Chapter 5 - A Mother He Could Not Control
For almost five minutes after David told us Tom had entered Jade's hotel room, nobody spoke.
Then Colton did something I'd never seen him do before.
He looked genuinely lost.
Not angry.
Not calculating.
Lost.
“My brother wouldn't.”
David's voice came through the speaker.
“The camera footage is clear.”
“Send it.”
Ten seconds later, Colton's phone buzzed.
He stared at the image.
I didn't need to see it to know.
His expression told me everything.
Tom.
The man who had called me after I left.
The brother who admitted he'd known about Jade.
The person Colton trusted more than anyone.
Ask him who he trusts most.
Jade's message returned to me.
“Call him,” I said.
Colton didn't move.
“Colton.”
“He'll know we're watching.”
“Good.”
His eyes lifted to mine.
For a second, I saw the old version of him returning.
The mafia boss.
The man who believed uncertainty should be met with force.
Then Ren made a small sound in Priya's arms.
Colton looked at our daughter.
Something in him settled.
He called Tom.
Speaker.
Tom answered on the second ring.
“Yeah?”
“Where are you?”
A pause.
“Office.”
Colton looked at the surveillance photograph.
“Try again.”
Silence.
Then Tom sighed.
“You found me.”
“What are you doing with Jade?”
“Trying to keep you alive.”
My heart pounded.
Colton's expression hardened.
“You have ten seconds.”
“This is exactly why I didn't tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“Marcus knows you're investigating him.”
“How?”
“Because Nolan panicked.”
“And you went to Jade?”
“She contacted me.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus is going to kill her.”
Nobody spoke.
Tom continued.
“She wants protection.”
Colton laughed without humor.
“She should have considered that before helping him destroy my family.”
“She has evidence.”
“Against Marcus?”
“Everything.”
Naomi leaned toward the phone.
“What does she want in exchange?”
Tom recognized her voice.
“Immunity isn't my department.”
“No one here can promise immunity.”
“I know.”
“What evidence?”
“Recordings. Transfers. Communications. Marcus has been preparing this for more than a year.”
Colton stared at the table.
“Why didn't you tell me before meeting her?”
“Because you would've sent Marcus's own men to pick her up.”
Colton's silence confirmed it.
Tom continued.
“And half the men you think belong to you belong to him.”
The statement landed heavily.
For years, Colton had measured power by loyalty.
Now loyalty itself had become impossible to identify.
“Bring Jade to Naomi's office,” Colton said.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
Tom laughed bitterly.
“Listen to yourself. She isn't walking into your territory.”
“It isn't mine.”
Colton glanced at Naomi.
“That's the point.”
Naomi shook her head.
“Absolutely not. My office is not becoming a mafia witness exchange.”
Priya almost smiled despite everything.
David suggested a secure meeting room at a private investigative facility outside downtown.
Neutral cameras.
Neutral guards.
Everyone searched.
No weapons.
Colton hated every condition.
He agreed to all of them.
Two hours later, I sat across from Jade Foresight for the first time since learning she had slept with my husband.
She was beautiful.
I hated noticing.
Tall.
Dark blonde hair.
Green eyes.
An expensive cream coat.
But she looked frightened.
Not movie frightened.
Not dramatic.
Actually frightened.
Her hands trembled when she lifted a glass of water.
Colton sat at the opposite end of the table.
He did not look at her.
Tom remained beside the door.
Naomi sat with me.
David had three investigators in the adjacent room.
Jade looked at Ren's carrier beside my chair.
Something moved across her face.
Guilt, maybe.
I didn't care.
“You wanted to talk,” I said.
She looked at me.
“I owe you an apology.”
“No.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“I don't want one.”
“Lauren—”
“You don't apologize because you're scared Marcus will kill you.”
She flinched.
“You looked me in the face while I was pregnant. You knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about Ren.”
“Yes.”
“You still did it.”
“Yes.”
“Then help us because it's the right thing to do, because it saves your life, because it destroys Marcus. I don't care. But don't ask me to make you feel forgiven.”
Jade looked down.
“All right.”
I understood then why Colton had been attracted to her.
She was good at adjusting.
At becoming whatever a situation required.
“Start with Marcus,” David said.
Jade opened a laptop.
“Marcus recruited me ten months ago.”
“How?” Colton asked.
She looked at him for the first time.
“Through the consulting company.”
“Why me?”
“Because you were the only person who could stop his takeover.”
“And sleeping with me?”
Her expression changed.
“That wasn't originally part of the plan.”
Colton's jaw tightened.
“Don't.”
“What?”
“Don't make it sound accidental.”
Jade smiled bitterly.
“You think I'm trying to protect myself?”
“Yes.”
“You pursued me too.”
“I know.”
The room went silent.
Whatever else Colton was, he refused to let her rewrite that part.
Jade continued.
“Marcus wanted access. Once the affair started, he realized it gave him more.”
“What did you steal?” David asked.
“Passwords. schedules. acquisition plans.”
“How?”
Jade looked embarrassed.
“Colton left his secondary phone unlocked once.”
My stomach turned.
One careless moment during an affair had endangered all of us.
“What was Lisbon?” I asked.
Jade looked toward me.
“Originally?”
“Yes.”
“A vacation.”
Colton closed his eyes.
Pain moved through me.
“Then he suspected you.”
“Yes.”
“He told you the trip was still happening.”
“Yes.”
“And Marcus changed the plan.”
Jade nodded.
“What was the new plan?”
She swallowed.
“To make sure Colton didn't come back.”
Tom swore under his breath.
Colton remained completely still.
“How?” David asked.
Jade shook her head.
