Chapter 88 The Inner Circle
The transition from the salt-air fire escape of Brooklyn back to the clinical, manicured perfection of Alverstone felt like a physical blow to my equilibrium. One minute, I was wrapped in the scent of cedarwood and winter air, feeling the steady thrum of Nate’s heart against mine; the next, I was being ushered into a blacked-out SUV before the sun had even managed to burn through the Atlantic fog.
Nate had been pulled away by a phone call that had turned his face into a mask of cold, corporate steel. He’d left a note on the kitchen counter—short, hurried, and scribbled on the back of a pizza receipt from the night before: Emergency board meeting at the downtown headquarters. Just a few fires in the logistics division I have to put out. T and G are coming for you. Don’t argue. Stay with them until I’m clear.
I had argued, of course. I had argued when Theodore pulled up to my curb at 6:00 AM, and I had continued to argue as they trailed me through my morning shift at the cafe, and then through my two afternoon seminars. By the time we reached the high-ceilinged atrium of the university library, my patience was a frayed wire sparking with irritation.
"I am perfectly capable of walking ten feet to the bathroom without an escort," I hissed, slamming my heavy macroeconomics textbook onto the mahogany table.
Theodore didn’t even flinch. He sat across from me, his laptop open, his fingers moving with a rhythmic, clinical precision that suggested he was managing a hedge fund while simultaneously babysitting me.
To my left, Gavin was draped over a velvet armchair. He looked bored, flipping through a textbook he wasn't actually reading, but his eyes were never still. They scanned the room every time the heavy oak doors creaked.
"You’re being dramatic," Gavin muttered, glancing at his watch. He looked back at me, his expression shifting into a half-mocking smirk. "Relax. You’re vibrating with enough nervous energy to power the campus grid. It’s making the table shake."
"I’m not vibrating, I’m aggravated," I countered, leaning in and lowering my voice. "You two have been breathing down my neck all day. Nate is halfway across the city in a skyscraper dealing with board members and investment portfolios. Why do I need the two of you babysitting me in a library? It’s embarrassing."
"It’s not babysitting, it’s a courtesy," Theodore said, his gaze remaining fixed on his screen. "Nate is occupied with Salvatore Enterprises. In his world, when the head of the house is away dealing with a crisis, people tend to look for vulnerabilities elsewhere. We’re here because we are a unit. When one of us is tied up, the others fill the gaps. It’s how we’ve survived."
I blew a strand of hair out of my face, feeling the weight of the "inner circle" for the first time. It wasn't just a friendship; it was an alliance. But the intensity of it felt claustrophobic. "Is Gavin always this 'consistent'?" I asked Theodore, shifting my focus to get a rise out of the man to my left. "Eliza says he’s like a radiator—hot one minute, ice the next. She’s pretty frustrated with him."
Theodore’s fingers paused over the keys. He cut a sharp, knowing glance at Gavin, who suddenly looked very interested in the ceiling molding.
"Gavin has a complicated relationship with the concept of 'consistency,'" Theodore said dryly. "He prefers to keep people at a distance because it's easier to walk away when things get complicated. It's a defense mechanism, albeit a clumsy one."
"It’s not clumsy," Gavin snapped, though he didn't deny it. He looked at me, his eyes darkening. "And tell your friend that I'm not a radiator. I'm a person."
"A person who disappears the second things get real," I countered. "You push her away because you’re scared of the silence that comes after a real conversation. You’re lucky she’s even still talking to you."
Gavin opened his mouth to deliver what I was sure would be a stinging retort, but Theodore cleared his throat. He turned his laptop around so I could see the screen.
"While we’ve been trailing you today, I’ve been finalizing the initial sweep Nate asked us to perform," Theodore said, his voice dropping.
My heart performed a slow, sickening somersault. "What sweep? What is that?"
"Nate didn't want to tell you yet," Theodore explained, "but he, Gavin, and I have been looking into your parents’ disappearance. We’ve used every resource we have—private databases, dock security logs, even independent cellular tracking."
I stared at the screen, a mixture of shock and a strange, prickly heat rising in my chest. "You’ve been investigating them? Without telling me?"
"Nate wanted to give you answers, not more questions," Gavin said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. "He knew you were killing yourself trying to find a reason why they’d just vanish. He wanted to find a villain, a conspiracy, or a threat that forced them to run, because he knows you’d rather they be victims than cowards."
I swallowed hard, the words hitting me like a physical weight. "And? What did you find?"
Theodore let out a long, slow breath and shook his head. "That’s the hardest part. We looked at the night they vanished. There was nothing unusual. The security footage shows their car leaving the perimeter at their usual time. There was no one following them. There was no struggle."
The silence that followed felt like it was crushing the air out of the room. I had spent every night since they left imagining a shadowy figure or a hidden debt that had forced their hand. I had clung to the hope that they were protecting us by leaving.
"So there’s nothing?" I whispered. "No mystery?"
"Nothing," Theodore confirmed. "From every piece of data we have... it was a choice. They walked away from you, Grace, and Zoe of their own volition."
The truth was a jagged blade. If there was no villain to fight, then there was only the cold reality of their betrayal. I felt a surge of that Brooklyn defiance return, sharp and bitter. I didn't want their pity, and I didn't want to be the girl whose parents didn't want her.
I looked at both of them, my eyes hard. "If they wanted to leave, fine. They can stay gone. But I am staying right here. I’m going to graduate, and I’m going to make sure my sisters have a life that is so much better than the one they left us with. I don't care if I have to work three jobs and fight every Salvatore on this board, I am not moving."
Gavin smirked, a look of genuine respect crossing his face. "That’s the girl Nate is so obsessed with. I was wondering when she’d show back up today."
"I never left," I said, pulling my textbook back toward me. "Now, unless you two want to help me solve these derivatives, find a way to be useful or stay out of my way. I have work to do."