Chapter 74 Two Wings, Two Nurseries, Two Mothers
The room stayed frozen around the phone.
Carl was still talking like a man walking through a house only he could see. “Two wings, two nurseries, two mothers — nobody fighting, nobody leaving. You’ll see, Amelia. It’s going to be good again. Better than before.”
Amelia listened like it was a normal conversation. Like she wasn’t surrounded by armed men. Like her heart wasn’t hammering. “You’ve been planning this a long time,” she said, voice soft, almost indulgent. “Since I left?”
“Since before you left,” he corrected. “You started drifting, I could tell. So I started fixing. That’s what a man does. He leads. He prepares.”
Across the room, Marcus’s phone buzzed once against his palm. He lowered his eyes, read the short update from Sam, then flicked a look to Bryson.
Partial location. Signal bouncing. Keep him on.
Bryson didn’t speak. He just gave the smallest incline of his head.
Amelia caught it.
“So you already changed the locks,” she said, keeping her tone curious. “You already set rooms up for me. You did all that without knowing whether I’d say yes?”
“I knew you’d say yes,” Carl said, like it was obvious. “You’ve just been confused. That man filled your head. That family of his — those money people — they made you think you needed them. You don’t. You need me.”
Claire’s jaw clenched. Lila’s hand slid across the couch cushion until it rested behind Amelia’s back, not touching, just there. Even Roderick, who usually had a smart remark, was dead quiet now — eyes pinned to the phone like he could reach through it.
Amelia smoothed a hand over her thigh, buying a second. “You said Nadia’s upstairs?”
“Yeah,” Carl said, pleased she’d remembered. “She’s on board. She knows I loved you first. She knows you come before her. She’s not going to get in your way. You two will even get along once you stop being stubborn.”
Lila muttered under her breath, “He really said get along like this is a group chat.”
Claire elbowed her, eyes warning. Don’t blow it.
Carl kept right on. “You’ll help her with the baby. She’ll help you with yours. I already told her we’re trying again once I have you back. You always wanted a baby. I’m giving you that. I always give you what you want, even when you won’t admit you want it.”
That last line hit something raw in the room.
Amelia didn’t let it show. “And where are you now?” she asked gently. “You at the house right now, making all these plans?”
Bryson’s gaze sharpened. There. That was the turn.
On the other end, Carl didn’t answer right away. She could hear him breathing — not labored, but thinking.
“I’m around,” he said finally. “Close.”
“Close where?” Amelia asked, like it was nothing more than logistics. “If you want me to come home, I need to know where home is.”
“You know where it is.”
“It sounds different,” she said, leaning in, threading warmth through her words. “You said you were converting rooms. That sounds like you’re there now.”
Silence. Not long — just long enough for everyone in the penthouse to go still again.
Behind them, Evan’s phone vibrated. He glanced down.
Triangulating. Need 30 more seconds.
Bryson’s hand slid under the table and tapped once on Amelia’s knee. You’re doing it. Keep him.
Amelia let out a small laugh — airy, disarming. “Carl, I’m not trying to trick you. I just want to picture it. You, me, Nadia, two babies. You said the house is big enough. Which house?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, too quick. “I’ll send for you.”
“Send who?” she asked, instantly. “Someone I know?”
“You don’t need to know that yet.”
“Carl.” This time she said his name the way she used to — soft, careful, with that little drop at the end. Everyone in the room heard it. So did he.
He sighed through the speaker, the edge easing for a heartbeat. “I’m trying to make this easy on you, Amelia. I came up with something where everybody wins. You don’t have to run. Nadia doesn’t have to feel second. I don’t have to lose you. Why are you fighting me?”
Lila looked like she might bite her own fist. Claire’s eyes were glassy, angry. None of them spoke.
“Because I need to know I’ll be safe,” Amelia said, and that part wasn’t acting. “You said you’d take care of everything. Let me see that. Tell me where you are.”
Across from her, Bryson was already moving, his thumbs a blur over his screen. Marcus stepped to the side, murmuring low, “Sam’s got two towers. South side, near the water. He needs him speaking another thirty.”
Bryson nodded once. “She’ll get it.”
On the phone, Carl gave a small, incredulous laugh. “You still don’t trust me,” he said. “After everything I’ve done for you, you still don’t.”
“You kidnapped my choice,” Amelia said quietly, letting a sliver of truth cut through. “You tried to decide my life for me.”
“I tried to save you,” he snapped — the first real crack. “From him. From all of this. From whatever he’s got you believing.”
The room tensed again.
“Carl—”
“No, listen to me,” he said, suddenly urgent. “He’s in the room, isn’t he? He’s sitting right there. You think I don’t know his voice when he breathes? You think I don’t know how he hovers over you like he owns you?”
Amelia didn’t look at Bryson. “No one is telling me what to say.”
“He always tells you what to say,” Carl shot back. “That’s what he does. That’s what men like him do. They get everyone to move for them. You think I don’t know how that works? You think I don’t know he sent you that lawyer? That he’s the reason you think you can leave?”
Evan’s phone buzzed again. Almost there. Keep him.
Amelia softened her voice again, pulling him back from the edge. “Carl. Carl, listen to me.”
“What?”
“You said you wanted this to work. You said you were doing this for us. Then trust me for once. Tell me where you are. Tell me what you’ve already set up. Let me be part of it.”
Another pause.
He wanted that — to have her participating in his fantasy. To believe she was coming willingly.
“You’d really do that?” he asked, suspicion warring with hope.
“If it’s safe,” she said. “If it’s real. I just need to know.”
Behind her, Claire mouthed, Come on, come on, eyes on the phone like she could drag the coordinates out of the signal herself.
Carl exhaled slowly, like he was trying to decide how smart she was being.
Then his tone shifted — not a full snap yet, but tighter, warier.
“You always did get this way when you were lying,” he said. “All careful. All sweet. Like you’re not fishing. Like you’re not trying to pull something out of me.”
Amelia’s spine went cold.
She didn’t let it hit her face.
“Carl, I’m just asking—”
“Yeah,” he cut in, “and I’m just not answering.”
The room stilled.
On the table, Bryson’s screen lit — Sam’s message popping in, short and clean.
Got him. Hold.
Bryson didn’t celebrate. Didn’t move. Didn’t even breathe different. He just kept his eyes on Amelia, giving her the smallest nod.
You did it.
Now don’t lose him.
Amelia let out a soft, tired sound — half-sigh, half surrender. “I just wanted to make sure,” she said. “I don’t want to walk back into chaos.”
“You won’t,” Carl said. “Because I’m in control now. Not you. Not Hearst. Not your little friends.” His voice was hardening by the second. “This time, Amelia… this time you don’t get to run.”
Her fingers curled on her knee. “Carl—”
And that’s when his laugh came — thin, papery, edged.