“Raymond… what are you doing here?” she whispered shakily. “You weren’t supposed to come back until tomorrow.”
“My meetings ended early,” I said while kneeling in front of her and brushing Leo’s soft hair gently away from his forehead. “What happened, Elena? Why are you here with all your luggage?”
She trembled while clutching a crumpled envelope in her hand. “Your sister, Beatrice… she came to the guest house this morning with two security guards. My things were already packed before I even woke up. She handed me a one-way ticket back to Ohio.” Elena swallowed hard to keep from crying again. “She said now that Liam is gone, I have no legal right to the family name. She told me I don’t fit your high-society world. She said I was a burden damaging the family’s reputation and that Leo would be better off without my ‘lower-class’ influence.”
A cold, blinding rage surged through me. Beatrice had always been an unbearable elitist, but using my son’s death to exile his grieving widow and child was unforgivable. She thought my absence gave her the right to reshape our family in her own cruel image.
I stood slowly, my expression turning completely still. I lifted the heavy suitcases from Elena’s hands and looked directly into her eyes.
“Get in the car, Elena,” I said quietly, my voice edged with steel. “It’s time Beatrice learns who the real power in this family is…
