Chapter 3 - The Baby Had His Eyes
Grant didn't tell anyone what Jolene had said.
Not Monica.
Not Trent.
Not even his mother.
The only person who knew the truth was the dead man whose photographs had taught him how to survive.
Richard Holloway.
Grant returned to the old family estate before sunrise.
He entered his father's study alone.
Dust covered most of the shelves.
The room had been untouched since Richard's death.
Grant had avoided it for years.
Now he stood behind the desk and opened the bottom drawer.
Inside was a locked metal box.
He remembered his father giving it to him when he was twenty.
"Open it when you understand what loyalty costs."
Grant had never opened it.
Now he did.
There was a letter.
One sentence.
Desmond is not your greatest threat.
Grant frowned.
He turned the page.
The rest had been torn away.
Then he found a photograph.
Jolene.
Young.
Standing beside Richard.
Grant stared.
He hadn't known his father had ever met her.
His phone rang.
Trent.
"Boss, Monica is asking where you are."
Grant closed his eyes.
"I'll handle it."
"There's another issue."
"Talk."
"Someone hacked the wedding planning system."
Grant's expression hardened.
"What's the damage?"
"Guest list. Security routes. Floor plan."
Grant stood.
"Cancel the wedding."
Silence.
"Boss?"
"I said cancel it."
"Do you want me to tell Monica?"
Grant ended the call.
He drove to the apartment where Jolene had been hiding.
The door was open.
Inside, everything had been overturned.
The ultrasound photo was gone.
So was Evelyn.
On the kitchen floor, Grant found a strip of baby-blue fabric.
A tiny onesie.
His hand closed around it.
He had never held his child.
Yet somehow he knew.
That was his son's shirt.
Or daughter's.
He didn't know.
But he knew the child was his.
An hour later, a location appeared on Trent's monitor.
An abandoned motel near the river.
Grant arrived with his team.
They found Evelyn tied to a chair.
No Jolene.
"Where is she?"
Evelyn looked at him.
"You shouldn't have come."
"Where is she?"
"They took her."
Grant's stomach dropped.
"Who?"
"Your uncle's men."
Grant turned to Trent.
"Find Desmond."
"Already gone."
Evelyn coughed.
"Grant."
He looked at her.
"There is something you must understand."
"What?"
"Jolene didn't leave you because she stopped loving you."
Grant said nothing.
"She left because she found out she was pregnant."
His jaw tightened.
"When?"
"Two weeks after you returned from Baltimore."
Grant remembered.
That had been the night Jolene had disappeared.
He had been told she boarded a bus.
He had believed it.
Evelyn continued.
"She was terrified."
"Of me?"
"Of your enemies."
Grant looked away.
"How far along was she?"
"Five weeks."
He closed his eyes.
He had spent five months believing she was dead.
Meanwhile, she had carried his child alone.
"Where would they take her?"
Evelyn whispered:
"The old Saint Helena cannery."
Grant left immediately.
The cannery sat on the edge of the river.
It had been abandoned for eleven years.
Grant entered through the side door.
A single light burned in the center.
Jolene sat on a chair.
Her wrists were tied.
Her stomach was enormous now.
Grant saw the seven-month curve.
He stopped.
She looked up.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Jolene whispered:
"Grant."
He walked toward her.
"You were alive."
"Yes."
"You let me bury you."
"I'm sorry."
"You let me believe you were dead."
Tears filled her eyes.
"I thought you were safer without me."
Grant crouched in front of her.
"You should have given me the choice."
She looked at him.
"You would have come after me."
"Yes."
"You would have been killed."
"Maybe."
"You don't understand."
"I understand now."
His eyes dropped to her stomach.
"Is the baby mine?"
Jolene closed her eyes.
"Yes."
The word nearly broke him.
"How far?"
"Thirty weeks."
Grant put his hand against the chair.
"Boy or girl?"
"I don't know."
"You didn't find out?"
"No."
He looked up.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted at least one thing you couldn't be forced to take."
Grant's expression crumbled.
He reached for her hand.
"I would never take your child."
"You didn't know."
"I should have."
The room seemed smaller.
Then a gun clicked.
A man stepped from the shadows.
Desmond.
Grant stood.
"You."
Desmond smiled.
"Family reunions are always emotional."
Jolene's face went pale.
Desmond looked at her stomach.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Grant stepped between them.
"You will not touch her."
Desmond laughed.
"You still think this is about money."
"What is it about?"
"The ledger."
"I don't have it."
Desmond smiled.
"No."
He pointed at Jolene.
"She does."
Jolene looked confused.
Desmond continued.
"Your father hid the Black Ledger inside an object nobody would search."
Grant stared.
"Where?"
Desmond's eyes moved to Jolene's stomach.
"Inside the locket her mother gave her."
Jolene's hand flew to her necklace.
Grant understood.
The ledger wasn't a book.
It was encoded data hidden in the locket.
Desmond raised his gun.
"Give it to me."
Grant moved.
The gun fired.
The bullet struck the metal beam behind him.
Chaos erupted.
Grant tackled Desmond.
Another man grabbed Jolene.
She screamed.
Grant turned.
A security man fired.
The attacker fell.
Jolene collapsed against the chair.
"Grant!"
He ran to her.
She clutched her stomach.
"The baby."
Grant's blood froze.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know."
Her face was twisted in pain.
"I think I'm having contractions."
Grant lifted her.
"Hospital."
Desmond disappeared in the confusion.
Grant carried Jolene through the warehouse doors.
Sirens approached.
May you like
For the first time in five months, the woman he thought he had lost was in his arms.
And the child he never knew existed was fighting to arrive.
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