EXCLUSIVE: The Sins of BEN DAWSON: Financial Misconduct, Forgery, and Alleged Drugging Incident.By the time Cillian pulled into his driveway, the sun was up and the sky looked too calm for the storm ripping through the city of Oakland.He stormed into his house and Kent was already waiting, perched at the edge of the couch shuffling tv channels. As soon as Cillian showed up,“Well?” he asked.Cillian didn’t answer. He tossed his keys on the table and peeled off his coat slowly, like he’d just returned from battle.Sylvester stood near the windows, arms folded, face unreadable.“Where is she?” Cillian asked.“Upstairs,” Kent said. “Maloi’s with her.“Cillian exhaled and nodded, scrubbing a hand down his face.Kent’s voice lowered. “What happened?”“Nothing.”Kent blinked. “The internet is on fire and I know you have a hand in it.““I didn’t do much, Kent. I just threatened him a bit. I wanted him to know what fear tastes like.”“And how exactly did you do that?” Syl snapped, “By putt
Cillian didn’t sleep.The house was still—Benita locked in her room, the others scattered like shells after a storm. But he sat in the dark, pensively tapping his fingers on his work table.Every word from that call still rang in his mind. Ben drugging Benita. He drugged the one woman who loved him with all her heart and exploited her innocence. He made her miserable. He made her child die. How could he forgive him? This was more than just his revenge. This was beyond being wrongly imprisoned, Benita was imprisoned even though she was walking around free. “No,” Cillian shook his head. “They don’t get to walk away from this.”They don’t get to breathe easy while Benita sat on the floor trampled like a tossed rose.Cillian glanced at his wrist watch, 4:36 a.m.He stood carefully, and began to pace the corners of his study.What was the best way to make Ben suffer? Was sending him to prison enough?He glanced at the text message in his phone. He had been staring at it almost all night,
Benita pressed send.The file vanished into the digital void. The silence that followed was brittle, taut. No one moved. Even the air seemed to hesitate.Then Fiona’s phone buzzed.She was stretched out on the velvet chaise in her bedroom, a glass of wine dangling loosely between two fingers. The TV buzzed low in the background — some mindless cooking show with fake smiles and pastel-colored aprons. Her eyes were half-closed. She hadn’t slept in three days.The phone beeped a third time.She blinked, slowly, then reached for it.No subject. No message. Just an audio file.Sent from Benita Bellington.Fiona sat upright. The wineglass tilted, sloshing red across her wrist and down her silk robe. She didn’t notice.She clicked the file.Ben’s voice spilled into the room. Grainy. Desperate.“I made a mistake. I’ll end it with her. I’ll do whatever you want. Let me prove that I’ve changed, Benni. I’ll do anything.”Fiona froze.Then — she replayed it.And again.And again.By the fourth ti
If anyone had told Benita Bellington that two months ago, she would be a divorced woman with a dead child, she would shrugged and shuddered. She would have been so upset with the psychic and she would probably not forgive that psychic for as long as it took. But today, she was sitting in a room full of strangers. Strangers that she hadn’t known existed until two months ago. These strangers were her hope. Not that she relied on them to save her from the tumultuous life that had become her own, but she had come to trust that these strangers were the only people who had her best interest at heart. Cillian Dawson, a man who suddenly appeared at the hospital when Gaby was sick had become an anchor she didn’t even know she needed. And Maloi was a fierce little sister ready to tear people’s faces with her fingernails if she had to. Kent and Sylvester she hadn’t yet figured what they were but she was grateful for them. She was grateful that there were people who were in her life because
Chapter 43The door creaked open just as the sound of clinking silverware and murmured conversation drifted from the dining room. Benita stepped inside, still clutching the envelope.The house was warm. Cozy, even. She could smell roasted garlic and wine in the air. It felt like the kind of night that should’ve ended in laughter and stories — but her skin crawled. The weight in her purse might as well have been a live grenade.Her boots tapped lightly across the hardwood as she approached the dining room.Kent was mid-story, making Maloi laugh while Syl scrolled through his phone, unimpressed. Cillian sat at the head of the table — his place, now. Head bent, eyes locked on the glow of his laptop screen, fingers typing at a furious pace. He hadn’t even noticed her yet.No one had.“Someone’s watching me,” Benita said.Silence.Cillian’s hands stopped. He looked up slowly, and when their eyes met, the air between them snapped tight.Then, without ceremony, she dropped the envelope in th
From the breakfast table, they heard Cillian’s car zoom out of the driveway. Maloi pushed her chair backward and stood. “Aren’t you leaving too?”Kent nodded, “I am, I have a feeling he’s going to do something drastic.”When he pulled into the driveway of DCC, he was surprised to find the President’s parking space empty. Kent’s brows joined together in a frown of confusion. “Where did he go?”Then suddenly, his phone buzzed. He glanced at his screen. A message from Him.“Stop staring at my parking space and come up here.”Kent scoffed, looking up and there he was staring down at him with a coffee cup in hand. “You left home with so much purpose, but all you wanted was coffee?”Cillian didn’t reply, he just tossed a file in front of him. “I need everyone at the conference room.”The hum of voices in the conference room quieted instantly when Cillian walked in.He didn’t say anything at first—just walked to the head of the table with a click of his shoes that echoed too loud in th