Novels by Enny's pen

Chapter 47:Back to LilyThe property came into view at the end of the driveway just after three.Judith was out of the car before it fully stopped. She did not run but she walked fast up the path and pushed the front door open.Grace appeared from the kitchen. “She is in the garden,” she said.Judith went straight through the house and out the back door.Lily was at the far end of the garden near the apple tree. She had a stick in her hand and was drawing something in the mud at the base of the tree with great concentration. She looked up when she heard the door.She dropped the stick and came running.Judith met her halfway across the grass and picked her up and held her and did not say anything for a moment. Just held her.Lily put both arms around her neck. “You came back.”“I said I would,” Judith said.“I drew you a picture,” Lily said into her shoulder. “Grace helped me put it on the fridge.”“I will look at it in a minute,” Judith said.She stood there in the cold garden holdin

Chapter 46:The InterviewThe police station was a plain building on a side street that looked like it could have been anything else. An office block. A council building. Nothing about the outside told you what happened inside.Ethan’s lawyer was waiting on the pavement when they pulled up. His name was George Farrell. Tall, late forties, the kind of man who had spent enough time in rooms like this that nothing about them made him nervous anymore. He shook hands with all three of them quickly and got straight to the point.“The detective leading the investigation is called Marsh,” he said. “She is experienced and she is thorough. She will be respectful but she will not leave gaps in her questions so do not leave gaps in your answers.” He looked at Judith directly. “Say what happened. In the order it happened. If you do not know something say you do not know. Do not guess.”“I understand,” Judith said.“Good.” He turned toward the entrance. “Robert’s lawyer is already inside. He came in

Chapter 45:The SwingThey went outside after breakfast.The garden was cold but bright. Proper morning light coming through the trees and the grass still wet from overnight. Grace stood in the back doorway watching them come out and then went back inside to clear the table.Lily ran straight to the swing.She climbed on and looked at Ethan. “Push me.”He came over and stood behind the swing and pushed her gently. She went forward and laughed and came back and he pushed her again.Dan stood beside Judith near the apple tree watching.“She has taken to him,” Dan said quietly.“Yes,” Judith said.“Does that bother you.”She thought about it honestly. “No,” she said. “It used to feel complicated. Now it just feels like what it is.”Dan nodded. He did not push it further.They stood there in the cold morning air watching Lily swing higher and laugh louder each time until Ethan was pushing her properly and she had her head thrown back and her feet pointed at the sky.After a while Lily call

Chapter 44Morning AfterJudith woke up before Lily.That never happened.She lay there for a moment looking at the ceiling of the small room listening to the house. Quiet. Just birds outside and the sound of the wind settling down from last night.She picked up her phone.Six forty three in the morning.Fourteen missed calls. Eight messages. Three from numbers she did not know. Two from her mother. One from Sarah. One from Robert’s lawyer. One from a number she recognised after a moment as Marcus Kane.She sat up slowly.She opened Sarah’s message first.Cassel’s name is everywhere this morning. Police confirmed late last night they are expanding the investigation. Cassel’s office issued a statement denying everything. Nobody is buying it. Call me when you are up.She opened Robert’s lawyer next.Formal submission made to the police at midnight. Recording and all documents lodged. Detective assigned to case called me at six this morning. They want to speak with you today if possible.

Chapter 43After the RecordingEthan sent everything at eleven fifteen.Sarah responded within two minutes. She had clearly not been sleeping. Three words.I have it.Robert’s lawyer responded four minutes after that. Longer message. He had read everything quickly and was already making calls. He would be at the police station first thing in the morning with the full package. Cassel’s name. The documents. The recording. Everything.Ethan put the laptop to one side and sat back.Nobody moved for a while.Grace came to the kitchen doorway at some point, looked at the four of them around the table and went to put the kettle on without being asked. She made tea and put the cups down and went back to the sitting room. No questions. No comments. Just tea.Judith wrapped both hands around her cup.The kitchen was warm. Outside the wind had picked up a little and she could hear it moving through the trees at the edge of the garden. Inside everything was still.Dan was the first one to speak.

