20. Two Months

20. Two Months

Mr. Stanton took the call from his old friend badly, slamming his phone down hard enough to crack the case. Every man he’d sent after Tania had been killed before they could finish the job.

He had a growing suspicion about who’d protected her, and it wasn’t good news for anyone involved.

Sophia showed up at his office not long after and tore into the surviving men herself, calling them useless to their faces, slapping the one who tried to explain what they’d been up against.

Her phone rang as she was leaving. Dora.

“I found something,” Dora said. “From Jordan’s place. You need to see this.”

Sophia opened the file Dora sent moments later and scrolled through it, unimpressed. “So what? How does this help me?”

Dora’s voice dropped lower. “Listen. I overheard Norman and Tania talking. There’s more to it than you think.”

 

• • •

 

Tania needed to see Dr. Jeff for her checkup, and she wanted Norman’s help finding whatever her uncle had left behind. She asked Caleb to take her back.

“I have a deal closing this week,” he said. “The jewelry brand acquisition. I need to be there.”

“Then I’ll go alone.”

“Step one foot out that door,” Caleb said, low, “and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

“If you’re going to kill me anyway,” Tania said, “I’d be happier than I’d be regretful.”

Caleb crossed to the wall panel and pressed the remote. Every door in the villa locked at once with a heavy mechanical click.

“Now let’s see how you leave.”

Tania hit his chest with both fists, begging him to let her go, but he stood there and took it without moving.

The front door opened anyway a moment later. Nicole let himself in, glancing between them.

“I’m headed that way regardless,” he said easily. “I’ll look after her.”

He looked at Caleb, something knowing in his expression. “I know you care about her and the baby’s health. That’s why you don’t want her flying alone. Let me handle it.”

 

• • •

 

“I’m only helping you because I need something in return,” Nicole admitted once they were in the car. “Convince Vivian to come back to me.”

Tania blinked at him. “She’s married to Ashton.”

“She was supposed to marry me first,” Nicole said. “Our families arranged it years ago. She ran off with Ashton before the wedding. I’ve loved her since we were kids, Tania.”

She didn’t know what to say to that, so she said nothing at all for the rest of the ride.

Cecile was waiting the moment they landed, screaming Tania’s name across the terminal before tackling her into a hug.

“Look at you,” Cecile said, pulling back to admire her. “Pregnancy looks incredible on you. I hate it.”

Cecile’s attention shifted to Nicole a beat later, clearly intrigued, until Tania mentioned who he was.

“Caleb’s friend?” Cecile’s smile vanished instantly. “Absolutely not.”

 

• • •

 

Jordan texted her his address the moment she landed. When Tania arrived, only Dora answered the door.

“Where’s Jordan?”

Dora smiled thinly and stepped aside to reveal the bathroom door, locked from the outside, muffled pounding coming from within.

On the counter behind her, a small pile of papers curled and blackened in a metal dish, the last of the flames already dying down.

“Those were for you,” Dora said. “Whatever your uncle wanted you to know, well. Too bad.”

“Why would you—”

“I’m not done with you,” Dora cut in, reaching for a kettle of water still steaming on the counter.

She swung it toward Tania’s face. Jordan burst through the bathroom door at that exact moment, throwing himself between them, and the scalding water caught him across the shoulder instead.

His scream tore through the house.

 

• • •

 

Tania called an ambulance and rode with Jordan to the hospital, holding his uninjured hand the entire way. Once the doctors assured her he’d recover, she went to find Dr. Jeff.

He didn’t soften it this time.

“Less than two months,” he said. “And Tania, if you keep putting off the abortion, you could go into cardiac arrest without warning. Any day. Any hour.”

Tania nodded like the words didn’t cut straight through her, thanked him, and went back to the oceanview apartment alone.

She cried quietly once the door shut behind her, one hand pressed to her stomach, unable to make herself choose between the baby and the little time she had left.

In the haze of her own exhaustion, she imagined arms wrapping around her from behind, a familiar voice murmuring something warm against her ear.

She startled awake to find Gabriel standing in front of her instead.