This was a man who planned, carefully, several moves ahead, and who saw a mother and her child not as people but as obstacles to be studied and removed.

I held Theodore a little tighter that night, and I understood that we were not merely near a dangerous situation.

We were inside it.

Chapter 14 — Brandon

“You have never spoken about the child’s father,” Raymond said gently, still watching my sleeping son.

It was not a demand, only a quiet observation, an open door I could walk through or not.

I felt the old tightness rise in my chest, the one that came whenever that particular wound was touched.