The moment Tasha read Kane's text, the color drained from her face.
I don't want more money. I want to see my daughter. Or I'm telling him. I'm telling Eddie everything.
"No... no, no, no," she whispered, her hands shaking. This wasn't part of the plan. Kane was supposed to be easy. He was supposed to take the money and disappear.
She ran from her bedroom, her silk robe trailing behind her, and burst into the study where her mother was reviewing household accounts.
"Mother, you have to do something!" Tasha's voice was a high-pitched, panicked squeal. She thrust the phone at Camila. "It's Kane. He's out of control. He's threatening to go to Eddie!"
Camila didn't even flinch. She took the phone, her eyes calmly scanning the text. A flicker of annoyance, as if at a buzzing fly, crossed her features.
"He's emotional, Tasha. He's lashing out because he thinks he has power," Camila said, her voice like ice.
"He does have power!" Tasha shrieked, pacing the expensive rug. "He'll ruin everything! My Vogue shoot is next week! He'll tell Eddie, and Eddie will..."
"Eddie will do nothing, because he will never know," Camila said, her voice cutting through her daughter's panic. "You were right to show me this. It means the time for paying him is over."
"What are you going to do?" Tasha asked, wringing her hands.
"I'm going to do what I should have done from the start," Camila said. She picked up her own phone and dialed a number not saved in her contacts. "You will block his number. You will not respond to him again. I will handle Mr. Rollins."
Tasha watched, terrified, as her mother's entire demeanor shifted. She was no longer just a high-society matriarch. She was cold, calculating, and absolutely in charge.
"Yes, it's me," Camila said into the phone. "I have a... problem. A pest. A man named Kane Rollins... Yes, that's the one. He's become a threat to the family. He needs to be... permanently silenced."
There was a pause.
"Not like that. Don't be an animal," Camila scoffed. "My husband's methods are too loud. This requires a quiet, elegant solution. He has a prior conviction for possession, doesn't he? ...Good. Then I think it's time he fell back into his old habits. Arrange it."
She hung up and looked at Tasha, her expression blank. "It's done. He'll be arrested on a parole violation with new charges within the week. He can't threaten anyone from a prison cell."
Tasha stared at her mother, a cold fear mixing with her relief. "But... what if he tells them? In prison?"
Camila smiled, a thin, sharp gesture. "My dear, who believes a convicted drug dealer over a billionaire's grieving fiancée? He's a nobody. And by the time he gets out, your 'son' will be the Blackwell heir, and Mr. Rollins will be nothing but a bitter, forgotten lie."
"PREGNANT?! What do you mean by she's pregnant"
Eddie said the word flatly. It hung in the air of his penthouse office, thick and suffocating.
Marcus stood silently, his face giving nothing away. "It would appear so, Eddie. The intake form listed 'acute morning sickness' as the reason for the visit. Nine weeks."
Nine weeks.
Eddie's mind, the one that ran calculations on multi-billion-dollar deals, began to spin. Nine weeks ago. Where was he nine weeks ago?
He was in New York. He was...
He froze. Nine weeks ago was the week before the Blackwell deal even started. It was the week before he'd ever met her.
His blood ran cold. The "sick mother" was a lie. The disappearance was a lie. And now... this.
"So that's it," he said, his voice dangerously quiet. "She's pregnant. With his child."
"His?" Marcus asked.
"Her ex-boyfriend," Eddie snapped, the pieces clicking into place, forming a picture of pure, humiliating betrayal. "The one she was complaining about. She runs away from him, has one last reckless fling with me, and then finds out she's pregnant with his baby."
He turned to the window, his hands clenched so tight his nails dug into his palms.
This was worse than rejection. It was the ultimate humiliation. She hadn't been running from his complicated life. She'd been running to her old one, pregnant with another man's child.
And that letter he sent. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me.
He felt like a fool.
"She used me," he whispered, the realization tasting like acid. "She used me for a night, and then ran back to her real life."
"It's a possible scenario," Marcus said, his voice carefully neutral.
"Find out," Eddie commanded, his voice now void of all emotion. "Get a name. I want to know who the father is. I want to know everything."
His motive had shifted. This was no longer a chase. It was an interrogation.
Bianca was building her new armor.
She sat at her mother's small kitchen table, her laptop open. She couldn't be "Bianca Carter, Esq." anymore. That name was a liability. It was a brightly lit target that Eddie's people could find on any legal database.
She needed to be a ghost.
She spent the day on legal websites, not looking for a job, but creating one. She used her savings to file paperwork, registering a new, anonymous LLC: "C.C. Legal Consulting."
"C.C. for Clara Carter?" her mother asked, placing a cup of tea by her elbow.
"C.C. for... whatever they want it to be," Bianca said, a small, tired smile on her face. "It's a shell. A way for me to do freelance contract review, to analyze briefs for other, smaller firms. I can work from anywhere. They pay the LLC. They never have to know my real name."
"Smart," Clara said, nodding in approval. "You always were the smart one."
"I don't feel very smart, Mom," Bianca said, looking down at her flat stomach. "I feel stupid. And I'm scared."
"Good," Clara said, her voice surprisingly firm.
Bianca looked up. "Good?"
"You're only scared because you have something to lose," Clara said, putting her hand on Bianca's. "It means you're finally fighting for the right thing. You're not fighting for a job or for some man who doesn't deserve you. You're fighting for him."
Bianca's eyes welled with tears. She nodded, her resolve hardening. Her mother was right.
She wasn't a loose end. She wasn't a mistake.
She was a mother. And she was done running. From now on, she would hide, she would build, and she would wait. She would protect her son at all costs.