Page 57 of Forever We Embrace: The Later Years
Luther’s hand settles against the back of my neck, and he bends to press his mouth into my hair. “Then you won’t.”
No one asks me to forgive her. No one suggests that I should have recognized the betrayal sooner or that trusting her was another symptom of damage I had not yet outgrown. They let the anger remain mine.
Thane arrives shortly after noon, once Oliver confirms the children are eating lunch with him and Lorenzo. He brings Victor’s cooperation agreement, a financial-routing summary, and the petition forms required to ask the federal court for access to my sealed Hearthstone records.
We meet in the living room rather than the office. The complaint remains on Maceo’s desk, preserved with the transcript and storage device, while Thane places Victor’s signed statement on the coffee table between us.
“Victor has confirmed that Alastair directed the merger challenge, authorized the pressure against Blake’s corporate authority, and instructed Dorian to obtain access to Ember House’s administrative and placement-related records,” Thane says.
Blake’s hand closes around the handle of his cane. “Is that enough to charge him?”
“For the corporate conspiracy and related extortion, yes.” Thane opens the financial summary but keeps it turned toward himself until he reaches the relevant section. “It is not enough to prove the current placement groups are operating as a continuation of Hearthstone.”
Luther sits beside me with one hand resting along the back of the sofa. Grayson takes the chair across from us, and Maceo lowers himself near the documents so he can follow every link Thane identifies.
Thane places two pages beside each other. One is a copy of Philomena’s nondisclosure agreement. The other contains routing information from the shell account under investigation.
“This sponsor prefix appears on both,” he says. “We can trace the current account, but we can’t yet prove what the prefix means inside the placement system.”
He opens the petition form without pushing it toward me.
“Your sealed intake file contains the same sponsor prefix attached to Ward’s purchase, your placement classification, and the original routing codes used when Hearthstone moved the money. That file would connect the code to its historical function.”
Maceo draws the routing summary closer to himself so I no longer have to look directly at the prefix. His other hand settles over my knee beneath the edge of the table, warm and still while Thane continues.
“And once the prefix has a proven meaning?” Maceo asks.
“We can use the current transactions to seek warrants for the locations receiving those payments.” Thane looks at me before adding the part he could have tried to soften. “Without Luca’s file, we can still proceed against Alastair for the corporate case. We may not have enough to reach the current placement sites.”
My stomach tightens beneath the hand I place over it. The baby is still too small for movement, but the gesture has become instinctive since Quentin confirmed the pregnancy.
“If I refuse, the case against Alastair continues?” I ask.
“Yes.” Thane closes the petition. “The records are sealed by federal order. I can’t access them without your authorization and the court’s approval. You have the right to refuse, and refusal won't affect the corporate case.”
Luther’s fingers close briefly around my shoulder. He doesn’t tell me there will be another way if I say no.
“This is yours, sweetheart,” he says. “I want the sites found, but I don’t get to make this decision for you.”
No one tells me what the brave answer is.
Thane leaves the petition and authorization on the coffee table while he takes a call with Maceo in the office. Luther and Grayson remain nearby, though neither sits close enough to crowd me. Blake takes the other end of the sofa with his cane resting against his knee.
The summary page identifies the sealed file by number rather than name. Beneath it, the court describes the contents: intake classification, sponsor history, compliance observations, placement routing, and purchase documentation.
The language reduces the person inside it to what could be measured, transferred, and controlled.
My fingers stop at the phrase purchase documentation.
Blake leans across the cushion and presses his mouth to the inside of my wrist, directly over my pulse. He doesn’t take the page or ask whether I want him to read it for me. He settles back once he feels my hand loosen.
Oliver and Lorenzo bring the children home while Thane and Maceo are still in the office. Their voices move through the hallway for several minutes before Grayson takes Samuel andJames upstairs to put away everything they carried back with them. Rosalie finds me there while searching for her crown.
She rushes into the living room without noticing Thane’s folder, climbs into my lap, and settles against my chest as though the space has been waiting for her. Her hair smells like the strawberry conditioner Grayson used that morning, and a strip of silver ribbon is tangled around one wrist.
“Samuel says the baby might not like dragons,” she tells me. “He’s wrong because everybody likes dragons.”
I move the authorization beyond her reach and straighten the crown sitting crookedly in her hair. “You found it.”
