Chapter 54 Scared
Rowan
We don’t speak on the drive back.
Not because there’s nothing to say—but because there’s too much, and none of it belongs in a car where she’s already holding herself together by force alone.
Violet sits in the passenger seat, spine straight, hands folded in her lap like she’s bracing for impact. Her face is dry now. Too dry. The kind of calm that comes after something breaks so deeply it stops screaming.
When we pull up to Ashcroft Industries, she’s the one who reaches for the door first.
“I’ll be fine,” she says, before I can stop her.
I don’t argue. Arguing would break the illusion she’s built for herself, and right now that illusion is the only thing keeping her upright.
We walk in together.
The lobby notices immediately.
Conversations die mid-sentence. Phones pause. Camille looks up from her desk and freezes, eyes flicking from Violet’s face to mine.
Violet doesn’t slow.
She takes her seat. Logs in. Straightens a stack of papers that don’t need straightening.
And just like that, the machine starts running again.
I don’t say anything. I don’t touch her. I don’t ask if she’s okay.
I just keep walking.
Once I’m in my office, I close the door and immediately hit the intercom.
“Theo. Now.”
He’s there in under thirty seconds, already reading my face like a problem he doesn’t like the answer to.
“Okay,” he says carefully. “That look usually means someone’s about to lose their job or their kneecaps. Which one?”
“My mother-in-law equivalent just died,” I say flatly.
Theo blinks. “What?”
“Violet’s mother,” I clarify. “Another stroke. Didn’t make it.”
His expression drops instantly. “Jesus. Is she—”
“She’s at her desk,” I cut in. “Working.”
Theo swears under his breath and sinks into the chair across from me. “That’s not normal.”
“No,” I agree. “It’s not.”
I pull the laptop toward me and slide it across the desk so he can see the paused frame on the screen.
The hallway. The stretcher. The timestamp.
Theo leans forward. “Is that—”
“The rehab center,” I say. “Security footage.”
I hit play.
The video shows the corridor outside Violet’s mother’s room. A nurse steps out. Then Calder appears in frame. Plain clothes. Badge visible. Too visible.
He talks to someone off-camera.
Then Violet’s mother is screaming.
Theo’s jaw tightens. “That son of a bitch.”
I pause the video at the exact moment Calder turns toward the camera.
“There,” I say. “That’s when it happened. Staff confirmed he told her about Evan.”
Theo exhales slowly, like he’s trying not to put his fist through my desk. “You’re telling me a detective informed a stroke patient of her son’s death without medical clearance.”
“Yes.”
“And triggered the stroke that killed her.”
“Yes.”
Theo drags a hand down his face. “That’s not just dirty. That’s criminal.”
I nod once. “I’m sending this to the PI.”
I forward the file immediately, encrypted, no trail.
Theo watches the progress bar fill. “So what now?”
“Now,” I say, standing, “I keep Violet where I can see her.”
He follows my gaze through the glass wall.
She’s on the phone again. Calm voice. Efficient. Redirecting a call to legal like nothing in the world has changed.
Theo swallows. “She shouldn’t be here.”
“She insisted.”
“And you let her.”
“Yes.”
He looks at me carefully. “You’re scared.”
I don’t deny it.
“I don’t lose control,” I say quietly. “Not like this.”
Theo nods slowly. “Then don’t. Protect what matters.”
My eyes stay on Violet.
“That’s the plan.”
Outside, she laughs softly at something Camille says. The sound is wrong—too light for someone carrying that much weight.
Theo doesn’t say anything at first.
He just leans back in the chair, folds his arms, and looks at me like he’s spotted a crack in a load-bearing wall.
Then—
“Mother-in-law,” he repeats slowly.
I don’t look at him.
I’m still watching Violet through the glass. She’s rerouting a call, fingers moving fast, posture perfect, voice steady in that way that fools everyone except the people who actually know her.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” I say.
Theo snorts. “You absolutely meant it like that.”
I finally turn. “I misspoke.”
“You don’t misspeak,” he says. “You miscalculate. There’s a difference.”
I glare at him. “Drop it.”
“Oh, I would,” he says cheerfully, “if you hadn’t just emotionally adopted your assistant’s dead mother into your nonexistent family tree.”
“That’s not what happened.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Then explain it.”
I open my mouth.
Nothing comes out.
Theo’s smile widens. “Yeah. Thought so.”
I scrub a hand over my face. “It was a figure of speech.”
“You don’t use figures of speech,” he counters. “You use contracts.”
I shoot him a warning look. “Theo.”
He leans forward, elbows on his knees now, voice lowering. “Rowan. You said it without thinking. That’s the problem.”
I scoff. “I think about everything.”
“No,” he says gently. “You control everything. That’s not the same thing.”
I turn back to the glass.
Violet sets her phone down, exhales once, then straightens like she’s bracing herself before picking up the next call. Camille watches her for half a second too long, concern flickering across her face.
My chest tightens.
“Stop looking at her like that,” Theo mutters.
“Like what.”
“Like you’re trying to memorize her in case she disappears.”
I laugh once, sharp and humorless. “Don’t be dramatic.”
Theo huffs. “You hired a PI. Installed security. Gave her a driver, bodyguards, a new phone, a panic system, and your personal attention. You threatened a councilwoman and a police department. You just watched a woman’s mother die and your first instinct was to bring her back here where you can keep her safe.”
I don’t respond.
“And now,” he continues, “you accidentally called her mother your mother-in-law.”
Silence stretches.
Finally, I say, “I’m under a lot of stress.”
Theo laughs outright. “Oh, fuck off.”
I glare at him again, but there’s no heat behind it now. Just exhaustion.
“You’re in love with her,” he says bluntly.
“No.”
“You’re obsessed with her.”
“No.”
“You can’t function without her.”
I open my mouth to deny it—and stop.
Because that one lands.
Hard.
Theo watches the realization hit me in real time. He doesn’t gloat. Doesn’t smile.
He just nods.
“There it is.”