Chapter 202: In The Manor

Chapter 202: In The Manor

Reese

The second the door closed behind Ramsey, the air left my lungs in one long, uneven breath. I dropped back onto the edge of the bed and stared at the ceiling of his too-white room.

I was going to need practice on how to tell Roman something like this without setting the entire family on fire.

There was no gentle version of “your younger half-brother walked in on a recording of you and your wife that another brother has been keeping like a personal collection.”

Every possible phrasing still ended with Roman drawing blood.

And I still hadn’t told Lizzie about the cemetery and everything else. The day had already been too long. The next few hours were only going to make it longer.

Something in my gut insisted the real collision was still ahead.

I pulled my phone out. The headache that had been circling since the cemetery had settled into a steady, nauseating pulse behind my eyes. Heat gathered along my upper lip.

For a moment I genuinely thought I might be sick right there on Ramsey’s immaculate white sheets.

I dialed Roman anyway and forced myself to stay still while the line rang.

He picked up with a distracted “Hey,” followed by the clatter of something small hitting a hard surface and a low chuckle. “Andie, my phone, please?”

A smile tugged at my mouth.

On the other end I could hear the stubborn babble of a toddler who had no intention of surrendering her prize. Andie was apparently treating her father’s phone like a personal toy.

“Let me guess,” I said. “She doesn’t want to give it back.” I laughed, then remembered the hour. “Shouldn’t she still be asleep?”

Roman’s answering laugh was tired and fond. Andie’s cry of protest cut through it as he finally reclaimed the device. “Uhh… We’re trying to get her back down. She doesn’t want to sleep in their room tonight.”

“She wants you to hold her.”

“Something like that.” He cleared his throat, shifting into the sharper tone he used when the conversation stopped being domestic. “Did you find out anything about Cassandra?”

“She’s on vacation, according to Ramsey. He doesn’t know where. All he knows is that she and Voldemort had a fairly explosive argument, she packed up and left, and not long after that the old wizard had his heart attack.”

Roman made a sound that was half scoff, half chuckle. “She’s really raising the bar for her particular brand of wife. Always on vacation. Never available when it matters. I’m almost jealous.”

I sat up straighter, bracing my free hand against the mattress. The nausea had not gone away. “There’s something else you need to know.”

“What?”

“Ramsey unknowingly stumbled onto a video.”

The silence on the other end changed temperature immediately. “What video?”

“Roman. Before I go any further, I need you to agree to three things.”

“Spill it, Reese. I’m already losing patience.”

“No. We’re doing this on my terms.” I kept my voice flat. “If you can’t agree to these three points, the conversation ends here and I handle it myself.”

A short, hard exhale. “Fine. The three rules.”

“First, Ramsey did not mean to see it. Second, he is genuinely remorseful. Third, he is already helping us make sure no one else ever sees it again.”

There was a longer pause this time. When Roman spoke again, some of the edge had been filed down with great effort. “Okay. He’s a good kid. What’s in the video?”

From the background, softer and closer to the phone than I expected, I heard Sav speak. “Is Ramsey okay?” She asked. “Sorry—I kept hearing his name.”

My tongue locked for a full second. She was awake. She was right there.

Roman and Sav operated like a single unit most of the time. The idea that he would take a late call about a family crisis without her somewhere in the same room had been stupid on my part.

I could not say the next part with her listening.

Not after everything she had already survived. Not after her Professor and the brutal and horrific nature of that violation.

Putting the words “someone recorded you naked without your consent” into the air while she was on the line felt like handing her trauma a fresh set of keys.

What Randall had done—keeping private footage, watching it, letting another brother walk in on it—was its own kind of ruthlessness.

There was no difference between what Randall did and what that bastard professor did. And frankly, I was not going to be the one who dragged her back into that headspace if I could help it.

The bedroom door opened again before I could decide how to stall.

Ramsey stepped in with a triumphant, almost glowing smile, the kind that belonged on someone who had just successfully completed a mission.

The expression evaporated the instant he registered that I was still on the phone. Fear and unease slid back over his features like a curtain.

He crossed the room stiffly and opened his palm. The flash drive sat in the center of it. He'd returned victorious.

“Reese?” Sav’s voice again, tighter now. “Is Ramsey okay? Is he hurt?”

Ramsey’s face transformed a second time. The fear didn’t fully leave, but something brighter and younger pushed through it. He raised his free hand and waved at the phone as if she could see him through the speaker.

“Ma’am Savannah!” The excitement in his voice was pure and child-like. “You remember me? You remember Ramsey Reed? Even though it’s been two years?”

That was Ramsey in one moment. The boy didn't need much to be happy.

The smallest recognition could light him up completely. Family, even the fractured version of it this house produced, meant everything to him.

Sav’s laugh came soft and genuinely relieved. “How could I ever forget the sweetest boy I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting? I will never forget you. And I’m so glad to hear your voice.”

“Thank you.” His smile stretched wide enough to look almost painful. Moisture gathered at the corners of his eyes. “Please take care of my brother and your children. I heard they’re very cute.”

Roman’s chuckle cut in. “Cute, yes. But they’re at the stage where you do not want to test them. Especially Andrea. She will fight you.”

“I wish I could hold them,” Ramsey said quietly. “I really want to meet them.”

“Well, someone’s got to die first—” Roman muttered, only half under his breath, before the sound of Sav smacking him came through the line.

He cleared his throat and reset. “Back to the video, Reese.”

The change in Ramsey was instant. Panic flooded back in.

I stood, crossed to him, and set a steady hand on his shoulder, shaking my head once in a silent promise that he was not about to be thrown to the wolves.

He pressed the flash drive into my palm and pointed toward the bathroom with a look that needed no translation.

He could not stay in the room for this part.

“Can we talk in private?” I asked Roman. I knew the request would sit wrong with him.

He and Sav did not keep secrets from each other. Asking for a closed conversation was going to feel like a small betrayal of that rule.

Surprisingly, he agreed after a short silence.

“Okay.” There was the soft sound of movement, a door opening and closing. When he spoke again the background noise had changed. “What’s going on, Reese?”

I looked at the flash drive in my hand, at Ramsey hovering near the bathroom doorway like he might bolt or cry or both.

There was no clean way to say it. There was only the least destructive way.

“Ramsey stumbled onto a private video of you and Sav,” I said. “Here. In the manor.”

The silence that followed was tense.

“What are you talking about?”