Chapter 8: Face to Face with Adrian Sterling

Adrian's assistant, Trevor Chase, had clearly been waiting a while. "Miss Ashford, this way, please."

Lily nodded politely, took Toby's hand, and followed him into Sterling Manor.

They crossed a living room with ceilings soaring more than thirty feet overhead and stopped in front of a black leather sofa.

Trevor gestured for her to sit. "Please wait here, Miss Ashford. Mr. Sterling is upstairs in his study I'll let him know you've arrived."

"Of course. Thank you."

Lily settled onto the sofa and pulled Toby down beside her.

Toby craned his neck up at the chandelier hanging what looked like ten feet above them, whispering, "Mom, this place is so pretty!"

She smiled and gave his ear a gentle pinch. "It is."

"Is the person who lives here one of your friends?" he asked.

"Not exactly a friend," she said. "Someone who helped me. And also your"

She didn't get to finish.

Footsteps sounded from the stairs above.

Lily rose quickly.

She turned just as Adrian's legs came into view first long, powerful, sheathed in perfectly tailored trousers.

His footsteps on the carpeted stairs were unhurried, neither loud nor soft, and yet they carried an unmistakable weight of authority.

He descended slowly.

Then his face came into view sharp, angular, cut with the kind of severe beauty that looked almost deliberate.

"Sit," he said simply, reaching the bottom of the stairs.

Lily sat back down, posture stiff and careful, pulling Toby into her lap as she did.

Toby stared up at Adrian with wide eyes. "Uncle, thank you for helping my mom. You're really nice."

A faint smile crossed Adrian's mouth. "You're Toby, aren't you?"

Toby nodded enthusiastically.

Adrian glanced at Trevor, who stepped forward at once. "Toby, want to come see the puppies out back?"

Puppies!

Toby's whole face lit up.

He looked pleadingly at Lily.

She understood Adrian wanted to speak with her alone. She nodded. "Go ahead, sweetheart."

Trevor scooped him up and carried him out of the room.

The moment they were alone, Lily pulled a small gift box from her bag and slid it across to Adrian. "This is just a small token of thanks for helping me that night, and for being willing to part with something you'd already won. I hope you'll accept it."

Adrian glanced down at it. A slim, elegant box.

A fountain pen, probably.

He made a low sound of acknowledgment, then said, flat and cold, "I want custody of Toby back."

Even though she'd braced herself for this, hearing it out loud still tightened something in her chest.

*Well. The thank-yous are done. Now the real fight starts.*

Lily folded her hands in her lap. "Since you say you're Jonathan's brother where were you when he was sick? Where were you when he died?"

Her tone stayed polite, formal. Her words carried no such courtesy.

Adrian's eyes settled on her face dark, still, unreadable as standing water. His mouth barely moved. "No comment."

Lily straightened her spine, sitting like a student called on in class. "You can't even answer a question about your own brother. Why should I trust you to raise his son?"

Adrian let out a short laugh, more startled than amused.

It had been a long time since anyone had spoken to him with that much open skepticism.

The sound of his laugh made Lily instinctively shrink back but she caught herself and straightened again, spine tall beneath her sweater. "Jonathan and I were legally married there's a marriage certificate on record. After he passed, I became Toby's first-priority legal guardian. That status hasn't lapsed."

Something flickered across Adrian's fingers, a brief pause.

His brow arched, sharp and imperious. "Did your homework, did you?"

"Yes, I did," Lily said firmly.

Adrian said nothing.

She pressed on. "And before he died, Jonathan asked me more than once to see Toby raised to adulthood."

Beyond the law, there's still what's owed between people.

Legally, she had the marriage certificate.

Morally, she had a dying man's last wish.

The whole argument had taken less than three minutes to deliver. She'd spent three full days rehearsing it.

Adrian stood, walked to the window, and looked out with that same still, fathomless expression. "Miss Ashford. Did it ever occur to you that your husband might cheat, before you married him?"

Color flooded Lily's pale face, anger sparking behind her eyes.

That's a low blow, and he knows it.

Her voice sharpened. "Mr. Sterling, that's a bit much. Technically, you should be calling me sister-in-law."

The words were out before she could stop them.

A chill ran down her spine the instant she heard herself say it.

Why did I say that?

Adrian looked genuinely caught off guard.

A beat later, he laughed. "Sister-in-law?"

He said it slowly, deliberately, watching the flush on her face deepen into something closer to crimson.

Lily pressed her lips together. "Mr. Sterling, the only reason I'm fighting you on this is that Toby has been with me since he was small. I've raised him for three years. I'm worried you won't be able to give him what he needs"

Adrian cut her off with a low chuckle, crossing the room toward her. "And if I can't give him what he needs can you?"

"Toby's been watching a woman who shrinks from every confrontation, who swallows her own anger even when her husband cheats right in front of her. Is that really the example you want him raised on? Is that what 'good care' looks like?"

It was the most Adrian had said to her in one breath since they'd met.

And every word of it landed true.

Lily went silent, the words striking somewhere she had no defense for.

The tip of her nose flushed red without her permission.

Her voice came out hoarse. "I'm getting a divorce. Just not yet."

Adrian caught the opening instantly. "Then until you do, Toby stays with me."

She choked on her response.

He studied her silence, then continued, "Besides he should get to actually experience both options. Only then will he know what each of us can really offer him. Don't you think?"

He looked, for a moment, exactly like the man who'd walked into that auction house untouchable, composed, waiting on her answer without a flicker of urgency.

Lily twisted her hands together in her lap, knuckles going white.

Even the faint trace of cedar and clean linen clinging to him felt like pressure bearing down on her.

"Mom!"

Toby came barreling back into the room, bouncing into her arms. "Mom, the big dog out back is taller than me! It's so cool!"

Lily caught him easily, pressed a kiss to the top of his head, and gestured toward Adrian. "Toby, this is your uncle."

Toby blinked up at him.

Do children start to resemble whoever raises them? Adrian wondered, watching. Toby wasn't Lily's biological son, and yet that same wide-eyed, unreadable expression was unmistakably hers.

Lily took a breath and pushed on. "He's your dad's younger brother."

Toby looked away, suddenly shy, and burrowed deeper into her arms.

She stroked his hair gently. "Toby Mommy's going to be really busy with work for a little while. What if your uncle looked after you for a bit?”