“And since when has your mother asked for anything without a reason?”
He glanced down at Ellis, still feeding in his arms. “Never.”
Megan handed Noah to the nurse and stepped closer, lowering her voice. “Then don’t give her what she wants.”
“She may know where Lily is.”
“She may know exactly how to keep you from finding her.”
The words landed between them with painful clarity.
Rowan’s phone buzzed again.
Claire.
Then again.
His mother.
Then a third number appeared. Priya Sen.
Rowan answered immediately.
“I’m at the clinic,” he said.
“I know,” Priya replied.
He straightened. “How?”
“Because Dr. Kline called my office before you called me. She sent the Hawthorne document through a secure line. Rowan, listen carefully. Do not go to your mother’s house alone.”
Megan folded her arms, as if silently saying exactly.
Priya continued, “Hawthorne Family Center still exists, but it changed names eleven months ago. It’s now registered as the Hawthorne Children’s Trust. The public-facing operation handles temporary guardianships, adoption counseling, and private family placements. But the old records are sealed.”
“Can we unseal them?”
“Not quickly. Not without cause.”
“I have cause.”
“You have suspicion. We need leverage.”
Rowan looked at the partial destination stamp on the paper. “My mother invited me to the house tonight. She said it’s time I learned why my father really died.”
Priya was silent for a beat. “That is leverage trying to dress itself as a trap.”
“So what do we do?”
“We let her think you’re coming alone.”
Megan’s head snapped up.
Rowan said nothing.
Priya’s voice remained calm. “You go with a recording device where legal. You do not threaten her. You do not accuse without evidence. You ask questions. Meanwhile, I’ll contact a judge I trust and request an emergency preservation order for Hawthorne’s records. If your mother admits any involvement, even indirectly, we may be able to move faster.”
Megan stepped closer to the phone. “What about the babies?”
Priya heard her. “Megan, I’m Priya Sen. Rowan told me enough. Not all, I’m sure, but enough. Are you somewhere safe?”
“No,” Megan said. “But I’m somewhere temporary.”
“Then we change that today.”
Rowan looked at Megan, but she shook her head before he spoke.
Priya continued, “Not Rowan’s house. Not any Bellamy property. I have a client with a guest cottage outside Thompson’s Station. Private road, security gate, no connection to Rowan. You and the boys can stay there while we sort this.”
Megan’s eyes narrowed. “Why would your client help me?”
“Because she owes me a favor, and because she spent fifteen years running a foundation for children whose parents were too proud to ask for help. She will not ask questions you don’t want to answer.”
Megan looked at Rowan.
He kept his voice low. “Your choice.”
There it was again. A small offering placed carefully in front of her. No command. No pressure.
Megan studied him as if searching for the angle, the old habit of Bellamy men making decisions and expecting the world to applaud. She found none.
Finally, she said, “Fine. But if I see one reporter, one security detail, one person your mother knows—”
“You won’t,” Priya said.
Megan nodded, though Priya could not see it. “Then fine.”
After the call ended, Rowan finished feeding Ellis. The baby’s eyelids had begun to droop. A thin line of milk rested at the corner of his mouth. Rowan wiped it with his thumb, so gently it surprised him.
Megan watched.
“What?” he asked quietly.
“Nothing.”
But it was not nothing.
It was a memory passing between them: Rowan years ago, in their old kitchen, trying to rescue an injured bird that had struck the window. Megan had teased him then for being clumsy with fragile things. He had said, “I’m careful when it matters.”
She had believed him.
Then he had not been careful with her.
Rowan shifted Ellis against his shoulder the way Megan showed him. “I’m going to find her.”
Megan’s eyes glistened. “Don’t promise that.”
“Why?”
“Because I believed too many promises once.”
He nodded slowly. “Then I’ll say this instead. I will not stop looking.”
That, somehow, she accepted.
