Small Hands Novel Chapter 07

Small Hands Novel Chapter 07

The drive was recovered. Cloud copies erased. Sienna’s leverage evaporated overnight.

She showed up at my building Tuesday morning in a fur coat and last night’s makeup, screaming at the lobby cameras.

“LET ME IN! WREN! You think you can erase me? I MADE him! I made Jax who he is!”

She never made anyone. She never made anything.

Security escorted her out. Paparazzi captured every second.

JAX MERCER’S MISTRESS MELTS DOWN AT BILLIONAIRE EX’S BUILDING.

I should have felt vindicated. Instead-the familiar hollow.

“You’re brooding,” Frank said during our afternoon meeting.

“I’m strategizing.”

“You’re brooding. You get this look-like a songwriter deciding between a breakup anthem and a diss track.”

“Wren.” He leaned back. “Jax’s trial is in seven weeks. Sienna’s neutralized. Vesper’s stronger than ever. You’ve won.”

“Doesn’t feel like it.”

“Never does. Not for people like us.” He paused. “Call Calder.”

“Not relevant.”

“Extremely relevant. You’re a human being, not a production machine.”

I looked at this grizzled music warrior who’d been more of a family than anyone sharing my blood.

“He terrifies me,” I admitted.

“Good. The real ones always do.”

That evening, I called Rhys.

“I want Scotland,” I said. “After the trial.”

“My family’s estate. No phones. Just the sea.” A beat. “And me, making you breakfast and pretending I’m not completely gone for you.”

“Rhys-”

“I need to say this before it eats me alive.” His voice dropped, raw and unguarded. “I fell for you four years ago-a voice I couldn’t find, a mind I couldn’t fathom, a woman who made the most important album of the decade and wanted nothing in return. I fell further when I saw your face. And I fell completely when you stood on that stage and refused to be anyone’s ghost.”

“You can’t love someone you’ve never really known.”

“And yet. Here I am.” A pause. “I’m not him, Wren. I will never be him. I don’t need you to shrink. I need you to be exactly who you are-brilliant.

terrifying, extraordinary-and let me stand beside you.”

My eyes burned.

“Scotland,” I whispered. “After the trial.

“After the trial.”

I hung up. Pressed the phone against my chest. Let myself imagine, just for one dangerous moment, a future that included joy.

Then an alert from Vesper’s security system shattered it.

Unauthorized access detected: Vesper server cluster 7. Origin: FBI terminal. Agent credentials: SSA Thomas Crane, Lead Investigator, Titan

Records case.

The FBI agent running Jax’s prosecution was digging through Vesper’s classified files-files he had no warrant, no clearance, and no

authorization to touch.

Someone was using the investigation as a Trojan horse.

And they were already inside my walls.