Chapter 1 - “Drink the Whole Tower and I’ll Let You Leave”
Chapter 1 : “Drink the Whole Tower and I’ll Let You Leave”
“Finish the entire tower.”
Victor Hale tightened his fingers around Elena’s wrist.
“Then I’ll let you go.”
Elena stared at the pyramid of champagne glasses in front of her.
Forty-eight glasses.
Maybe fifty.
She had stopped counting.
Golden liquid shimmered beneath the chandeliers while wealthy guests stood around the ballroom pretending not to notice what was happening.
Some looked uncomfortable.
None intervened.
Elena held her three-month-old son, Noah, against her chest with one arm.
The baby was burning with fever.
His cheeks were flushed.
His tiny breaths came too quickly.
Every few seconds, he released a weak cry before burying his face against his mother’s dress.
“Please.”
Elena’s voice trembled.
“Victor, he needs a doctor.”
Victor smiled.
“Then drink.”
“I can’t.”
“You embarrassed me in front of my investors.”
“I only asked to leave.”
“You called me a liar.”
“You lied about the hospital.”
Victor’s expression darkened.
He squeezed harder.
Elena winced.
“I told everyone the baby was fine.”
“He has a fever of almost forty degrees!”
Several guests shifted uncomfortably.
Victor looked around.
Then smiled as if this were entertainment.
“My wife is emotional.”
Elena stared at him.
Wife.
She hated hearing the word from his mouth.
They had been married for four years.
The first year had been wonderful.
The second confusing.
The third frightening.
By the fourth, Elena had learned that Victor never needed to hit her in public.
He had other methods.
Money.
Isolation.
Doctors who answered his calls before hers.
Staff who reported everything she did.
A mother-in-law who called obedience “gratitude.”
Tonight was supposed to be the Hale Foundation’s winter charity gala.
Victor had ordered Elena downstairs despite Noah’s fever.
“Ten minutes,” she had begged.
“I need to take him to the hospital.”
Victor refused.
The pediatrician he trusted would arrive after the gala, he said.
Elena called the doctor herself.
The office said no appointment had been made.
So she tried to leave.
Victor stopped her in front of everyone.
Now the champagne tower stood between her and the door.
“You said you wanted to leave.”
Victor lifted the first glass.
“Earn it.”
Elena looked toward the guests.
No one met her eyes.
Her mother-in-law, Margaret Hale, stood near the fireplace wearing diamonds and silence.
Elena whispered:
“Margaret…”
The older woman looked away.
That hurt almost more than Victor’s hand.
Victor pushed the glass toward Elena’s mouth.
“Drink.”
Noah cried.
Elena turned her face away.
“Please.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“You keep using that child as an excuse.”
“He’s your son.”
Victor’s grip loosened for just a fraction of a second.
Something strange crossed his face.
Not concern.
Fear.
Elena noticed.
She had been noticing that reaction for weeks.
Every time someone called Noah Victor’s son, Victor looked uncomfortable.
She had assumed it was resentment.
Now she wondered whether it was something else.
“Victor?”
His eyes hardened.
“Drink.”
Elena took the glass.
Not because she surrendered.
Because she needed time.
One sip.
Then another.
She pretended to swallow more than she did.
Victor watched.
“Good girl.”
Her stomach twisted.
Noah whimpered.
Elena whispered into his hair:
“Mommy’s getting you out.”
Victor heard.
“No, Elena.”
He leaned closer.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
She stared at him.
“You just said—”
“I said if you finish the tower, I’ll let you leave the ballroom.”
Her blood went cold.
He smiled.
“I never said you could leave the estate.”
There it was.
The trap.
He had never intended to release her.
Elena set the glass down.
“No.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“What?”
“No.”
“You don’t get to change your mind.”
“I’m taking Noah to the hospital.”
She pulled her wrist.
Victor grabbed harder.
Noah began screaming.
The ballroom finally reacted.
Someone whispered:
“Victor, enough.”
Victor turned.
“Stay out of this.”
Elena saw the security guards near the main doors.
Victor’s men.
No help there.
She looked toward the service entrance.
Too far.
Then she heard something.
An engine outside.
Fast.
Another.
The front driveway flooded with headlights.
Victor froze.
Margaret turned toward the windows.
A security guard touched his earpiece.
His face changed.
“Sir.”
Victor didn’t look away from Elena.
“What?”
“There are vehicles at the front gate.”
“Whose?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then stop them.”
“We tried.”
Victor finally turned.
“What do you mean, you tried?”
The guard swallowed.
“They’re already inside the grounds.”
Victor released Elena’s wrist.
The ballroom doors shook.
Once.
Then again.
Guests stepped backward.
Victor shouted:
“Lock them!”
Too late.
The enormous double doors flew open.
Cold winter air rushed into the ballroom.
Three men entered.
Two wore dark suits.
The third man did not.
He was tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Snow melting across a black overcoat.
A thin scar crossed his left eyebrow.
Elena stopped breathing.
She knew that face.
