Chapter 8 - The Enemy Who Saved Poppy
The answer was June.
Sadie found her sitting alone outside the courthouse after giving federal testimony.
“You knew.”
June did not pretend otherwise.
“Yes.”
“You knew Marsh wanted my baby.”
“Yes.”
Sadie slapped her.
June accepted it.
Then Sadie slapped her again.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was the one assigned to find you.”
Sadie stepped back.
June’s eyes filled.
“Marsh knew Elias had hidden a pregnant woman. He ordered me to locate her.”
“And you did.”
“Yes.”
June had found Sadie at a clinic under an assumed name.
She followed her for three days.
Then she saw Sadie sitting outside a grocery store, crying over an ultrasound photograph.
June had recently lost her own husband.
She could not deliver another family to Marsh.
So she returned and reported that Sadie had miscarried.
Marsh believed her.
“I saved you once,” June whispered. “Then I spent four years terrified he would learn I lied.”
Sadie sat beside her.
“Why were you cruel to me at Raven Hill?”
“Because the moment I saw you walk into that kitchen, I panicked.”
June laughed bitterly.
“I thought fate had a terrible sense of humor.”
“You sent me to Eleanor.”
“I saw fluent sign language on your application. I knew Eleanor had been trying to communicate something for years. I thought maybe you could help.”
“So you made it look like bullying.”
“If Marsh had people inside the staff, I needed them laughing.”
Sadie stared ahead.
“And Wesley filming?”
“That was Wesley being an idiot.”
Sadie almost laughed.
June wiped her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Sadie did not forgive her immediately.
Some forgiveness deserved time.
But she took June’s hand.
That was enough for that day.
Weeks passed.
Ashport changed.
Marsh’s arrest triggered investigations across the city.
Ronan cooperated, even when doing so exposed pieces of his own organization.
Several Cain properties were surrendered.
Two businesses closed.
Raven Hill lost half its staff.
Sadie expected Ronan to become bitter.
Instead, he seemed lighter.
One evening, she found him assembling a dollhouse with Poppy.
The instructions lay upside down.
Sadie stared.
“Is the roof supposed to be inside the kitchen?”
Ronan frowned.
“Architectural innovation.”
Poppy whispered, “He’s bad at this.”
“I heard that.”
“You were supposed to.”
Sadie laughed.
Eleanor watched from her chair.
Her hands moved.
Sadie translated.
“She says Cain men have always been useless with instructions.”
Ronan looked offended.
Then something extraordinary happened.
Eleanor whispered:
“True.”
Everyone froze.
The word was rough.
Barely audible.
But it was a word.
“Mom?” Ronan whispered.
Eleanor touched her throat.
Tears appeared.
Then she tried again.
“True.”
Ronan knelt before her.
Sadie watched the feared man of Ashport lower his head into his mother’s lap and cry.
Poppy joined them.
Then she waved Sadie over.
“Family hug.”
Sadie hesitated.
Eleanor extended one hand.
Ronan extended the other.
Sadie joined them.
That night, Ronan walked her to her room.
“You could move into mine.”
Sadie raised an eyebrow.
“That was subtle.”
“I’m learning subtlety.”
“No, you’re not.”
He smiled.
Then became serious.
“I don’t mean tonight.”
Sadie understood.
“I mean someday.”
She touched his chest.
“Someday sounds good.”
Ronan kissed her forehead.
But the next morning, Sadie woke to an empty mansion.
Security was running.
Phones were ringing.
Eleanor’s bedroom door stood open.
Ronan met Sadie in the corridor.
His face told her everything.
“What happened?”
“Mother left.”
“What?”
“She dismissed her guard at five seventeen. At five twenty-two, a camera caught her entering a car.”
“Whose?”
Ronan showed Sadie the image.
June’s car.
Sadie’s stomach dropped.
Then Poppy appeared holding an envelope.
“Grandma left this.”
Inside was a handwritten note.
Eleanor’s handwriting trembled across the page.
Do not follow me. There is one debt I must pay myself.
Underneath was an address.
Sadie recognized it.
The warehouse where Elias had died.
Ronan reached for his gun.
Sadie caught his arm.
“She told us not to follow.”
“I ignored my mother professionally for thirty years.”
May you like
He loaded the weapon.
“I see no reason to stop now.”
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