Chapter 5
The hospital room was too bright.
That was Nia's first thought.
Her second was that contractions hurt far more than anyone had adequately explained.
Her third was that her father paced like a guilty man awaiting sentencing.
"Sit down," she muttered.
Charles stopped.
"I'm fine."
She gave him a look.
Lauren laughed quietly from the chair beside the window.
Charles noticed.
"What?"
"She hates when people say that."
Nia looked at Lauren.
"Don't get comfortable."
Lauren immediately stopped smiling.
Nia sighed.
"I was joking."
"Oh."
"Mostly."
Lauren nodded.
That awkward exchange should have been nothing.
But it was the first almost-normal conversation the sisters had shared in years.
Neither knew what to do with it.
A nurse entered and checked the monitors.
Nia watched her carefully.
"Tell me the truth."
The nurse smiled.
"I always do."
"Is she coming?"
The nurse glanced at the screen.
"Your contractions have slowed since we gave you medication."
Nia exhaled.
"And the fluid?"
"We're still evaluating whether your membranes fully ruptured or whether you had a smaller leak."
"So?"
"So we're buying time."
Nia rested her head against the pillow.
"How much?"
"Every hour helps."
The nurse adjusted the monitor strapped around her belly.
"The baby's heart rate looks strong."
Charles finally breathed.
Nia noticed.
She looked away before he could see that she had.
The nurse left.
Silence returned.
Then Nia's phone buzzed.
Malik.
She answered on video.
His face appeared immediately.
He was sitting on the edge of a hotel bed in Savannah.
"Show me the monitor."
Nia rolled her eyes.
"Hello to you too."
"Hi. I love you. Show me the monitor."
She turned the phone.
He stared at the lines like he could understand them through sheer force of anxiety.
"She's okay?"
"Doctor says yes."
"You're okay?"
"Currently."
He exhaled.
Then he noticed Charles.
"Oh."
Charles lifted one hand.
"Hello, Malik."
Malik stared at him.
"Mr. Whitmore."
Charles's face fell slightly.
"We've been over this."
"We have."
"But you're still calling me Mr. Whitmore."
"Correct."
Nia covered her face.
"Can we not do this while I'm connected to three machines?"
Lauren stared at Malik through the screen.
They had met once.
It had not gone well.
Lauren had been defensive.
Malik had been protective.
Neither had tried particularly hard.
Malik noticed her.
"Lauren."
"Hi."
"You okay?"
Lauren blinked.
Apparently she hadn't expected him to ask.
"Yeah."
Malik raised an eyebrow.
"No, you're not."
Lauren looked down.
Nia watched her husband.
He had an irritating habit of seeing people clearly.
Sometimes before they were ready.
"Grant got released by airport security," Charles said.
Nia's head snapped toward him.
"You didn't tell me that."
"Because the doctor said to reduce stress."
"And you thought hiding things from me was the correct way to accomplish that?"
Charles winced.
Malik groaned.
"Sir, you really haven't learned anything today?"
Charles rubbed his face.
"Apparently not."
Lauren stood.
"Released how?"
"They took statements. Nia hasn't decided whether she wants to press charges."
Nia looked at him.
"Can I?"
Charles nodded.
"There are witnesses. Video."
Lauren's arms wrapped around herself.
"Where is he?"
Charles hesitated.
Nia narrowed her eyes.
"Dad."
"He rented a car."
Lauren went pale.
"To go where?"
Charles looked at her.
"Home, I assume."
"The wedding house?"
"Lauren—"
"My dress is there."
Charles said nothing.
Lauren grabbed her purse.
Nia sat up.
"Where are you going?"
"I need my things."
"No."
Lauren stared.
Nia pointed at the chair.
"Sit down."
"Nia, I can't just—"
"You told Dad you're afraid of him."
Lauren looked at the floor.
"Sometimes."
"Sometimes is enough."
"I can take security."
Charles immediately said, "I'll send someone."
Lauren shook her head.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I don't want everyone knowing."
Nia stared at her.
"Knowing what?"
Lauren's eyes filled.
"That I stayed."
The room went quiet.
Nia softened.
Lauren looked at the engagement ring on her hand.
"People think women stay because they're stupid."
"No."
Lauren looked at her.
