Chapter 3 - The Missing Pieces
The drive to the Catskills was a blur of evasive maneuvers and tense silence.
Wesley managed to shake the Ashford hitmen on a winding mountain road by forcing their lead car into a ditch, allowing us to slip away into the dense, fog-covered forests of upstate New York.
By the time we pulled up to the secluded cabin, night had fallen.
The safe house was heavily fortified, stocked with weapons, food, and its own independent power grid.
I carried a sleeping Posie inside, placing her gently on the massive king-sized bed in the master suite.
Mave stood in the doorway, her arms wrapped around herself.
She looked so fragile, yet so incredibly strong.
"She's a deep sleeper," Mave whispered as I pulled the heavy quilt over our daughter. "She learned to sleep through the noise of the city."
I turned to her, my chest aching.
"Sit down, Mave. Please."
She hesitated before sitting in a leather armchair near the fireplace. I poured her a glass of water from the kitchen and handed it to her.
"Tell me everything," I said, pulling up a chair opposite her. "Leave nothing out."
For the next two hours, the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place.
Mave told me how my mother, Victoria Hail, had orchestrated her ruin.
It wasn't just threats. Victoria had systematically destroyed Mave's life.
She had frozen Mave's bank accounts, forged a letter of resignation to her employer, and paid off Mave's landlord to evict her.
"She had Coraline by her side the whole time," Mave said softly, staring into the fire.
My head snapped up. "Coraline?"
Mave nodded. "Coraline Ashford was there the night your mother kicked me out. She handed me a plane ticket and a burner phone."
The rage building inside me turned cold and absolute.
"Coraline knew about you? About Posie?"
"She knew I was pregnant," Mave confirmed. "She told me that if I ever tried to contact you, her father's men would make sure my baby never took her first breath."
I stood up, pacing the length of the hardwood floor.
It was a conspiracy.
My mother wanted an alliance with the Ashfords to solidify our empire. Coraline wanted the power of being my wife.
Together, they had conspired to remove the only woman I ever truly loved.
"And the visitor logs?" I asked, remembering Wesley's discovery.
"After Posie was born, she got very sick. Pneumonia," Mave said, her voice breaking. "I was desperate. I spent my last fifty dollars taking a bus to your estate. I begged the guards at the gate to let me see you."
I closed my eyes, picturing her standing in the snow outside my iron gates, holding my sick child.
"The head of security came out," she continued. "He said you were inside with Coraline. He said you knew I was there, and you didn't care."
"Lies," I snarled, slamming my fist onto the mantelpiece. "All of it. I would have burned the city to the ground to get to you."
Mave looked up at me, the firelight catching the tears in her eyes.
"I know that now," she whispered. "When I saw you in the street today... I saw the truth in your eyes. You didn't know."
I crossed the room and fell to my knees in front of her chair.
I took her cold, trembling hands in mine.
"I love you, Mave. I never stopped. Not for a single second."
She didn't pull away.
For the first time in three years, she leaned forward and rested her forehead against mine.
May you like
"We're in so much danger, Garrett."
"They are the ones in danger," I promised, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "They just don't know it yet."
