Chapter 40 40
Blair’s anger vanished instantly.
The words she’d shouted replayed in her head,
“Oh God…” she whispered. “What did I just say?”
She rushed after him.
“Maverick—baby, wait!”
But he was already inside his room.
She heard the soft click of the lock.
Her heart dropped.
She reached the door just as his small, shaking voice came through the wood.
“I don’t want to talk to Mommy,” he said, trying to sound brave, but failing. “I know I have a daddy. The fairy mother said so.”
Blair’s breath stopped.
She pressed her forehead to the door, eyes burning.
“Mave… I’m sorry,” she said quickly, voice breaking. “Mommy didn’t mean that. I was wrong. Please open the door.”
Silence.
Then a sniffle.
“She said daddies don’t disappear,” he continued softly from inside. “She said they watch from far away. So you lied.”
The accusation was quiet.
It hurt more than any scream.
Blair slid down until she was sitting on the floor outside his room, back against the wall, hands trembling.
“I didn’t lie,” she whispered hoarsely. “I was just… scared. And tired. And Mommy messed up.”
She wiped at her face angrily.
“You do have a daddy,” she admitted, voice barely holding together. “And he’s real.”
Inside the room, Maverick didn’t answer.
But the crying stopped.
Blair stayed right there on the floor, refusing to move.
She glanced at the small table beside her—
the landline phone vibrating against the stand like it had something urgent to say.
She hesitated.
Another ring.
Then another.
Blair wiped her face quickly and pushed herself up, casting one last look at Maverick’s closed door before crossing the living room. She picked up the receiver with shaky fingers.
“Hello?” she said softly.
There was a pause.
Then a voice she hadn’t heard in years—thin, fragile, trembling like it might disappear mid-sentence.
“My… daughter…”
Blair’s breath caught.
Her knees nearly gave way.
“Mom?” she whispered, disbelief flooding her tone.
The voice on the other end sounded weak.
“It’s me,” the woman continued faintly. “My Blair… is that really you?”
Blair pressed the phone tighter to her ear, heart pounding violently.
“Yes,” she breathed. “It’s me. I’m here.”
On the other end of the line, the woman exhaled shakily, like she’d been holding that breath for years.
“I’ve been trying to find you,” her mother murmured. “I thought… I thought I’d run out of time.”
Blair’s eyes filled with tears she didn’t know how to name—anger, shock, pain, longing—everything colliding at once.
“Blair…” her mother’s voice trembled on the line. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Blair’s heart slammed against her ribs. “Mom? What is it? Tell me—”
Static crackled softly.
“Blair, listen to me carefully,” the woman whispered, urgency creeping in. “I don’t have much time. There’s something about—”
The line sputtered.
“No—no, Mom,” Blair said quickly, panic rising. “Stay with me. Please.”
A sharp hiss of interference cut through the call.
“…for years,” her mother’s voice faded in and out. “I should’ve told you sooner… about—”
Then—
Silence.
The dial tone buzzed cold and final in Blair’s ear.
“Mom?” she said, voice shaking. “Mom!”
Nothing.
She lowered the receiver slowly, staring at it like it might ring again if she willed it hard enough. Her hands were trembling now, breath shallow.
On the other end of the broken call—
Olivia stood in her mother’s bedroom, phone still warm in her hand.
She stared at it for one hard second.
Then she flung it across the room.
It shattered against the wall, plastic and metal scattering across the floor.
“Who gave her the phone?” Olivia snapped, spinning toward the doorway.
The maid flinched. “M-Miss Olivia, I—I only stepped out for a moment. She said she needed to make a short call. She begged—”
“Begged?” Olivia laughed sharply. “You listened to that?”
The maid’s eyes dropped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know—”
“Get out,” Olivia said coldly.
The maid didn’t wait to be told twice.
Olivia turned back to the bed.
Her mother lay there, chest rising unevenly, eyes wide and glassy—caught.
“I told you,” Olivia said, voice shaking with fury, “I told you we had nothing to do with her.”
Her mother swallowed with difficulty. “She’s my daughter,” she whispered weakly. “Blair is my—”
“Don’t say her name!” Olivia screamed.
The sound echoed violently off the walls.
“I erased her,” Olivia continued, pacing like a caged animal. “I buried that past. We agreed. We agreed she was nothing.”
Her mother’s lips trembled. “She deserved to know the truth… before it’s too late.”
Olivia leaned over the bed, eyes blazing.
“You will not contact her again,” she hissed. “Not now. Not ever. Do you understand me?”
Tears slipped down the older woman’s temples. She turned her face away, defeated.
Olivia straightened slowly, breathing hard.
Olivia was still standing in the doorway when her phone vibrated sharply in her hand.
MR. DUKE — CALLING
Her jaw tightened.
She answered.
“Yes?” she said coldly.
“Miss Olivia,” Duke’s voice came through low and urgent. “We need to meet. Immediately.”
Her pulse kicked. “About what?”
“I can’t say over the phone,” he replied. “But it concerns Lucas Brooks… and something we just uncovered.”
Silence.
Olivia’s fingers curled around the device.
“Where?” she asked.
“Your usual place won’t do,” Duke said. “This needs discretion. Send me your location. I’ll come to you.”
Her eyes flicked back toward her mother’s room—toward the shattered phone on the floor, toward the truth she’d tried to kill minutes ago.
“Fine,” Olivia said tightly. “Now.”
The call ended.
Olivia stared at the screen for a long moment before locking it.
Whatever Duke had found—
It was moving faster than she’d planned.