I considered calling the police
but dismissed it. The last thing I needed was flashing lights outside the house and Everly spiralling from the stress. Eleven weeks into her pregnancy. Too early for bullshit. Too early for her mother.
Lawrence pulled up just as I reached the lobby. I nodded once and climbed in. If I’d been thinking clearly, I would’ve brought my laptop home last night.
Too late now.
I dialled Everly.
“I’m not sending you any pictures, I have a meeting in… twenty minutes,” she said dryly, not bothering with a greeting.
“Hello to you too,” I muttered. “I’m on my way home.”
Silence. A single beat of realisation.
“You are?”
The shift in her tone was immediate—from dry annoyance to something tight and wary.
She knew. She always knew when something snapped the wrong way in my voice.
“Yes,” I said, keeping the words clipped, controlled. I didn’t trust what would come out if I softened. “Connie texted. Your mother is at the house.”
Silence.
The dangerous kind—the kind where Everly was thinking five things at once and none of them were good.
“…Eris is here?” she said finally, quiet but sharp.
“She’s refusing to leave.” My hand tightened around the phone so hard it creaked. “I’m handling it.”
A beat.
Another.
I could hear her breathing shift—not panicked, but bracing. Preparing.
“Should I—”
“No.” The word came out like a blade. Too sharp. Too fast. I forced a breath through my nose. “No, sweetheart. Stay put.”
She hesitated. That alone made something in my chest twist. Everly never hesitated with me unless she was afraid of something.
“Silas… is she—”
“I don’t know.” I practically spat the words. Not at her—never at her—but at the thought of that woman stepping one fucking toe into the house where Everly slept, ate, lived. “And I don’t care. She’s leaving. That’s all you need to know.”
Another breath.
Another attempt at calm.
Another failure.
“I don’t want you anywhere near her,” I said, voice lowering into something deadly. “You’re eleven weeks, Everly. Eleven. If that woman stresses you out for even a second—”
“I’m okay,” she murmured quickly.
“No.” My fingers dug into my knee. “You don’t reassure me. That’s my job. And I’m telling you right now — stay where you are. Let me take care of this.”
