CHAPTER 5: Eleanor Hargrove

That night Daniel took Lucy and Ben to his apartment, made sure they were warm and fed, and then drove to his mother’s house.

Eleanor Hargrove received him in her sitting room with her usual perfect posture. She knew something was wrong the second she saw his face.

“I found Emma,” Daniel said.

Her hand tightened around her teacup.

Then he laid the photograph and the letter on the table between them.

By the time she finished reading, the room felt colder.

“She would have ruined your life,” Eleanor said flatly.

“She was my life.”

“She was a frightened girl with nothing.”

“And you had everything,” Daniel snapped, “and still needed to crush her.”

For the first time in years, his mother dropped the mask.

“I protected this family.”

“No. You protected control.”

Eleanor stood. “If she was pregnant, I assumed she would use it.”

Daniel stared at her in disbelief. “So you took my daughter from me before she could even speak.”

Silence fell hard between them.

At last she said, “If you bring those children into your name, everything changes.”

Daniel looked at the woman who had shaped so much of his cowardice.