Chapter 2 - Footsteps in the Rain
Discharge came forty-eight hours later under an overcast sky that smelled of wet asphalt and early autumn. Arthur handled the logistics himself: private underground parking, a discreet security detail, and no notifications sent to the main estate in Crestview.
Julian drove his black sedan behind Arthur’s SUV. He maintained a careful, obedient distance, his hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly his veins showed blue against his wrists. Beside him, Clara sat with a thick woolen blanket tucked over her lap. She kept her window cracked a sliver, letting the clean, frigid rush of air overwrite the memory of lavender perfume and disinfectant.
"We could take two weeks in Vermont," Julian offered, his voice strained with the desperate cheer of someone pretending the foundation had not cracked. "Just the two of us before the third trimester checkup. No phones. My mother can oversee the autumn portfolio without checking in."
Clara watched the wet wipers sweep across the glass. "Does she ever not check in, Julian?"
"She cares in her own way, Clara. She lost my father when I was twelve. You have to remember what that did to her sense of control."
"Arthur is your father, Julian," she said, glancing toward him with weary clarity. "He raised you after your biological father passed. He adopted you, gave you his name, gave you his firm. Yet you treat him like an opponent and her like an altar."
Julian’s jaw tightened. "Because he can take care of himself. She breaks."
"No," Clara said, leaning her head back against the leather headrest. "She breaks other people to make sure she stays whole. There is a profound difference, and you have chosen to be the hammer she swings."
They pulled into the gates of the secondary home Arthur had kept since his retirement—an understated stone cottage twenty miles west of the city, buffered by old oaks and tall hemlocks. Victoria hated the property; she found its lack of marble columns and manicured topiary provincial. For that exact reason, Arthur had unlocked it that morning.
As Arthur helped Clara out of the passenger side, his hand firm beneath her elbow, Julian stood beside the trunk with their overnight bags, looking lost amidst the falling amber leaves.
May you like
"Come inside and unpack," Arthur told him. "Or drive back to Crestview. But do not stand in the driveway waiting for permission to choose."
Julian did not answer. He set the bags on the porch and stayed on the gravel, staring at his phone as it began to glow with Victoria’s incoming call.
