HER SECRET HEIRS: TEN BROTHERS STAND GUARD

Chapter 3: The Shoulder Throw

Evelyn's POV

My heart stopped. The pregnancy test sat in the middle of my pillow like a bomb waiting to go off, the two pink lines facing the ceiling for anyone who walked in to see.

I crossed the room in three fast steps, grabbed it, and shoved it into the pocket of my dress. My hands were sweating. Who had been in this room? The housekeeper, Justina, cleaned every morning at eight, but she never touched the bedside drawers. That was the one rule I had made when I first moved in, and she had always followed it.

Someone had gone through my things on purpose.

I pulled open the drawer. My journal was there, my reading glasses, a small photo of Aunt Mirabel, and the envelope of cash I kept for emergencies. Everything was in place except the test.

The sound of heels clicking down the hallway made my breath catch. Tonia appeared in the doorway, leaning against the frame with her arms crossed.

"Nice room," she said. "I think I will take this one instead of the guest room. It has a better view."

"This is the master bedroom."

"Exactly." She walked inside and ran her fingers along the edge of the dresser. "Once the annulment is done, this will be mine anyway. Why wait?"

I kept my face still, but my pulse was hammering in my ears. Had she been the one who found the test? Was she playing a game, waiting for me to slip?

"Take whatever room you want," I said. "I am leaving today."

Tonia tilted her head. "You really are not going to fight for any of this? The house, the cars, the bank accounts? Sylvia said you were a gold digger, but you do not act like one."

"Sylvia does not know me."

"Nobody knows you, Evelyn. That is your problem." Tonia stepped closer. "Three years in this family, and you are still a ghost. No friends, no social circle, no presence. You just cook and clean like a maid. Why did you even bother marrying Richard?"

Because his grandmother was crying, and nobody else would say yes.

But I did not owe Tonia my reasons. I walked to the closet and pulled out my suitcase, the same one I had arrived with three years ago. It was still half empty.

Tonia followed me into the closet. "Hold on. What was that paper you grabbed from the pillow?"

My blood went cold. "It was a receipt."

"A receipt for what?"

"Groceries."

"Let me see it."

"No."

Tonia's eyes narrowed. She moved fast, grabbing for my pocket. I stepped back, but she caught the edge of my dress and pulled.

"Give it to me! If you are hiding something from Richard, I have every right to know."

Her nails dug into my wrist, and she yanked hard, trying to pry my hand open. Pain shot up my arm, and before I could think, my body moved on its own. Three years of self-defense classes that Aunt Mirabel had insisted on paying for kicked in like muscle memory. I grabbed Tonia's arm, turned my hip into her, and flipped her over my shoulder.

She hit the carpeted floor with a heavy thud and screamed.

"My back! You broke my back!"

"You grabbed me first," I said, but my voice was shaking. I had not meant to throw her that hard. The move had come out of pure panic, pure need to protect the secret in my pocket.

"Richard! Richard, help me!" Tonia screamed at the top of her lungs.

I heard footsteps pounding up the stairs, and my stomach dropped. Richard was still home?

He burst through the bedroom door in his white dress shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows, his face tight with alarm. His eyes swept the room and landed on Tonia, who lay on the floor clutching her shoulder and crying.

"What happened?" His voice was sharp enough to cut steel.

"She attacked me!" Tonia sobbed. "I came in to introduce myself and she just threw me on the ground like an animal!"

Richard looked at me. His jaw was clenched so hard I could see the muscles jumping under his skin. "Evelyn. Explain."

"She grabbed my wrist and tried to take something from my pocket. I defended myself."

"Defended yourself? She is half your strength. Look at her." He crouched beside Tonia and helped her sit up. His hand was gentle on her shoulder, and he turned her arm carefully, checking for injuries. "Can you move your fingers?"

"It hurts, Richard. It hurts so much." Tonia pressed her face into his chest, and her tears left dark spots on his white shirt.

He held her, and the sight of it burned a hole straight through my chest. Three years. Three years of marriage, and he had never held me like that. Not once. Not even on the night I sat alone in the emergency room after cutting my hand on a broken glass in the kitchen.

"Apologize," Richard said without looking at me.

"She grabbed me first, Richard. I am telling you the truth."

The housekeeper, Justina, appeared in the doorway. She looked at the scene, then looked at me, and something flickered across her face. It was gone before I could name it.

"Mr. Williams, I was in the hallway," Justina said. "I saw Mrs. Williams push Miss Sinclair."

Justina had not been in the hallway. The hallway had been empty when Tonia walked in. I knew this because I had checked. Justina was lying, and she was lying with a straight face.

I looked at Justina, and she looked back at me without blinking. This woman had worked in this house for ten years, long before I arrived. Her loyalty had never been to me.

"Apologize, Evelyn. I am not going to ask again." Richard stood up, and his full height seemed to fill the room. He towered over me, and his shadow fell across my face like a cloud blocking the sun.

"And if I say no?"

"Then I will make sure the settlement from the annulment is cut in half. You want to leave here with nothing? Keep being stubborn."

He was threatening me with money. The man I had spent three years cooking for, cleaning for, and waiting up late for, the man whose grandmother I had loved like my own, was standing in our bedroom threatening to take away my settlement because I would not apologize to the woman who had attacked me.

I looked at Tonia, who peeked at me from behind Richard's arm with the tiniest smile on her lips, a smile she hid the moment he turned back to her.

"I am sorry," I said.

The words tasted like ash.

"Good." Richard helped Tonia to her feet. "I will have a doctor come to check on her. You should finish packing."

He walked Tonia out of the room, his hand on her lower back, and I listened to their footsteps fade down the hallway, his steady and hers slow and limping and just dramatic enough to keep his attention.

When they were gone, I pulled the pregnancy test out of my pocket and stared at it. If Richard found out, he would tell me to get rid of it. He had made that clear last night. And Tonia would make sure the whole Williams family knew, just to humiliate me one last time.

I tore the test into tiny pieces and flushed them down the bathroom toilet, watching the water swirl them away.

Then I pressed both hands flat against my stomach and whispered, "It is just you and me now, little one. And I will not let anyone hurt us."

I zipped up my suitcase and carried it to the top of the stairs. The house was quiet. Through the window at the end of the hallway, I could see the garden where I had planted roses last spring. They were blooming red and pink along the stone wall, and nobody in this house even knew I was the one who had planted them.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. A text from an unknown number.

"Miss Evelyn, my name is Benjamin Valentine. I am your eldest brother and I am outside your gate right now.Please do not be afraid."

I looked out the window again, and this time I noticed something I had missed before. A black car was parked on the street just outside the property, and a tall man in a dark coat stood beside it, looking straight up at the house.

Looking straight at me.