The silence in the room was deafening.
“He knew,” Arthur whispered. “He knew she was doing it. And he did nothing to stop her because he was afraid of her.”
I held my daughter as she wept. It was a different kind of crying than in the woods. This was the grief of a woman realizing that the man she loved hadn’t just been weak—he had been complicit in the death of their child.
“I am so sorry,” Arthur said, tears standing in his own eyes. “I raised a monster. Two of them.”
Olivia pulled away from me. She wiped her face. Her expression hardened into something steel-like.
“Thank you for telling me,” she said. “Now I know I have nothing to regret.”
“I have updated my will,” Arthur said. “Gavin is out. He gets a stipend, enough to live, but no power. The company, the estate, everything… it goes to your child. My grandchild.”
“I don’t want your money,” Olivia said.
“It’s not for you,” Arthur said gently. “It’s for the baby. And I want you to be the trustee. You are the only one strong enough to protect it.”
Olivia looked at him. “Okay. But on one condition.”
“Anything.”
“You want to be a grandfather? Then you have to be alive to do it. You look sick, Arthur.”
Arthur smiled weakly. “Heart condition. I’m going to Switzerland for surgery next week.”
“Come back,” she said. “Zora needs a grandfather.”
“Zora?”
