Novels by Blessing Jacob

Dominic Steele"Everything's here," Lena said quietly, sliding the final folder into her bag as we walked toward the council hall. "Payment records, dates, cross-referenced with Mrs. Harrow's access logs, plus the two additional staff members. It's airtight.""You're certain about the second names.""Confirmed yesterday. One in housekeeping, one in groundskeeping. Both receiving secondary payments from the same property management shell Gerald used for Harrow." She matched my pace. "Three people inside this household, on his payroll, feeding him information for years."I nodded once, pushed open the heavy doors.The council hall was the oldest formal room in the villa, dark wood, high windows, a long table that had hosted every significant pack decision for four generations. Seven chairs around it, six already filled. Gerald sat near the centre, composed, a folder of his own in front of him, looking like a man entirely at ease with whatever was about to happen.Aldric sa

Lena"You're back," I said, not looking up from the file I was organising. "I thought you were in the building until further notice.""I left it with two of Dominic's vetted people," Rowan said, setting his bag down inside the small office off the main hallway. "Council vote is coming faster than expected. He wants me here for that, not standing outside an apartment building watching a car that's already been identified.""Helena Voss's car.""That one." He pulled the second chair around to my side of the desk, which he had no reason to do, which he did anyway, the way he always positioned himself when we worked, close enough to see the documents, not close enough to be accused of anything. "Brief me. Everything you've got on Aldric's contacts, the two undecided council members, Erik's standing."I pulled three folders toward me, opened the first. "Aldric has thirty years on the council, strong relationships with both undecided members, Castellan and Brooke.

Dominic Steele"You need to hear all of it," I said, closing the study door behind her. "Not the version that makes it easier to sit with. All of it."Sophie stood near the desk, arms crossed, already braced for something. She had that stillness she wore when she was preparing to absorb a blow without letting it show. I had learned to recognise it over the past three days. I hated that I had learned to recognise it."Tell me," she said.So I did."Gerald is going to take the question of Ethan's standing to a full council vote. Not the informal version from yesterday's meeting. A formal motion, on record, requiring documentation and proof of the bond." I kept my voice level, factual, the way I delivered anything that needed to be heard clearly rather than softened. "Aldric will support it. Two more council members are already leaning his way. If it passes, you'll be required to appear before the council, prove the bond publicly, and Ethan's status becomes a matter of

Vivienne Steele"Close the door, Gerald."He did, then turned from the door with the ease of a man who had never once in his life walked into a room and felt unwelcome in it. He looked at me across Richard's study, took in the fact that I was seated behind Richard's desk, not in front of it, assessed this, adjusted."Vivienne." He settled into the chair across from me, crossed one leg over the other, relaxed. "You look like you haven't slept.""I haven't," I said. "Sit properly, please. This isn't a social visit."Something shifted in his expression, and I could easily tell it was not an alarm. Gerald did not alarm easily. A recalibration, the adjustment of a man who had expected a different kind of room, a different Vivienne, the one he had been managing successfully for thirty-four years."You called Helena Voss," I said.He didn't flinch. "I reached out to someone who has an interest in how this situation resolves. That's not unusual.""Helena Voss," I repeated, "aba

Dominic Steele"Helena Voss," Lena repeated over the phone, her voice stripped of everything except information. "The car is registered to a property holding company she set up six years ago. It's her current legal name, her current address in the registration. She's been using Erik's network, not Gerald's. Separate line entirely.""They know each other," I said."I'm finding the connection now. It goes back further than Gerald. She was involved with the Steele family commercially before she married Richard. She may have had a relationship with Gerald that predates everything."I stood at the window of Richard's study, the house dark outside, the grounds empty. "Does Sophie know yet?""Lena sent her the message twenty minutes ago," Rowan cut in on the second line. "The woman hasn't approached the building. She's watching. Just watching.""Keep your eyes on her," I said. "Don't move on her yet. I want to know what she's doing before we spook her into doing it faster

Sophie Steele"Mummy!"The voice came through before I'd even gotten the phone fully to my ear, loud enough that I had to adjust my grip, loud enough that I felt the sound land somewhere warm in my chest before I'd processed a single word."Hi, baby." I stepped further into the garden, away from the villa's windows, away from anything that needed my attention for the next few minutes. "Are you being good for Miriam?""I'm always good," Ethan said, with the complete confidence of someone who had never once considered an alternative possibility. "When are you coming home?""Soon," I told him. "I have a few more things to finish here.""What things?""Grown-up things.""That's not an answer," he said, which was true, and also exactly the kind of thing he'd started saying lately, picked up from somewhere, deployed with devastating accuracy.I laughed. "You're right. It's not.""Did you eat your vegetables?" he asked, switching topics with the speed only a six-year-old could