Chapter 6 - Under One Roof
The silence that settled over the penthouse after the elevator doors closed on Harrison and the deputies was heavy, thick with the residue of adrenaline.
Julian’s grip around my neck slowly loosened. He lifted his head, his tear-streaked face inches from mine, his dark blue eyes searching mine with a profound, quiet bewilderment.
"Are the bad men gone?" he whispered.
My throat tightened. I held him a little closer, feeling the fragile, rapid beating of his small heart against my ribs. "They're gone, Julian. Nobody is ever coming into this house to hurt you. I promise."
I set him down gently beside his brother. Leo immediately took Julian’s hand, the two of them locking fingers in that silent, instinctive communication unique to twins who have relied only on each other for survival.
"Go look at the trains again, boys," Evelyn said, her voice shaking violently as she collapsed onto the edge of the sectional sofa. "Mommy needs a minute."
The boys hesitated, then walked slowly back toward the rug, their small shoulders drooping with the fatigue of a terror no child should ever experience.
I walked over to the sofa and sat down beside Evelyn. For several long minutes, neither of us spoke. Outside, the mist over Lake Michigan was beginning to turn into a steady, freezing rain, drumming against the reinforced glass forty stories above the street.
"You really did it," she whispered, staring blankly at the shattered pieces of porcelain still lying on the floor across the room. "You actually fought her."
"Did you think I wouldn't?"
She turned her head to look at me. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, falling across her face in messy, beautiful waves. "Six years ago, Eleanor seemed like God, Marcus. She had every politician at her charity dinners. She had judges staying at your family's lake house. When she told me she would take my babies, I believed her because she had the power to do it. And you... you were her prince. I thought if it came down to a war between your mother's dynasty and a secretary from Peoria, you would choose the dynasty."
The words cut deep, but I knew I deserved every ounce of that pain.
"I was blind, Evelyn," I said, reaching out. My hand hovered in the air between us for a second, hesitating, before I gently placed my fingers over hers. Her skin was ice-cold. She didn't pull away, but she didn't squeeze back either. "I grew up in that world. I knew Eleanor was ruthless in business, but I never believed she would bring that poison into my personal life. I thought she just wanted what was best for me. I didn't realize that to her, 'what was best' meant complete control."
"She hates me," Evelyn said quietly.
"She doesn't hate you," I corrected. "She fears you. Because you were the only thing in my life she couldn't buy, manipulate, or control. And because I looked at you the way my father never looked at her."
Evelyn swallowed hard, looking toward the living room where Julian and Leo were quietly rolling an engine back and forth on the wooden tracks.
"They don't know what a father is, Marcus," she murmured, a fresh tear escaping down her cheek. "When other kids at the playground talked about their dads, Julian used to tell them his dad was an astronaut living on Mars. Because Mars was so far away that it made sense why he couldn't visit."
A sharp, physical ache tore through my chest. I leaned my forehead against the back of the sofa, closing my eyes against the blinding guilt. "I'm going to spend the rest of my life making up for that."
"You can't buy back six years with toys and high-rise apartments."
"I know that," I said, lifting my head to look directly into her eyes. "I'm not talking about money, Evelyn. I'm talking about being there. For every fever. For every baseball game. For every nightmare. I am never leaving them again. And I'm not leaving you, either."
Evelyn's breath hitched. She pulled her hand back, crossing her arms defensively across her chest. "Marcus... don't. We're not the same people we were six years ago. I'm not the twenty-nine-year-old girl who fell for your charm at a charity auction. I'm tired. I'm guarded. And my only priority in this world is keeping those two boys safe."
"Then let me protect them," I pleaded softly. "You've carried the entire world on your back for five years. Just let me take half the weight."
Before she could answer, a small tug on my sleeve made me look down.
It was Leo.
He was holding a small wooden passenger car in his hand, looking up at me with that serious, unblinking Vance gaze.
"Can you make the bridge stay up?" he asked quietly. "The tracks keep falling down when the big engine goes across."
My heart did a slow, painful flip. I looked at Evelyn, who offered a faint, tearful nod.
I slid off the sofa and sat directly on the hardwood floor beside the five-year-old boy.
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"Show me the bridge, Leo," I said, my voice thick with emotion. "We'll build it so strong it will never fall down again."
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