The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 114

Chapter 102: Margaret’s Move

Bella POV

“We built the case together, said.

“You decided to build it.” He looked at my profile, and I felt it the way I always felt his attention now, steady and specific and impossible to ignore. “You could have let it play out, Bella. I told you that on day one and I meant it.”

“I know.”

“So.”

I was quiet for a moment, watching the lights. “I don’t want to watch people destroy you,” I said finally. “Even when I’m scared. Even when part of me is still angry about things I haven’t finished being angry about.” I turned to look at him. “That’s probably important information.”

“It is,” he said carefully.

“Don’t make it mean too much.”

“I won’t.” The corner of his mouth moved. “I’ll just make it mean exactly what it means.”

I looked at him standing there in the terrace light, jacket off and guard down in the specific way he only allowed himself here

Before I could allow my thought wander, a small feet padded through the doorway.

Tom inserted himself between us with the confidence of a child who had never once doubted his welcome, looked up at both of us with his father’s eyes and my stubbornness written all over his face, and delivered his verdict. “Maya said the bad people got in trouble,” he announced.

“They did,” I said.

“Good.” He nodded, satisfied, then looked between us. “Does that mean you love Daddy again?”

The terrace went completely silent. I looked at Tom, something helpless moving through my chest, the way it always did when he aimed the truth at me without warning and without mercy. “Go find Maya, baby,” I said softly.

Tom looked between us, decided something in what he saw was satisfactory, and trotted back inside. without argument.

Caleb didn’t say a word.

But when I glanced at him, he was looking at the city lights with a quiet, unguarded smile that he didn’t try to hide, and I turned away before he could see what was happening on my face.

We stood there together in the warm dark, the sounds of Tom and Maya drifting out from inside, and I didn’t move away, and neither did he.

1:3

< Chapter 103 Margaret’s Move

+25 Points

The call came at 2:47 p.m., while I was in the middle of a conference call with my Singapore team.

+ didn’t recognize the number, but something made me pick up anyway.

“Ms. Hart?” A woman’s voice, professional and careful. “This is Sandra from Little Stars Daycare. There’s a situation with your son that requires your immediate attention.”

My blood went cold. “Is Tom hurt?”

“No, he’s safe,” Sandra said quickly. “But there’s a woman here claiming to be his grandmother. She’s been asking the staff to bring Tom out to meet her. We haven’t allowed it, per your security instructions, but she’s refusing to leave the premises.”

I was already standing, already reaching for my jacket, my heart hammering against my ribs. “Do not let her near him. I’m on my way.””

I ended the Singapore call without explanation and grabbed my bag, my mind running cold and sharp the way it did when something threatened Tom. The elevator took too long. The traffic was worse. I called Caleb from the car because he was picking Tom up with me tonight and he needed to know before we arrived.

He picked up on the second ring. “I’m already pulling up,” he said, when I told him. His voice had that particular flatness that meant he was furious and containing it. “I saw an unfamiliar car outside and had security run the plates.”

“Of course you did,” I muttered, and hung up.

Margaret was standing near the daycare entrance when I arrived, cream suit, pearls, a gift bag dangling from one hand like she was here for a birthday party rather than ambushing a four-year-old who had never met her. She looked composed and entitled, and the sight of her made something hot and ugly rise in my chest.

Caleb was already there, standing between her and the entrance with his arms crossed and his face closed, and two of his security team positioned at a distance that was polite enough not to cause a scene and close enough to remove her the moment I gave the word.

“Bella.” Margaret’s face arranged itself into something warm when she saw me. “I just wanted to meet

him. That’s all.”

“You don’t get to just want things that involve my son,” I said, stopping in front of her. “You lost that privilege years ago, when you and your husband threw me out of my own marriage and called me an embarrassment on the way out.”

“I was misled.” Her chin lifted slightly. “Jade manipulated all of us.”

“You weren’t misled.” My voice stayed low, because there were staff watching and Tom was somewhere inside those walls and I refused to perform my grief for an audience. “You made a choice. You chose Jade, you chose Richard, and you chose to leave me with forty-seven dollars and one suitcase while I was carrying your grandchild. That wasn’t manipulation, Margaret. That was you.”

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