He Deceived Me, So I Destroyed His Family's Legacy novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: What the Baby Is For

Lawson explains that Marissa will present Annabel's baby as hers at the gala, Annabel lies and says yes, and a paper boat from her sister arrives under her dinner plate.

Marissa's hand stayed on top of mine, warm and light.

I pulled away, and she let me.

"Mine?" I said. "This is my body."

"It's the Draper family's heir," Lawson said.

He nodded to the butler, and the staff filed out of the room without a sound.

Rowan stayed on the sofa, watching me over the rim of his glass.

Jonas Rhinelander stayed by the door.

Lawson straightened his cuffs and told me the plan in the same calm voice he used for a quarterly report.

"The board votes on my chairmanship in five weeks," he said. "My uncle is telling them I'm unstable. A single man's money doesn't reassure anyone."

"A chairman with a son on the way does."

"So the Foundation gala is in four weeks," Marissa said. "I'll stand up in front of every donor in the city and tell them we're expecting."

"I'll glow," she added. "You'll be resting."

"You'll be unwell," Lawson said. "Rest cure, the whole winter. Nobody will ask to see you."

"And when the baby comes?" I asked.

"It comes as Marissa's," he said. "Afterward, you'll be provided for. Poppy too."

I looked at the three of them.

Not one of them looked ashamed.

My mind kept running through what I had just said out loud, in front of the people who held my sister's bed.

I had told them I would end it.

I had warned them in the one room where they could still stop me.

"The family doctor comes tomorrow morning," Lawson said. "He's been with us since I was a boy. He will confirm the dates and look after you."

"And if I walk into a clinic myself?" I asked.

"No clinic in this city will take you," Lawson said. "I've made sure of that."

He had known I might want to.

He had called ahead.

My stomach turned over, and I made myself stand still until it passed.

Then I made myself breathe slowly, the way I did in Poppy's room when the machines beeped and I had to look calm for her.

I could shout again, and he would call his men.

I could run, and Poppy would be moved before I reached the street.

Nothing I said in that room could be taken back, so I stopped saying things.

"Fine," I said.

Lawson tilted his head.

"I'll do it your way," I said. "I'll carry it. I'll stay upstairs."

"I only want to see Poppy first."

It was the easiest lie I had ever told.

Marissa's smile widened for a moment before she hid it.

"See?" she said to Lawson. "I told you she'd be reasonable."

"She's always been reasonable," Lawson said.

He meant it as a compliment.

Rowan raised his glass again.

"To the mother of the year," he said.

I looked at him without answering, and for the first time his grin slipped.

"Jonas," Lawson said. "Take Mrs. Draper upstairs. Her door stays locked from the outside."

"Her phone stays with you."

"Yes, sir," Jonas said.

Rowan pushed himself off the sofa and smiled at me.

"Good night, Annabel," he said. "I'll look in on you soon."

Jonas stepped sideways, and Rowan found a large man in his path.

"Her door is locked tonight, sir," Jonas said evenly. "Those are my orders."

Lawson said nothing, which was an answer, and Rowan sat back down.

I held out my phone, and Lawson took it from my hand himself.

He turned it off and put it in his jacket pocket.

Then he kissed my forehead, the way he did every morning.

I did not flinch, because flinching would have told him something.

Jonas followed me up the stairs and stopped at my bedroom door.

"Do you need anything tonight, ma'am?" he asked.

His voice was perfectly even.

"No," I said.

"Then good night."

He closed the door, and I heard the key turn.

I stood in the middle of the bedroom I had shared with Lawson for three years.

The bed had been made that morning.

I thought of every night I had lain in it believing he had come to me.

I sat down on the floor with my back against the wall so that nothing in the room could touch me.

I took stock of what I had left.

I had a sister I could not reach, a body I did not control and a house full of people who had known.

I had one thing they wanted, and they did not know how badly I wanted to be rid of it.

At eight the door opened.

A maid put down a dinner tray without raising her eyes and left.

Jonas stood in the doorway until she was gone.

Then he said, "Eat something, ma'am. Please."

The door shut and locked again.

I lifted the cover from the plate.

Chicken, rice and green beans.

Under the plate, pressed flat against the tray, was a small square of paper folded into a boat.

I knew the fold.

Poppy had taught it to me when she was six, on the back steps of our father's house.

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