Chapter 8 - The Husband Who Was Afraid to Lose Her
Pregnancy changed the house.
Rafe became unbearable.
He checked doors.
Security systems.
Windows.
The baby room three times a night.
Mave finally threatened to throw his phone into the lake.
“You're driving me insane.”
“I need to know you're safe.”
“I am safe.”
“You were shot at twice.”
“So were you.”
“You're carrying my child.”
“Our child.”
He softened.
“Our child.”
She kissed his cheek.
“Then stop treating me like glass.”
He nodded.
He tried.
He failed repeatedly.
Then the threat arrived.
An anonymous medical file.
Mave's prenatal records.
Someone had accessed them.
Rafe's face went cold.
The clinic was compromised.
They moved appointments.
Changed doctors.
But the person behind it was not one of Voss's former associates.
It was someone new.
A woman.
Named Evelyn Shore.
She had worked for Rafe's father.
She had disappeared eighteen years earlier.
Now she wanted the family trust.
She believed the child would inherit everything.
She kidnapped Mave.
Rafe went after her.
The rescue became the most dangerous night of his life.
He found Mave in an abandoned hospital.
She was tied to a chair.
Seven months pregnant.
Rafe stepped inside alone.
Evelyn smiled.
“You came.”
“Let her go.”
“You sound like your mother.”
“That isn't a compliment.”
“No.”
She looked at Mave.
“She ruined everything.”
Mave stared.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“She stopped the network.”
“She destroyed our future.”
Rafe stepped closer.
“You kidnapped my wife.”
“Because she has what belongs to me.”
“The trust.”
“Yes.”
“You'll never get it.”
Evelyn smiled.
“She doesn't need to give it.”
“What?”
“She only needs to die.”
Rafe's face changed.
Mave stared at him.
He moved.
The confrontation was brutal.
Rafe reached Mave.
They escaped.
Evelyn was arrested.
The hospital staff arrived.
Mave was shaken.
The baby was safe.
Rafe held her hand.
“I almost lost you.”
“But you didn't.”
“I thought I had.”
She touched his face.
“You know what your problem is?”
“What?”
“You still think love makes you weak.”
He stared.
“I thought you were going to say paranoid.”
“That too.”
He laughed.
She kissed him.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Their daughter was born two months later.
A healthy baby girl.
They named her Lucia.
For the woman who had died protecting their families.
Rafe held her.
He cried.
Mave watched him.
“You're a mess.”
“I don't care.”
“She has your eyes.”
“She has yours.”
Their family grew.
Clara moved in temporarily.
Patrick became an enthusiastic grandfather.
Even Rafe's father came to meet the baby.
There was forgiveness.
Not immediately.
But slowly.
The past became something they could discuss without bleeding.
Years passed.
The family foundation grew.
Rafe became a respected businessman.
Mave became a director of a hospital program.
Their daughter grew up surrounded by people who loved her.
But Mave kept one thing.
The original sixteen-page marriage contract.
She framed it.
One night Rafe found her looking at it.
“You kept that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To remember.”
“Remember what?”
“That we started for the wrong reason.”
He stood behind her.
“And ended for the right one.”
She looked at him.
“What if we had never met?”
“I don't want to know.”
She smiled.
“Me neither.”
Then he noticed something.
The final page had changed.
A line she had never noticed was written at the bottom.
Marriage shall remain valid only while both parties voluntarily choose it.
Rafe smiled.
“You never saw this.”
“No.”
“Then we were always free.”
She turned.
“Were we?”
“Yes.”
“Then I choose you.”
He touched her cheek.
“Every day?”
“Every day.”
They kissed.
The past was finally gone.
Or so they thought.
Because ten years later, a package arrived.
Inside was a newspaper.
A photograph.
Their daughter.
And a note.
Her grandfather isn't the only one who survived.
Rafe read it.
His face changed.
Mave looked at him.
“Who?”
He looked toward the window.
“My father's partner.”
“Dead?”
“I thought so.”
“He's alive.”
May you like
Rafe's expression hardened.
“And he knows where we live.”
