Chapter 11 - HE LET IT HAPPENMaris agreed to lunch with Julian two weeks later.
Only because Eden liked him.
Apparently babies did not hold grudges on behalf of mothers.
Julian arrived with a stuffed dolphin.
Maris stared.
“You’re bribing my child.”
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
Eden accepted.
Traitor.
They ate outside at a quiet restaurant.
Julian apologized before appetizers.
“I should have stepped in.”
“Yes.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of losing money?”
“My future.”
“Same thing in your world.”
He accepted that.
“I thought August might see you and decide everything changes.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“I still acted badly.”
Maris looked at him.
“That sounds almost adult.”
He smiled faintly.
“I’m trying.”
They ate.
Then Julian said:
“Genevieve and I were together.”
Maris stopped.
“I assumed.”
“You did?”
“She looked at you like property.”
Julian winced.
“We kept it private.”
“Why?”
“Business.”
“Romantic.”
He ignored the sarcasm.
“She cared a lot about the Rothwell deal.”
“I gathered.”
“She thinks your return threatens it.”
“My existence threatened a hotel?”
“Her access.”
Maris sighed.
“Everyone keeps assigning power to me I don’t want.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t have it.”
That was true.
Maris hated it.
Julian continued:
“You need to understand something.”
“What?”
“People believe August will put you back into the will.”
“I don’t care.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I’m beginning to.”
He looked at Eden.
“But everyone else cares.”
Maris followed his gaze.
Her daughter was chewing the dolphin’s tail.
“She shouldn’t.”
Julian understood.
The inheritance was not only about Maris.
It could become Eden’s.
The room’s whispers shifted again.
A returned daughter was one thing.
A granddaughter changed dynasty language.
Maris looked at Julian.
“If anyone uses Eden in this, I’m gone.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“Understand.”
Julian nodded.
“I do.”
They left on better terms.
Not healed.
But honest.
Outside, a photographer captured them.
By evening the image appeared online.
ELLINGTON HEIRS REUNITE.
Plural.
Maris wanted to throw her phone.
Then another article appeared.
WHO WILL INHERIT AUGUST ELLINGTON’S EMPIRE?
Eden’s photograph was included.
Maris immediately called August.
“Get her picture down.”
“I’m trying.”
“Not trying. Down.”
“My legal team is contacting—”
“I don’t care.”
“Maris.”
“She is a baby.”
“I know.”
“Then protect her privacy.”
“I will.”
Maris paused.
The word protect almost made her hang up.
August corrected himself.
“I’ll handle the publication issue. You decide everything else.”
Better.
An hour later, the article replaced Eden’s image.
Maris exhaled.
Then her phone rang.
Caleb.
She answered because it concerned Eden.
“What?”
“I saw the article.”
“Then you saw I got her photo removed.”
“I think we need to talk.”
“About?”
“Our daughter’s future.”
Maris went cold.
“Our daughter had a future before you saw August standing next to her.”
“That’s unfair.”
“No.”
“It’s accurate.”
Caleb sighed.
“I want to be more involved.”
“Great. Saturday, ten.”
“I mean legally.”
There it was.
Maris closed her eyes.
“What exactly do you want?”
“A formal arrangement.”
“We already have one.”
“I want more time.”
“You canceled four of your last six weekends.”
“That was before.”
“Before what?”
Silence.
Maris laughed.
“Say it.”
“Before I realized things were changing.”
She hung up.
At that exact moment, Genevieve received a message from Caleb.
She wants everyone to think I abandoned them.
Genevieve replied:
Can you prove otherwise?
Caleb stared at the screen.
He could not.
May you like
But he could tell a story.
Sometimes stories arrived before proof.
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