“I wasn't supposed to know.”
“But you did.”
“Marcus talked when he drank.”
“What did he say?”
“That the ocean solves complicated problems.”
The room became cold.
I looked at Colton.
He had intended to walk directly into that.
“What about me?” I asked.
Jade hesitated.
“What about you?”
“Marcus sent photographs of Ren.”
Her face changed.
“I didn't take those.”
“But you sent them.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He told me to frighten Colton.”
“By frightening a mother with a newborn?”
“I know.”
“No. You don't.”
My voice shook.
“You will never understand what it feels like to look at your seventeen-day-old baby and wonder whether somebody is watching her because her father couldn't keep his bed or his empire under control.”
Jade lowered her gaze.
“I am sorry.”
I ignored it.
“What did Marcus want with me?”
“Leverage.”
Colton's chair moved.
I looked at him.
“Sit.”
His eyes met mine.
For a second, every man in his organization might have expected him to ignore that instruction.
He sat.
Jade continued.
“Marcus believed Colton would surrender anything for you or the baby.”
“He was right,” Colton said.
I looked at him.
There was no hesitation.
Jade opened a folder.
“This is everything I copied.”
Bank accounts.
Recorded conversations.
Messages.
Lists of employees Marcus had bought.
Nolan's payments.
Property transfers.
And finally, a document that made Naomi sit forward.
A trust amendment.
“What is this?”
Jade looked at me.
“Marcus needed your signature.”
“My signature?”
“The Beckett Family Trust controls twenty-seven percent of the legitimate holding companies.”
I turned to Colton.
“What trust?”
His expression told me another secret had arrived.
Naomi looked furious.
“You didn't tell her?”
Colton answered carefully.
“I created it before Ren was born.”
“Why is Lauren a trustee without knowing?”
“I intended to explain after the birth.”
I laughed.
“Were you planning to fit that in before or after Portugal?”
He closed his eyes.
Naomi examined the document.
“As Ren's mother, Lauren has controlling authority over the shares held for the child until Ren reaches adulthood.”
I stared.
“I control part of his company?”
“Legitimate companies,” Naomi clarified.
“Why?”
Colton answered.
“Because if anything happened to me, I wanted you and Ren protected.”
I almost laughed at the irony.
The same man who cheated on me had secretly given me enough corporate authority to disrupt the people trying to replace him.
“What does Marcus need my signature for?”
“To authorize the sale of three properties held partially through the trust.”
Jade answered this time.
“The properties are worth nearly eighty million dollars.”
My stomach dropped.
“And if I don't sign?”
“Marcus can't complete the transfer cleanly.”
Colton's eyes hardened.
“That is why they were watching Lauren.”
Everything changed.
I wasn't simply emotional leverage.
I was legal leverage.
Marcus needed me.
For the first time since this nightmare began, I felt something besides fear.
Anger.
Focused anger.
“What happens if I freeze the trust?”
Naomi smiled slowly.
“We make Marcus's life extremely unpleasant.”
Colton looked at her.
“How?”
“We file emergency restrictions preventing any transfer without independent review.”
“Do it.”
Naomi looked at me.
“Lauren decides.”
Colton immediately corrected himself.
“Right.”
Then he looked at me.
“Do you want to?”
I thought about our empty nursery.
Jade's photographs.
The warning inside Ren's silver cup.
“Yes.”
That afternoon, I signed paperwork freezing every transaction connected to Ren's trust.
Within ninety minutes, three planned property transfers failed.
Two banks requested additional documentation.
A shell company in Portugal suddenly lost access to a credit facility.
Marcus knew exactly what had happened.
At 6:03 p.m., my new phone received one message.
This time it came from Marcus himself.
Mrs. Beckett.
We have always respected one another.
I typed back.
Apparently not.
His response:
You are involving yourself in matters you do not understand.
I looked at Naomi.
She nodded.
I replied.
Then explain them.
Marcus answered:
Your husband will destroy everything around him before he gives up power.
I stared at the sentence.
Because that was the fear I still carried.
Would Colton choose differently when the price became real?
Marcus sent another message.
Ask him if he is willing to lose Atlanta for you.
I looked across the room.
Colton sat beside Ren's carrier while she slept.
“Marcus wants me to ask you something.”
He looked up.
“What?”
“Are you willing to lose Atlanta for us?”
Tom went completely still.
For twelve years, Atlanta had been Colton's kingdom.
His inheritance.
His pride.
His protection.
His identity.
Colton looked at me.
Then at our daughter.
“Yes.”
Tom stared at him.
Colton reached into his jacket, removed his phone, and placed it on the table.
“Call every legitimate company attorney.”
“What are you doing?” Tom asked.
“Separating the businesses.”
“From what?”
“From me.”
Silence.
Colton looked back at me.
“You told me to choose.”
My throat tightened.
“I did.”
“I should've chosen before you ever had to ask.”
That evening, Colton began dismantling the empire that had defined his adult life.
Not because it would bring me home.
I had promised nothing.
Not because it guaranteed safety.
Nothing could.
He did it because for the first time, he understood something I had learned the morning I carried Ren through our front door.
Sometimes leaving is not weakness.
Sometimes it is the only way to stop becoming the person you no longer recognize.
But Marcus Vale had spent twelve years building his own plans inside Colton's organization.
And he had no intention of letting the Beckett empire disappear before he could take it.
At 10:16 that night, the fire alarms began screaming at one of Colton's largest warehouses.
By 10:22, flames were visible from the interstate.
By 10:31, Tom received a photograph.
Marcus standing in front of another warehouse.
May you like
In one hand, he held a lighter.
In the other, a photograph of me holding Ren.
