Chapter 17: The Price of Twenty Percent

Eli's POV

I drove to Lake Forest with the heater off and my jaw tight.

I had left Eliza on the clinic sidewalk with her arm around Greer, who could not stand up.

I had told her I'd be back in an hour.

Constance's front door was open.

She had left it unlocked on purpose, and that told me she had expected me.

She was in the breakfast room in a silk robe with a pot of tea and a plate of toast.

Otto sat in a high chair at her elbow with a slice of banana in each fist.

He looked at me and banged both hands on the tray.

"Say hello to your uncle, darling," Constance said to him.

"Take him out of that chair," I said.

"He's eating."

"Then I'll wait until he's done."

I stayed standing.

The girl in the gray coat hovered at the kitchen door, and I looked at her until she went.

Constance poured a second cup of tea and pushed it to the empty place across from her.

I didn't sit.

"You've had a long week," she said. "You've been picking at old locks. Tell me what you want, Eli."

"The boy back with Greer. Eliza on the ward again. The five embryos in Eliza's name."

"Is that all?"

"For this morning."

She smiled.

"Your father would have been proud of you. Years in Milwaukee hammering nails, and you finally learned to negotiate."

She sipped.

"Here is mine. I'll buy your twenty percent at three times its worth."