Chapter 2: The Bathtub
Vivienne stood beside the enormous white bathtub. The faucet ran wide open. Water spilled over the rim and poured in steady streams down the sides onto the floor. She stood ankle-deep in it, her silk gown clinging to her legs, her blonde hair fallen loose around her face.
She was not frightened. She was not sorry.
She looked calm. Too calm. Her eyes were bright and wild, and there was a smile touching her mouth that turned my blood to ice.
Inside the tub, Leo lay on a soaked towel near the shallow edge. He was sobbing, thrashing, his tiny hands reaching upward, his face flushed red with fear.
Vivienne turned her head slowly toward me.
“You came,” she whispered. The smile hardened. “For once, you came exactly when I wanted you to.”
I took one step forward, my voice barely recognizable.
“Pick him up.”
She tilted her head, blocking my path with one arm. “Why should I? You never pay attention to me unless there is a crisis. Now there is one. Look at him. Screaming for you.”
“Vivienne—”
“He gets everything,” she hissed. “Your time. Your name. Your fortune. Every bit of the love I spent years waiting for. He ruined everything.”
“He is four months old.”
“He ruined me.”
The words struck like a blow. I stared at her, and in that moment, everything polite, everything controlled, everything that kept me the composed billionaire heir—all of it shattered. I lunged forward. She reached toward Leo, as if to pull him further under, but I was faster. I knocked her hand aside, shoved her hard until she stumbled and crashed back against the vanity, gasping.
I did not spare her another glance. I reached into the water and lifted Leo into my arms. He clung to me instantly, his small fists clutching my jacket, sobbing brokenly against my chest. I wrapped him in the driest towel I could find, my hands shaking so badly I could barely fold it around him.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered into his damp hair. “Daddy’s here. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
May you like
He was soaked through. Shivering. Terrified. But he breathed. He was alive.
Behind me, Vivienne began to laugh. At first soft and breathless, then louder, jagged and poisonous.
