جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 90

Finn finds the nursery by accident.He has been walking because sitting still makes his thoughts louder. Dr. Bishop told him to rest, and he has tried. He spent nearly an hour in bed after Everett left his room, staring at the ceiling while the Stone Group statement repeated itself inside his head.Remain committed.Both families continue to support the alliance.Long-term future.Eventually, the words become unbearable.So Finn walks.The estate is quieter in the afternoon. Owen is downstairs with Dean, learning which exits are safe and which doors lead only to staff corridors. Finn suspects Dean invented the task because Owen needs something useful to do.Finn needs something useful too.Instead, he discovers an open door at the end of the east corridor.At first, he thinks it is another guest room.Then he sees the crib.He stops on the threshold.The room is small by Stone standards, though it is larger than the bedroom he and Owen shared as children. Pale walls catch the soft aft

Finn notices the ache when Vera’s photograph appears on the television.He is not watching the news.Owen is.Finn has been sitting near the window with Rachel’s evidence folder closed beside him, trying to eat crackers before nausea makes another argument with his stomach, when the screen changes from financial headlines to a photograph he already knows too well.Everett.Vera.Standing side by side beneath bright event lights.The same polished distance between their bodies. The same elegant smile on Vera’s face. The same public story attached beneath the image.STONE-LAWSON ENGAGEMENT REMAINS ON SCHEDULEPain twists beneath Finn’s ribs.He inhales sharply.The cracker slips from his fingers.Owen turns immediately. “Finn?”“I’m fine.”He is not.The pain is strange, deeper than nausea and sharper than ordinary stress. It begins beneath his sternum and spreads toward his stomach in a slow, pulling ache, as if something inside him has tightened around an invisible thread.Finn presse

Finn cannot sleep.The nausea wakes him before midnight, sudden enough that he barely reaches the bathroom before his stomach twists painfully. Nothing comes up except water and the few crackers he managed after dinner, but his body keeps trying until his arms shake against the edge of the sink.When it finally passes, he feels too restless to return to bed.Owen is asleep in the adjoining room, and Finn does not want to wake him. The estate is silent at this hour, the hallways dimmed, the guards positioned far enough away that he can almost pretend he is simply walking through a large house rather than a protected compound.He ends up in the library.The fire has burned low, leaving a warm glow across the shelves. Finn curls into the corner of the sofa with a blanket over his legs and closes his eyes.He hears Everett before he sees him.Not footsteps.Scent.That deep, familiar warmth reaches him from the doorway, and Finn’s body responds with immediate, humiliating awareness.Evere

Dr. Bishop places the bracelet on the table between them.Finn stares at it as if she has set down another contract.It is nothing like the thick hospital bands he remembers from charity clinics. This one is narrow, dark, and almost plain, with a small metal plate no wider than his thumb. There is no bright Omega designation, no Stone name, and nothing that announces pregnancy to anyone who happens to look.That should make it easier.It does not.“What is it?” he asks.“A medical alert bracelet.”“I can see that.”Dr. Bishop gives him a patient look. “Then we are making progress.”Finn does not smile.Everett stands near the window, several feet away from both of them. He had come in only because Dr. Bishop said the bracelet involved emergency security protocols, and Finn had allowed him to stay. Since then, Everett has kept quiet.His silence feels different now.Less like avoidance.More like an effort not to take over.Finn picks up the bracelet between two fingers. “I do not want

Finn notices the missing guard before he notices anything else.He opens his bedroom door after lunch, expecting the usual quiet presence somewhere along the corridor. Not directly outside anymore, but near enough that he can always hear a radio murmur or the soft shift of shoes against the floor.Today, the hallway is empty.Finn stands on the threshold for several seconds.His first reaction is fear.It comes so quickly that he hates himself for it. He looks toward the stairs, then toward Owen’s room, then at the corner where one of Dean’s men usually waits. Nothing moves. No guard appears to explain. No alarm sounds.Finn steps back into the room and reaches for the clean phone.Before he calls anyone, he sees a folded note on the small table beside the door.Dean’s handwriting is brief.Hallway monitoring removed at Everett’s instruction. Security remains on the estate perimeter. Interior guards return only during an active threat.Finn reads it twice.Then once more.His chest ti