Nia shook her head.
"Some people think that."
Malik's voice came softly from the phone.
"They're wrong."
Lauren wiped her eyes.
"He wasn't always like this."
Nia said nothing.
"He was incredible at first."
Her voice became distant.
"He remembered everything. My coffee order. My favorite restaurant. The name of a professor I hated in college."
Charles sat slowly.
Lauren continued.
"He'd send flowers to my office for no reason."
She laughed bitterly.
"At least I thought there was no reason."
Nia listened.
"Then he started making little comments."
"What kind?"
"About my friends."
Lauren twisted the ring.
"Said they used me because of Dad's money."
Charles's jaw tightened.
"Then my clothes. Then my work."
She looked at her father.
"He hated that I reported to someone else."
Charles frowned.
"What?"
"He said it made me look weak."
Lauren laughed without humor.
"So I left the foundation."
Charles stared at her.
"You told me you wanted a break."
"I know."
"He made you quit?"
"No."
She swallowed.
"He made me feel like quitting was my idea."
Nia looked at Malik's face on the phone.
He was furious.
But he stayed quiet.
Lauren continued.
"The first time he grabbed me, he apologized for two days."
Her fingers moved to her wrist unconsciously.
"He cried."
Nia's chest tightened.
"He said he'd never forgive himself."
"And the second time?" Nia asked.
Lauren didn't answer.
Nia waited.
"The second time, he said I made him panic."
Charles's hands curled into fists.
"The third time?"
Lauren's face crumpled.
"He asked why I kept pushing him."
Charles stood abruptly.
"I'm going to kill him."
"No," Nia snapped.
He turned.
"No."
"He hurt my daughter."
"And if you go after him, Grant becomes the victim."
Charles breathed hard.
Nia held his gaze.
"Sit down."
For a moment, she saw the powerful businessman everyone else apparently feared.
Then she saw her father.
He sat.
Malik quietly said, "She's right."
Charles muttered, "I know."
Lauren stared at her ring.
"I kept thinking the wedding would calm him down."
Nia's heart broke a little.
"He told me work was stressful. Dad was demanding. Planning the wedding was expensive. The press around the company merger was getting to him."
Charles looked up.
"What merger?"
Lauren froze.
Nia noticed.
"So did I," Malik said from the phone.
Charles stared at Lauren.
"What merger?"
She swallowed.
"Grant said Halcyon was acquiring a company in Georgia."
"No."
Charles's voice was immediate.
"There is no acquisition in Georgia."
Lauren looked confused.
"He said that's why he had meetings in Savannah."
Charles went still.
"How long has he been telling you that?"
"Six months."
Nia's expression changed.
"Was that why he wanted the wedding there?"
Lauren nodded.
"He said he had to spend so much time in Savannah anyway."
Charles stood again.
This time nobody told him to sit.
He called someone.
"Rebecca. I need you to pull Grant Mercer’s expense reports for the last eighteen months."
He walked toward the corner.
"Everything."
Lauren stared.
Nia asked, "Did you ever go to these meetings?"
"No."
"He told you not to?"
Lauren nodded slowly.
"He said they were confidential."
Malik muttered something under his breath.
Nia agreed.
Charles ended the call.
His face was different.
Business mode.
But this time it wasn't intimidating.
It was frightening.
"What?"
He looked at Lauren.
"Do you have access to your joint accounts?"
She frowned.
"Our wedding account."
"Check it."
Lauren took out her phone.
She logged in.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then her eyes widened.
"What?"
She refreshed the screen.
Charles stepped closer.
"Lauren."
"The money."
Nia's stomach turned.
"What money?"
Lauren looked up.
"The wedding account had three hundred and eighty thousand dollars in it."
Nia blinked.
Malik said, "I'm sorry, how much?"
Charles ignored him.
"From where?"
"Dad gave us part of it. Grant deposited some."
Charles's face tightened.
"I transferred two hundred thousand."
Lauren stared at the screen.
"It's almost empty."
"How empty?"
She turned the phone.
"$4,812."
Charles went completely still.
Nia whispered, "Oh my God."
Lauren shook her head.
"No."
She started tapping through transactions.
"No, no, no."
Her breathing accelerated.
Nia watched the fetal monitor jump.
The nurse had told her to avoid stress.
