froze. Just for a second. Then she straightened quickly, smoothing her skirt, her face rearranging into something soft. Polished.
“Yes—coming!” she called back, her tone light and easy. Like none of this had happened.
Her eyes flicked back to me, cold again. “Don’t try me again, Chloe. I won’t let you ruin this for me.”
Soon as the door close, I listened for the footstep to fade before I let my smile take over my face. It was too late for her to be worrying about ruining anything.
Chapter 15 Killian
The Florida humidity was already pressing against the windows by 8:00 a.m.. I had spent three hours talking to Olvia the night before, making sure she didn’t go back up to visit Chloe. I was aggravated, irritable, fed up and dangerously close to snapping. I sat at the breakfast table, forcing myself to stay calm when every word out of Arthur’s mouth felt like a greasy hand on my shoulder. Every “innocent” smile from Olivia made my stomach churn. But I kept the mask I’d been wearing since I got here in place. I still didn’t have hard facts — only pieces, suspicions, and the growing certainty that Chloe’s deception was about survival, while her family’s was pure rot.
“Chloe seemed lucid yesterday,” I said, cutting through the mindless chatter. I set my fork down with deliberate calm. “At the lake. She looked… normal.”
The table went dead silent.
Ava’s knife froze mid-spread over her toast. Arthur’s thumb stilled on his phone. Olivia’s face twisted like she’d bitten into something sour.
“What was the sedation for? What drugs were used?” I continued, pinning Ava with the same flat stare that had made warlords sweat. “She wasn’t hysterical. She wasn’t violent. She was standing by the water humming. She looked like a healthy young woman.”
Ava recovered first, folding her hands neatly in her lap. “Chloe’s condition is… complicated. What you saw was just a brief window of calm. Those never last. It’s like a fever breaking before the delirium returns.”
“She was humming a song while swimming,” I corrected, my voice dropping. “There’s a difference between that and madness.”
Olivia jumped in, her pitch climbing. “Healthy people don’t just wander off and hum to the moon, Killian.”
Arthur finally looked up, he was trying to keep his anger from showing on his face.
“This is a private family matter, son. Not exactly breakfast conversation.”
“I’m marrying into this family,” I said, leaning back. The chair creaked under my weight. “That makes Chloe my family too. I’d like to get to know her. Maybe have dinner with her tonight.”
Olivia’s fork clattered against her plate.
“No,” Ava said too quickly. She forced a pained smile. “Not tonight. We have Sunday dinner with extended family and friends. The noise, the people — it would be cruel to subject her to that.”
“Then another night before I leave.”
“We’ll see,” Arthur said, using that smooth executive brush-off I was learning to hate.
I kept my expression neutral. “I have a doctor friend. World-renowned. She specializes in trauma and cases like Chloes. I could have her fly in for a second opinion.”
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Ava’s throat worked as she swallowed. “That’s… incredibly generous. But Chloe’s care team has been with her since the beginning. We wouldn’t want to disrupt her routine. Continuity is key to her safety.”
Her safety. Or your control?
I took a slow sip of coffee, letting the bitterness ground me. “Of course.”
