Chapter 5: Inside the Walls
Dexter’s DNA preliminary came back faster when money and a court stamp asked it to.
Paternity consistent with Spencer Warren. Charlee’s kinship panel, ordered quietly, supported Florence’s claim at a level that made Casey exhale through her teeth. The mansion, once a museum of controlled quiet, filled with the sounds of a bottle warmer and a child asking whether superheroes lived in gated houses.
Julian arrived uninvited on the fifth evening, all concern and cufflinks. “I heard the most incredible rumor, Spence. A baby? A street child? Let me help manage the optics.”
Spencer did not offer him a drink. “You can help by surrendering your gate fob and writing down every contact you’ve had with Ortiz’s clinic.”
Julian’s smile held a second too long. “You’re exhausted. You’re not thinking about the board.”
“I’m thinking about a garbage bag,” Spencer said. “And about a password three people knew.”
The smile vanished. In its place was something older, the Warren preference for problems that disappeared when ignored. “Be careful,” Julian said softly. “Family is a fragile brand.”
After he left, Victor ordered a full credential scrub. Charlee, from the stairs, whispered, “I don’t like him.”
“Neither does Dexter’s paperwork,” Spencer said.
He stood in the foyer where the traitor’s footsteps had just faded, the letter from the blanket folded in his jacket, and understood the rain at his door had not been a random mercy.
May you like
It had been the first honest delivery
the house had received in years—
and the war for the child
who shared his eyes
had already
been walking
its halls.