Victor did too.
“No.”
Victor whispered it.
Not Elena.
“No…”
The stranger’s eyes moved across the ballroom.
Champagne.
Guests.
Elena’s bruised wrist.
The crying baby.
Then Victor.
His expression became terrifyingly still.
“Elena.”
Her knees nearly gave way.
“Gabriel?”
Gabriel Mercer.
Her older brother.
The man Victor had told her was dead.
Three years ago.
Elena had attended a funeral without a body.
Victor claimed Gabriel’s vehicle exploded during an overseas security contract.
He had shown her reports.
Photographs.
A death certificate.
She mourned him for years.
Now Gabriel stood in her ballroom.
Alive.
Victor backed away.
“That’s impossible.”
Gabriel removed his gloves.
“No.”
He looked directly at Victor.
“What was impossible…”
He walked toward them.
“…was getting back before you finished destroying my sister.”
Elena began crying.
“Gabriel…”
He reached her.
Then stopped.
He did not touch her immediately.
His eyes moved to Noah.
“Is that him?”
She nodded.
“My son.”
Gabriel looked at the baby’s flushed face.
His expression changed.
“He’s sick.”
“He needs a hospital.”
Gabriel turned toward Victor.
“Why is he still here?”
Victor recovered some confidence.
“This is my house.”
Gabriel looked around.
Then smiled.
“No.”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
Gabriel reached inside his coat.
Pulled out a document.
Dropped it onto the champagne table.
The first glass toppled.
Then another.
Champagne cascaded down the tower.
Guests gasped.
Victor stared at the document.
His face drained of color.
Elena couldn’t read it from where she stood.
Gabriel could.
“Effective six o’clock this evening, Hale Manor is no longer yours.”
Victor laughed.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Your holding company defaulted on the Mercer loan twelve days ago.”
Elena stared.
Mercer?
Gabriel continued.
“The debt was called.”
Victor stopped breathing.
“I purchased it.”
“You don’t have that kind of money.”
Gabriel smiled.
“That’s another lie you’ve been telling Elena.”
Margaret stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
Gabriel looked at his sister.
“Her.”
Then Noah.
“And the child.”
Victor moved between them.
“My son stays here.”
Gabriel’s eyes became cold.
“No.”
Victor pointed toward him.
“You have no legal authority.”
Gabriel took another paper from his coat.
“This might interest you.”
Victor looked.
His face changed again.
“What is that?”
Elena asked.
Gabriel didn’t answer Victor.
He looked at her.
“Elena…”
His voice softened.
“There’s something you need to know about Noah.”
Her heart dropped.
“What?”
Victor shouted:
“Don’t.”
Gabriel ignored him.
“The night Noah was born…”
He hesitated.
“Elena, Victor ordered a DNA test.”
She stared at her husband.
Victor looked away.
“Why?”
Gabriel continued.
“Because he already suspected the truth.”
“What truth?”
Nobody answered.
Elena tightened her hold around Noah.
“Gabriel.”
Her brother looked devastated.
“The baby is not biologically Victor’s.”
The ballroom exploded in whispers.
Elena shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
“I never cheated on him.”
“I know.”
“Then how—”
Gabriel’s eyes moved toward Margaret.
The older woman turned pale.
Victor whispered:
“Mother.”
Elena looked between them.
Then back at Gabriel.
“What did they do?”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“You remember the fertility treatment?”
Her stomach dropped.
Two years of infertility.
Procedures.
Hormones.
Embryo transfer.
The private Hale fertility clinic Victor insisted upon.
Gabriel continued:
“The embryo implanted in you…”
He paused.
“…wasn’t yours and Victor’s.”
Elena stopped breathing.
“Whose was it?”
Margaret backed toward the fireplace.
Victor whispered:
“Don’t say it.”
Gabriel looked directly at him.
“Why?”
Then at Elena.
“You deserve to know.”
He handed her the report.
She looked down.
Two names.
One she knew.
One she did not.
Biological mother:
Dr. Rebecca Lang.
Biological father:
Gabriel Mercer.
Elena’s hands began shaking.
She looked at her brother.
“No.”
Gabriel’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know either.”
Victor lunged for the paper.
Gabriel caught his wrist.
The entire room froze.
Victor hissed:
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“Oh, I do.”
He released him.
“The question is…”
His eyes moved toward Margaret.
“…why did the Hale family secretly implant my embryo into my sister?”
Elena stared at her baby.
Then at Victor.
Her marriage.
Her fertility treatment.
Her brother’s fake death.
The mansion.
The champagne.
Everything suddenly felt connected.
And she realized something much worse.
Victor had not been keeping Elena inside the estate because he loved her.
He had been keeping her there because Noah was evidence.
Evidence of something the Hale family had spent three years trying to bury.
Gabriel took out his phone.
“Ambulance is outside.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Elena is not leaving.”
Gabriel looked at him.
Then smiled.
“Try stopping her.”
May you like
And for the first time in four years—
Victor Hale stepped aside.
