Chapter 233
No.1
The Maybach crawled through the heavy, gridlocked traffic of Manhattan. The rain was relentless, the wipers slapping rhythmically against the glass.
Elisa pulled the car over into a loading zone on a quiet side street. She reached into the center console and pulled out her secondary, heavily encrypted smartphone.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she dialed Jewel's number.
Jewel answered immediately. "Elisa! Thorne just called me. He said the court system shows the injunction was picked up by a trust representative.What the hell is happening?"
Elisa took a deep breath. She kept her voice completely flat, stripping away all emotion. She repeated Germaine's blackmail terms word for word.
No.2
There was a loud crash on the other end of the line.Jewel had dropped her coffee mug.
"Those sick, twisted bastards!" Jewel screamed, her voice echoing through the phone. "They are literally holding you hostage to breed! We have to call the police!"
"We can't," Elisa said coldly. "Germaine has the legal right to request a review of the trust's asset division.I need to know the timeline. Ask Thorne about the annulment window."
Jewel went silent for a moment. Elisa could hear the frantic clicking of a keyboard.
"Okay," Jewel said, her voice tight. "Thorne's memo says that for a third-party trust intervention, the court grants a mandatory thirty-day review period before a final injunction dismissal hearing is scheduled."
No.3
Thirty days.
Elisa stared out the rain-streaked window. She had exactly thirty days to steal that physical document back from Germaine before the marriage was permanently locked.
"Did you see social media this morning?" Jewel asked suddenly, her tone shifting to disgust.
Elisa frowned. "I've been fighting for my life, Jewel. I haven't checked Instagram."
"Devon posted a story an hour ago," Jewel spat."You need to see it."
No.4
Elisa tapped the massive touchscreen on the Maybach's dashboard. She opened the secure browser and logged into a burner account. She typed in Devon Browning's handle.
His profile picture popped up. She clicked the glowing circle around it.
A video started playing. The setting was a massive,ultra-luxury ski lodge in Gstaad, Switzerland-the perfect cover for her 'psychiatric treatment abroad'.A massive stone fireplace roared in the background.
August Chambers sat on a deep leather sofa. He wore a gray cashmere sweater, holding a crystal tumbler of amber liquid. He looked completely relaxed, miles away from the storm in New York.
Allena was curled up against his chest, wearing a tight, designer ski lodge outfit. She was giggling,holding her own glass up to the camera.
No.5
Devon's voice boomed from behind the phone. "The King and Queen enjoying the perfect snow day!"
Elisa stared at the screen. The image of August's handsome, relaxed face burned into her retinas.
A wave of pure, violent nausea rolled through her stomach.
While she was standing in the freezing rain, being blackmailed into forced reproduction to save her grandfather's life, her husband was drinking expensive scotch and playing house with his mistress.
He had completely checked out. He didn't even know his mother had hijacked his own divorce.
No.6
Elisa reached out and violently tapped the screen,killing the video. The car plunged back into dim silence.
A crushing sense of exhaustion hit her. The sheer,absurd unfairness of the power dynamic was suffocating.
"Elisa?" Jewel's voice was filled with panic. "Are you still there? Just drive to Long Island. Come to my
house.We will hide Kayden."
"No," Elisa said sharply. The mention of her daughter snapped her spine straight. "Germaine has eyes everywhere. If I run to you, I lead them straight to Kayden."
No.7
She gripped the steering wheel. "I am going to move back into the Tribeca penthouse. It's the only way to pacify Germaine and buy myself the thirty days."
"You are walking into a cage!" Jewel argued. "When August gets back, it's going to be a bloodbath."
Elisa looked at her own reflection in the rearview mirror. A slow, terrifyingly cruel smile touched her lips.
"Let him come back," Elisa whispered. "I'm going to burn his cage down from the inside."③
She hung up the phone. She threw the car into drive.She had to get to her secure apartment immediately.She had to scrub every single trace of Kayden's existence before Germaine's people arrived.