Chapter 73: The Overheard Conversation

Claire was one step from the bed when Sebastian crashed through the door.

He tackled his sister to the floor. The syringe skittered across the hardwood, disappearing under the dresser.

Harper watched them struggle, unable to help, her heart pounding so hard it hurt.

"Stay down!" Sebastian pinned Claire's arms. "Harper, call security!"

"Phone's not working. No signal." Harper's voice shook.

Claire laughed beneath Sebastian's weight. "I jammed the cell towers. Cut the building's landlines. No one's coming to save you."

"Ryan's team is in the building. They'll find us."

"Will they? I triggered alarms on three different floors. They're searching everywhere except here." Claire bucked against his hold. "Let me go, Sebastian. This doesn't have to be violent."

"You broke into my home with a syringe full of sedatives. It's already violent."

Harper heard footsteps in the hallway. Multiple sets. Ryan's voice calling out.

"In here!" Harper shouted. "Bedroom!"

Ryan and his team burst in, weapons drawn. They pulled Claire off the floor, cuffing her wrists while she continued to smile.

"You can't stop this," Claire said as they led her away. "I've already won. You just don't know it yet."

After police arrived and took Claire into custody, Harper finally let herself cry. Sebastian held her carefully, mindful of her restricted movement.

"She was going to drug me," Harper sobbed. "The babies. She could have hurt the babies."

"But she didn't. You're safe. They're safe." Sebastian's voice was rough with emotion. "I'm so sorry. I should have stayed with you. I should have known she'd come here."

"You couldn't have known. None of us expected her to be that bold."

Detective Morrison arrived an hour later, after the building's power was restored and Claire was secured in police custody.

"She's going back to jail," Morrison said. "No bail this time. Judge is furious she violated house arrest. This actually helps your case. Shows premeditation. Proves she's dangerous."

"She had a syringe," Harper said. "Where did she get sedatives? How did she plan all this from house arrest?"

"We're investigating. But Harper, she made a mistake tonight. Breaking in, attempting to assault you while you're pregnant and on bed rest. The jury will see her as exactly what she is: dangerous and unstable."

After Morrison left, Sebastian helped Harper back into bed. She was shaking, the adrenaline crash making her feel weak.

"Try to rest," Sebastian said. "The babies need you calm."

"How am I supposed to be calm after that?"

"I don't know. But we have to try. For them."

Harper closed her eyes but sleep felt impossible. Every sound made her jump. Every shadow seemed threatening.

Around midnight, unable to sleep, Harper got up to use the bathroom despite doctor's orders to minimize movement. She heard voices from Sebastian's office. He was on the phone with someone.

"I don't know if she wants this," Sebastian was saying. "The pregnancy. The twins. Sometimes I think she's just going through the motions because she feels stuck."

Harper froze outside the door.

"I watch her lying there on bed rest and I can't tell if she's fighting for the babies or just enduring until it's over." Sebastian's voice was strained. "What if I trapped her? What if the pregnancy is just another contract she didn't really choose?"

Silence as the other person responded. Harper realized he must be talking to Claire or his therapist.

"I know what she says. That she wants this. That she loves me. But Harper's been conditioned to make the best of bad situations her whole life. What if this is just her making the best of being pregnant with twins by a man she married for money?"

Harper's hand went to her stomach. He thought she didn't want the babies. Thought she was just enduring the pregnancy.

"Maybe after the trial, after the babies are born, I should give her an out. Let her leave if that's what she really wants. She's stayed this long out of loyalty and pregnancy, but that's not the same as choosing me freely."

Harper couldn't listen to more. She retreated to the bedroom, her mind reeling.

Sebastian thought she didn't want this. Thought she was trapped. Thought she was just going through the motions.

How had they gotten so far apart that he couldn't see the truth?

She loved him. She wanted the babies. She'd chosen to stay long before the pregnancy complicated everything.

But lying there in the dark, Harper realized Sebastian's doubts weren't unfounded. She had been pulling away. Snapping at him. Pushing him back whenever he tried to help.

She'd been so focused on feeling trapped by bed rest that she'd made Sebastian feel like he was the trap.

The bedroom door opened quietly. Sebastian slipped in, thinking she was asleep.

Harper kept her eyes closed, listening to him move around the room. He sat on the edge of the bed for a long moment, his hand hovering over her stomach but not quite touching.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, probably thinking she couldn't hear. "For everything. For the contract. For dragging you into my family's dysfunction. For the twins that are making your body revolt. For loving you when it would have been kinder to let you go."

Harper felt tears slide down her cheeks but stayed still.

"I don't know how to fix this," Sebastian continued, his voice breaking. "How to make you want to stay instead of feeling obligated. But Harper, I promise I'll figure it out. After the babies are born, after the trial is over, I'll give you the choice I should have given you from the beginning. Stay or go. No guilt. No obligations. Just what you actually want."

He stood and left the room. Harper heard his office door close.

She lay in the dark, twins moving inside her, trying to process what she'd heard.

Sebastian thought she was stuck. Thought she wanted to leave. Thought the pregnancy was trapping her instead of binding them together.

And instead of talking to her about his fears, he'd decided to plan her exit. To give her freedom she didn't even want.

How had their communication broken down so completely?

Harper knew she needed to tell him the truth. That she'd overheard. That he was wrong about what she wanted.

But exhaustion pulled at her. The stress from Claire's attack. The emotional upheaval of Sebastian's confession.

Tomorrow, she'd talk to him. Clear everything up. Make him understand she was choosing him, not enduring him.

Tomorrow.

Harper fell into uneasy sleep, Sebastian's words echoing in her mind.

"I'll give you the choice I should have given you from the beginning."

As if their entire relationship had been built on taking away her choices instead of offering them.

As if everything they'd survived together meant nothing compared to his fear that she was just being polite by staying.

As if love required an escape route to be real.

Harper's last thought before sleep claimed her was simple and devastating:

They were both so scared of being unwanted that they couldn't see how desperately they wanted each other.

And that fear was going to destroy them more effectively than Claire ever could.