THE DRIVE TO THE RENTAL HOUSE

Ella didn’t look at her father. She didn’t look at her mother.

Her wide, terrified eyes were locked entirely on the silver watch in her small hands.

“Ella, go back to your room,” Lauren said, her voice shaking as she moved to block her daughter from Eric’s view.

“No!” Eric lunged forward. “That’s my kid. You can’t keep her in a house where she’s drawing pictures of strangers in the garden. I’m taking her.”

Gabriel stepped perfectly into Eric’s path.

“You aren’t taking anyone.”

“I’m her father!” Eric shouted, stepping up to Gabriel’s chest. “Sloane warned me you’d pull this. She told me to bring the police if I had to.”

“Then call them,” Gabriel said, not moving an inch. “Call them and explain why you’re trespassing on a property registered under my holding company, assaulting my daughter.”

Eric hesitated. The bravado faltered. He looked past Gabriel, his eyes darting to me.

“You were there,” Eric pointed at me. “You saw Sloane tell me to come here.”

“I saw Sloane tell you an address,” I said, keeping my voice steady despite the adrenaline making my hands shake. “And I saw you block the pool house door so I couldn’t leave.”

Eric’s jaw tightened. He realized the trap Sloane had set for him. She hadn’t just sent him here; she had made sure he looked like an intruder, while giving him enough false confidence to break the law.

“She set me up,” Eric muttered, backing away slowly. “She gave me the drawing so I’d panic and come take the kid. She wanted me to look like a kidnapper.”

Gabriel watched him carefully. “Why would she do that?”

“Because of what I know about the night your first wife died,” Eric spat out.

The entire room went dead silent.

Lauren gasped, covering her mouth.

Gabriel’s face lost all its color. His first wife—Lauren’s mother—had died in a tragic boating accident fifteen years ago.

“Get out,” Gabriel said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.

“Ask your new fiancée where she was that weekend,” Eric said, walking toward the broken front door. “She wasn’t in New York like she claimed. She was at the marina.”

Eric stepped out into the freezing rain and disappeared into his car.

Lauren sank to the floor, pulling Ella into her lap. She was shaking uncontrollably. “Dad... what is he talking about? Sloane didn’t even know you back then.”

Gabriel didn’t answer. He walked slowly down the hallway and knelt beside Ella.

“Where did you get that, sweetheart?” Gabriel asked gently, pointing to the watch.

Ella sniffled, holding it out. “The lady gave it to me.”

“Which lady?”

“The one in the big house. She said if I heard the bad man in the garden, I should press the button and he would go away.”

I stepped closer. The watch wasn’t a toy. It was an expensive, heavy men’s chronograph.

Gabriel turned it over. On the back, engraved in the silver, were three initials: E. T. M.

Eric Thomas Tanner. It was Eric’s watch.

“Sloane gave this to her,” I realized out loud. “She told Ella there was a bad man in the garden, and gave her Eric’s watch. She deliberately planted the idea that Eric was stalking the estate, so Ella would draw those pictures.”

Gabriel stood up, the watch gripped tightly in his fist.

Sloane hadn’t just manipulated Eric tonight. She had been orchestrating a psychological campaign against a three-year-old child to ensure Eric would lose his custody battle, cementing Lauren’s dependence on Gabriel’s money—money Sloane intended to control.

“Lauren, pack a bag for Ella,” Gabriel ordered, pulling out his phone. “You’re coming back to the estate. Both of you.”

“I can’t go back there,” Lauren cried. “Not with Sloane.”

“Sloane won’t be staying,” Gabriel said coldly.

He dialed his head of security. “Martin. Have Mrs. Davis pack Miss Whitaker’s belongings. Leave her bags at the front gate.”

Gabriel listened for a second. His brow furrowed.

“What do you mean she’s gone?” Gabriel asked.

I felt a chill run down my spine.

Gabriel put the phone on speaker. Martin’s voice filled the quiet living room.

“Sir, the police just arrived at the estate. Sloane called them twenty minutes ago. She told them you left in a rage to attack Eric Tanner, and she feared for his life.”

Gabriel looked at me.

We were standing in a house with a broken door, shattered glass on the floor, and Gabriel was holding Eric’s watch.