Apparently stress had other plans.
Lauren whispered, "These transfers aren't mine."
Charles held out his hand.
She gave him the phone.
He scrolled.
His face darkened.
"Twenty-five thousand. Fifty. Forty."
Lauren leaned over.
"To what account?"
Charles read the name.
"GM Consulting."
Lauren shook her head.
"That's Grant."
Nia stared at her father.
Charles was already calling again.
"Rebecca. Add every company vendor connected to Grant Mercer."
He listened.
"No, I don't care if legal wants a warrant. Get internal audit started tonight."
Lauren stepped backward.
"He stole our wedding money?"
Charles ended the call.
"I don't know yet."
"Dad."
"I said I don't know."
But his face said he suspected.
Lauren stared at the engagement ring again.
Then she pulled it off.
She held it in her palm.
Nia watched.
Lauren's voice trembled.
"He told me it cost forty thousand dollars."
Charles looked at it.
"That ring?"
"Yes."
Charles took it.
Turned it under the hospital light.
His expression changed.
"What?"
Charles looked at Lauren.
"Honey."
"What?"
"This is not a forty-thousand-dollar diamond."
Lauren stared.
"You can't know that."
"I can."
"How?"
Charles gave a humorless laugh.
"Your grandfather owned jewelry stores before he built Halcyon."
Lauren's face went pale.
"How much?"
"I don't know."
"Guess."
Charles hesitated.
"Dad."
"Maybe five."
Lauren stared at him.
"Five thousand?"
He nodded.
Lauren's eyes filled again.
Nia expected tears.
Instead, Lauren started laughing.
Not happily.
Not even sadly.
It sounded dangerous.
"Of course."
She wiped her face.
"Of course he lied about the ring too."
Nia watched her.
"Lauren."
"No."
Lauren closed her fist around the ring.
"I spent two years making excuses for that man."
Her voice grew stronger.
"I defended him to my friends."
She looked at Charles.
"I defended him to you."
Then at Nia.
"I defended him in the airport five minutes after he shoved you."
Nia didn't correct her.
Lauren looked at the ring one last time.
Then dropped it into the hospital trash can.
Charles stared.
"What are you doing?"
"Ending my engagement."
Nia's eyes widened.
Malik said softly, "Good."
Lauren looked at Nia.
"I know this doesn't fix anything between us."
"No."
"I know you don't trust me."
"I don't."
Lauren nodded.
"But I'm done with him."
Nia studied her face.
"Good."
A tiny smile appeared through Lauren's tears.
Then Charles's phone rang.
He answered.
"Rebecca?"
His expression changed within seconds.
Nia watched him.
Lauren watched him.
Even Malik went silent.
Charles turned toward the window.
"How much?"
Pause.
"You're sure?"
Another pause.
"When?"
His shoulders stiffened.
"Send it to me."
He hung up.
Lauren whispered, "What?"
Charles didn't answer immediately.
"Dad."
He turned.
"Grant didn't just take your wedding money."
Lauren went pale.
"What did he do?"
Charles looked at both daughters.
"Internal audit found three vendors connected to companies registered at the same address as GM Consulting."
Nia felt cold.
Charles continued.
"Over the past eighteen months, Halcyon paid those vendors just over four million dollars."
Lauren covered her mouth.
Nia whispered, "Four million?"
Charles nodded.
"And Grant approved every invoice."
Lauren stared at him.
"You're saying he stole from the company?"
"I'm saying it looks like he did."
Nia closed her eyes.
The fetal monitor beeped steadily beside her.
Lauren whispered, "Where is he now?"
Charles looked at his phone.
Then at the door.
"I don't know."
At that exact moment, someone knocked.
Everyone froze.
The door opened.
A hospital security guard stepped inside.
"Mr. Whitmore?"
Charles stood.
"Yes?"
"We have a man downstairs asking for Ms. Lauren Whitmore."
Lauren's face went white.
The guard continued.
"He says he's her fiancé."
Nia sat up.
Charles's jaw tightened.
The guard looked between them.
"His name is Grant Mercer."
Lauren stared at the door.
Then she did something Nia had never seen her little sister do.
She straightened.
May you like
She wiped her tears.
And she said, "Tell him I'm not coming down."