Chapter 42The EnvelopeElena got in the front seat and the driver pulled away immediately.Ethan opened the envelope.Inside were four documents folded together and a small memory card taped to the back of the last page. He unfolded everything carefully and held the first page under the light from his phone.Dan leaned over to read it at the same time.Judith watched their faces.Dan sat back first. “It is real,” he said quietly.Ethan kept reading. He went through all four pages slowly without saying anything. Then he held up the memory card.“This is the recording,” he said. “Cassel and my father. Four days before Gerald Thompson died.”The car was quiet.“We need a laptop,” Dan said.“Grace has one at the property,” Elena said from the front. “I saw it on the kitchen counter this morning.”“How long until we get back,” Judith asked.“Forty minutes,” the driver said. First words he had spoken all evening.Judith looked out of the window at the dark city going past.Peter Cassel. A

Chapter 5The Miracle and the WarningElara’s POVThe fluorescent lights of the university lab hummed overhead as I hunched over my laptop and stacks of genetic data. It was past midnight, and the building was nearly empty except for the night security guard who occasionally peeked in. My final doctoral research project—mitochondrial gene therapy targeting rare X-linked disorders—was so close to completion I could taste it.Months of hard work had led to this. Late nights after Jordan was asleep, cSleepless weekends, and stolen hours between lectures and patient consults. Voss Maternal Health was growing steadily, but this research… This could define my legacy.I rubbed my tired eyes and stared at the latest results on the screen. The simulated models were clear. The Blackthorne family curse—the rare genetic condition that had wiped out nearly every male heir for three generations through progressive mitochondrial failure—was not incurable. My therapy could repair the defective path

Chapter 4A new dawnElara’s POVThe private jet Victor arranged touched down in a quiet city far from New York’s glittering cage. I didn’t care that the air smelled different or that the accent of the cab driver was unfamiliar. All that mattered was the warm weight of Jordan sleeping against my chest in the soft carrier, his tiny heartbeat steady and trusting. I had held him tighter, my lips pressed to his dark, downy hair, whispering the same vow like a prayer.“You are mine, Jordan. Not his. Never his.”The first month tested every limit I thought I had. With nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars—thanks to what I had siphoned during the marriage and the unexpected help from Victor—I rented a modest two-bedroom apartment in a leafy suburban neighborhood where families minded their business. It wasn’t luxury, but it was safe, warm, and ours. Sunlight filtered through cheap curtains onto hardwood floors that creaked softly underfoot. I furnished it with second-hand finds: a st

Chapter 3Finding myselfI didn’t allow the tears in my eye to drop.I let my body respond just enough to satisfy him while my mind sharpened into something cold and focused. Every grunt, every brutal thrust made me remember what I meant to him.“a breeding vessel”That was the only value I held in his eyes. When he finally finished and rolled off me without saying a word, I turned on my side, facing away, pretending to fall asleep until his breathing deepened.I knew within me that the next seven months are going to be hell wrapped in silk and lies.I became the perfect wife on the surface. I smiled when he glanced at me, cooked his favorite meals, and spread my legs without complaint whenever he wanted. But every spare second I had, I worked. I siphoned small amounts of cash into hidden accounts. I contacted shady brokers using burner phones I bought with grocery money. I studied new identities, memorized escape routes, and whispered promises to the baby growing inside me every singl

Chapter 2: Breeding VesselIt's been two months since that cold, rainy night when I signed my soul away in Blackthorne Tower. Two months of learning how to breathe in this luxurious prison. I stood barefoot in the master bathroom, the marble cold beneath my feet, staring at the five pregnancy tests lined up on the counter. Every single one displayed two bold pink lines. Positive. Undeniably positive.A baby was coming I felt happy and sad at the same time.My fingers trembled as I pressed both palms gently against my still-flat stomach. A wave of nausea that had nothing to do with morning sickness rolled through me, quickly replaced by something warmer—something dangerously close to hope. For the first time since I had stood shaking in that white dress, signing the contract that sold my body for one year, real light flickered inside my chest.This child could change everything.Damien needed an heir. I had read that clause carefully, even though the words had blurred through my tear

Chapter 1The ContractI never thought I’d sell my soul for medicine and a few more months with my mother—but here I was, shaking like a leaf outside Blackthorne Tower while it rained throughout New York streets One year. Sign the papers. Save Mom. Then disappear.The words echoed in my head like a desperate prayer I no longer believed in. My cheap coat clung to my skin, soaked and heavy, while I gripped the simple white dress they’d instructed me to bring. On the other hand, my phone burned with the latest hospital notification—the one that listed another $28,000 in unpaid bills. My fourteen-year-old sister, Lily, had cried herself to sleep again last night. I could still hear her suppressed sobs through our thin apartment walls. Dad had abandoned us years ago, and there was no extended family, no safety net, nothing. Only this.Even if this door led straight to the devil, I had to walk through it.I took a deep breath that did nothing to calm my racing heart and stepped inside.