Novels by Morgan Zee

Clara's POVThe two men at the door didn't move. For several seconds, nobody in the room seemed to remember how to breathe, and the silence felt heavier than the hospital air around us. One of them stepped inside first, his dark suit perfectly pressed, while the other remained near the doorway and quietly closed the door behind him. Their eyes moved across the room before settling on Lucien, and the moment they recognized him, their expressions became even more formal.“Mr. Hargrove,” the older man said, his voice calm and professional. Lucien's face hardened as he looked at him. “Yes?” he replied, his tone carrying the same controlled authority he used in the boardroom. The man reached inside his jacket and pulled out his identification.“I'm Agent Miller with the Federal Financial Crimes Division, and this is Agent Brooks,” he said. “We're here regarding the ongoing investigation into Hargrove Capital and the financial transactions already under review.” Lucien didn't look surprised

Clara's POV“This is all Sarah's doing.”Eleanor's words hung between us like smoke in a closed room, heavy and impossible to wave away. I thought to myself; I would do the same if I was in her shoes. I stared at her, and I wondered why a mother would behave like this. She knew Sarah was Licien's girlfriend and Lucien brought another pregnant woman in, which she accepted without questions. That acceptance had seemed odd to me from the beginning, but I had been too afraid, too confused, and too tangled in my own situation to ask her why. Looking at her face now, I see that her expression has changed.This is seriously bad, I looked at her and I saw her hands were shaking. The trembling was small at first, just a faint flutter in her fingers, but it grew until the phone in her grip rattled against her palm. This couldn't be because of the article, this had to be something more, as she continued to stare at her phone. Her eyes did not blink. Her breathing had changed, becoming shallow an

Lucien’s POV“Am I really a prisoner, Lucien?”Clara’s question followed me out of her hospital room.It stayed with me in the hallway, in the elevator, and even after the doors opened onto the private floor of the hospital. Am I really a prisoner?I had wanted to tell her she was wrong.I wanted to tell her that every guard outside her door, every locked gate at the estate, every rule I had placed around her life existed because I was trying to keep her alive.But the truth was harder to swallow.Protection could begin to look a lot like captivity when the person being protected had never been given a choice.I reached the end of the corridor before my phone rang.Marcus.“Where are you?” he asked.“Hospital.”“Emergency conference. Now.”I stopped walking.“How bad?”There was a pause.“Bad enough that the board is already waiting.”I ended the call.By the time I entered the conference room, twenty-three people were seated around the long table. Their faces were carefully blank, bu

Clara's POV The door closed behind Lucien, leaving the room so quiet that I could hear the monitor beside my bed ticking through every second of my silence. I stared at the door. Why did he walk away like that? I was only telling the truth. I am a prisoner here, and this pregnancy is just adding to it. It is making the cage smaller, heavier, and more impossible to ignore. Every day I stay in that estate, I lose another piece of the life I had before. And he walked away as if I had said something cruel, something un real, when all I had done was to put it to him again the reality of my situation. Then my baby kicked. I did not really know if it was a kick at first. It was small, strange, like a flutter doesn't belong to me. But then it repeated, and I felt a little pressure in my abdomen, a force that made me hold my lower belly. Baby, I said softly, mummy doesn’t want to leave Daddy, but mummy has a life outside of here. Daddy won’t even allow mummy to go and see Grandma

Clara's POVThe first thing I felt was pressure against my fingers.Someone was holding my hand.I tried to move, but my body felt heavy, as if I had been asleep for weeks instead of hours. My throat was dry, my head throbbed, and a strange beeping sound kept repeating somewhere beside me.“Clara?”The voice sounded far away.I forced my eyes open.The ceiling above me was white. A clear tube ran beneath my nose, and a monitor flashed green numbers beside the bed. I turned my head slowly and found Eleanor sitting next to me, her hair loose around her shoulders and her hand wrapped tightly around mine.Her eyes widened when she saw me looking at her.“Oh, thank God.”I tried to speak.Nothing came out.Eleanor reached for the glass on the table and held a straw to my lips.“Small sip.”The water felt cold against my throat.I swallowed once, then again.“Where am I?”“The hospital.”I closed my eyes.Memory returned in pieces.The stairs.The warmth between my legs.The blood.Lucien r

Clara's POVThe first thing I felt was pressure against my fingers.Someone was holding my hand.I tried to move, but my body felt heavy, as if I had been asleep for weeks instead of hours. My throat was dry, my head throbbed, and a strange beeping sound kept repeating somewhere beside me.“Clara?”The voice sounded far away.I forced my eyes open.The ceiling above me was white. A clear tube ran beneath my nose, and a monitor flashed green numbers beside the bed. I turned my head slowly and found Eleanor sitting next to me, her hair loose around her shoulders and her hand wrapped tightly around mine.Her eyes widened when she saw me looking at her.“Oh, thank God.”I tried to speak.Nothing came out.Eleanor reached for the glass on the table and held a straw to my lips.“Small sip.”The water felt cold against my throat.I swallowed once, then again.“Where am I?”“The hospital.”I closed my eyes.Memory returned in pieces.The stairs.The warmth between my legs.The blood.Lucien r