جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 100

Finn hears the voices before he sees who is speaking.He has left the breakfast room because the smell of coffee suddenly became unbearable, and he is taking the longer corridor back toward the stairs when quiet laughter reaches him from behind a half-open service door.He would have continued walking if he had not heard his own name.“Finn barely leaves the west wing.”A second voice answers, lower and amused. “Would you?”Finn stops.The service corridor is narrow, hidden behind the formal rooms used by the Stone family. Staff move through it carrying linen, food, and supplies so guests never have to notice how much work is required to make wealth look effortless.The women speaking have not noticed him.“He has guards, a private doctor, special meals,” the first says. “Even that room they prepared for the baby.”“The nursery was removed.”“Because he complained.”A small laugh follows.Finn’s fingers curl against his palm.He should walk away.He knows that.Listening will only hur

Finn returns to the nursery the next morning with Owen beside him and a determination he does not entirely understand.The room is mostly empty now. The expensive crib, dresser, blankets, clothes, and carefully arranged toys Katherine chose have been removed, but traces of her decisions remain. Cream curtains frame the windows. A thick ivory rug covers the floor. An elegant lamp stands in one corner, and the walls are still painted the pale shade someone decided would be appropriately neutral for a Stone baby.Finn stands in the doorway for several seconds.Yesterday, the emptiness felt respectful.Today, it feels unfinished.Owen looks around. “Are you sure you want to do this already?”Finn rests one hand against his stomach. “I keep acting like preparing anything means I am giving everyone permission to make plans for me.”“And now?”“Now I think refusing to prepare gives them the room to do it instead.”Owen considers that, then nods. “So what goes first?”Finn looks at the ivory

The flowers arrive just after breakfast.Finn sees them before anyone explains where they came from.A staff member stands in the entrance hall holding an enormous arrangement of white roses, pale lilies, and delicate flowers Finn does not recognize, all tied with a narrow silver ribbon. The bouquet is so carefully arranged that it looks less like something meant to brighten a room and more like something prepared to be photographed.Dean stands beside the delivery box with his phone in one hand.Everett is already there.Neither man looks pleased.Finn stops halfway down the staircase.Owen, following behind him, nearly walks into his back. “What happened?”Finn does not answer.He has already seen the card.It sits against the white flowers in a small cream envelope bearing Vera Lawson’s initials.His stomach tightens.Everett looks up and sees him.“Finn, you do not need to come down.”The words irritate him immediately.“That usually means I definitely do.”He continues down the s

Everett’s little finger rests against Finn’s.The contact is barely there.Warm skin. One quiet point of connection on the worn wooden kitchen table.It should not feel more intimate than Everett carrying him out of the alley or holding him upright on the fire stairs. It should not make Finn’s pulse climb when they have already survived a night far more physical than this.But Harborline had been fear, drugs, forced heat, and desperate choices made inside a body that no longer felt entirely his.This is different.Finn is clearheaded.He is sitting in a quiet kitchen after midnight, wearing borrowed clothes, carrying Everett’s child, and choosing not to move his hand away.Everett watches him closely.His finger does not press harder.Finn almost laughs from frustration. “You are doing it again.”Everett’s brows draw together. “Doing what?”“Waiting so carefully that I can practically hear you thinking.”“I am trying not to assume.”“That should not make me want to hit you.”A faint s

The argument begins over something stupid.Finn knows that even while they are having it.Owen wants to walk the perimeter path alone. Finn says no. Owen says he is nineteen, not nine. Finn says that has nothing to do with age when Lawson men have already tried to drag him into a car.Owen’s face hardens.“There. That again.”Finn is standing near the kitchen table with one hand pressed against the nausea twisting through his stomach. “Because it happened.”“And now it gets to decide everything I do?”“It decides whether you wander around outside security zones.”“This whole place is a security zone.”“For a reason.”Owen laughs bitterly. “You sound like Everett.”The comparison lands badly.Finn straightens. “Do not do that.”“Why? Because you know I’m right?”“I know I watched someone grab you in an alley.”“And I remember you hitting him with a pipe and nearly collapsing afterward. You do not get to use that night only when it proves your point.”Finn’s pulse rises.“Owen.”“I need