Chapter 5 - The Bride Was Chosen Before the Groom
Dominic returned to the mansion before dawn.
Vivien was gone.
Theodore was gone.
But Isabella was waiting.
Dominic placed the medical report before her.
His mother's eyes filled with tears.
“You knew?”
Two taps.
“How long?”
She wrote:
Months.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Her hand shook.
Because you would kill him.
Dominic looked away.
“And?”
Then die.
He understood.
Theodore wanted Dominic reckless.
Angry.
Predictable.
Marin entered quietly.
Eli was asleep.
She read the report.
“Neurological suppression?”
Dominic nodded.
“Someone manipulated her medication.”
Marin's face changed.
She had administered Isabella's medicine for six months.
“Then why did she improve after I arrived?”
Dominic looked at her.
Marin suddenly understood.
“I changed the schedule.”
Isabella smiled.
When Marin started, she had questioned several medications because their labels didn't match Isabella's current treatment plan.
She contacted the physician.
Two prescriptions were discontinued.
Within weeks, Isabella became more alert.
Vivien had started visiting soon afterward.
“You weren't hired by accident,” Dominic said.
Marin frowned.
“What?”
He found her original application.
At the bottom was the recommendation.
Anonymous family referral.
Dominic turned toward Isabella.
“You chose her.”
Two taps.
Marin stared.
Isabella wrote:
Knew Laya.
Marin's breath stopped.
“My sister?”
Two taps.
Isabella wrote again.
Laya worked Morrow house.
Marin sat down.
Years earlier, before her death, Laya had occasionally worked catering events.
One client had been the Morrow family.
Isabella wrote:
She saw records.
“What records?”
Theodore's.
Marin felt sick.
“Her accident.”
Isabella closed her eyes.
Dominic understood the question Marin couldn't say.
Was it really an accident?
Isabella wrote:
Don't know.
For Marin, uncertainty was almost worse.
All these years she had raised Eli believing his mother had died because rain made a road dangerous.
Now there was another possibility.
Dominic crouched beside her.
“I'll find out.”
She looked at him.
“Don't promise things you can't control.”
He absorbed the rebuke.
Then nodded.
“I'll find the truth.”
That was different.
By afternoon, Dominic had enough evidence to understand Theodore's plan.
Isabella controlled trust assets Theodore needed.
Dominic controlled the operational companies.
A marriage to Vivien could eventually consolidate both.
But only if Isabella publicly accepted Vivien.
That was why Marin mattered.
Not because she was weak.
Because Isabella trusted her.
Theodore had miscalculated one thing.
He thought fear would make Marin lie.
Instead, fear had made her fight.
That evening Dominic found her on the terrace.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
Neither moved.
The ocean stretched black beneath the cliffs.
Marin folded her arms.
“What happens now?”
“The engagement is over.”
“I figured.”
A faint smile touched her mouth.
Then disappeared.
“Vivien loved you?”
“No.”
“You sound certain.”
“She loved what my name opened.”
Marin studied him.
“And you?”
Dominic didn't answer immediately.
“I intended to respect her.”
“That wasn't my question.”
“No.”
He looked toward the sea.
“I didn't love her.”
Marin nodded.
She should have felt nothing.
Instead, she felt relief.
That frightened her.
Dominic looked at her.
“Why did you stay?”
“For Isabella.”
“After Vivien threatened Eli.”
Marin's expression tightened.
“I almost left.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because Isabella looked at me like she was asking me not to.”
Dominic lowered his eyes.
“You protected my mother when I didn't.”
“You didn't know.”
“I should have.”
“You aren't supposed to know everything.”
“People expect me to.”
“Maybe that's the problem.”
Dominic looked at her.
Nobody spoke to him that way.
Marin seemed to realize it.
“Sorry.”
“Don't.”
He stepped closer.
“I've spent my entire life surrounded by people telling me what they think I want to hear.”
His eyes held hers.
“You don't.”
Marin's heart beat harder.
“That doesn't make me special.”
“No.”
Dominic's voice softened.
“It makes you dangerous.”
She smiled.
For one brief second, the war disappeared.
Then Marco opened the terrace door.
“Boss.”
Dominic turned.
“We found Vivien.”
“Where?”
“She came back.”
Dominic frowned.
Vivien stood in the foyer.
Her gown was gone.
She wore jeans, a coat, and no jewelry.
Her face looked exhausted.
Two guards watched her.
Dominic descended.
“What are you doing here?”
Vivien looked at Marin.
Then at Isabella.
Finally at Dominic.
“I want protection.”
Dominic laughed without humor.
“From me?”
“From Theodore.”
“You threatened a child.”
Vivien's face crumpled.
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because he has my sister.”
Silence.
Vivien took out her phone.
A photograph showed a young woman in a hospital bed.
“My sister Cecilia tried to leave him two years ago. He made sure she couldn't.”
Dominic's expression remained cold.
“That doesn't excuse Eli.”
“No.”
Vivien began crying.
“I know.”
Marin watched her carefully.
For the first time, Vivien didn't look beautiful or powerful.
She looked terrified.
“Theodore gave me Dominic's name five years ago,” she continued. “He told me exactly where to meet him, what charities to join, which people to befriend.”
Dominic remembered their first meeting.
A fundraiser in Boston.
Chance.
He had believed.
Vivien reached into her coat.
The guards immediately tensed.
She slowly produced an envelope.
“Theodore is leaving tonight.”
Dominic opened it.
Inside was a passport.
Theodore Morrow.
And another document.
A birth certificate.
Eli Hayes.
Dominic frowned.
Then he read the father's name.
Marin saw his face.
“What?”
Dominic didn't answer.
She grabbed the paper.
Her eyes found the line.
Father:
Theodore James Morrow.
Marin stopped breathing.
Vivien whispered, “Eli isn't just a boy Theodore threatened.”
She looked toward the sleeping child upstairs.
May you like
“He's Theodore Morrow's son.”
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