CHAPTER 2 — THE INTERCEPTION
The bus had traveled only four more blocks when a black sedan pulled in front of it.
A second vehicle stopped behind us.
Several passengers looked through the windows as two men in dark suits stepped onto the sidewalk.
For half a second, I wondered whether Jasper had realized how cruel he had been and sent someone to bring me home.
Then the taller man entered the bus.
“Mrs. Robertson?”
Hearing my maiden name nearly broke the last thread holding me together.
“Yes.”
“My name is Daniel Cross. I’m head of security for your father.”
His expression changed when he saw Toby sleeping against my chest and the way I was holding my abdomen.
“We have a medical vehicle waiting outside.”
“I’m all right.”
“No, ma’am,” he said gently. “You’re trying to be all right.”
The bus driver watched silently as Daniel lifted my purse and diaper bag.
Another security officer stood beside me while I slowly rose from the seat.
Pain tore across my incision.
My knees buckled.
Daniel caught my arm before I fell.
The bus driver immediately left his seat.
“You need an ambulance?”
“We have a physician waiting,” Daniel assured him.
Before stepping off the bus, I turned toward the driver.
“Thank you for lowering the steps.”
He looked uncomfortable with the gratitude.
“Take care of that little boy.”
“I will.”
Outside, a private medical transport van waited beside the curb. A nurse helped me onto a reclining seat while another officer secured Toby’s carrier.
My father appeared on a video call.
His silver hair was disheveled, and his suit jacket was missing. For a man who normally looked perfectly composed, he appeared dangerously close to losing control.
“Let me see you.”
Daniel turned the phone toward me.
My father’s face tightened.
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“Did anyone from his family help you?”
“No.”
“What did the hospital say about traveling?”
“That I shouldn’t walk far, lift anything heavy, or remain seated upright for too long.”
My father closed his eyes.
When he opened them, the anger was gone.
That frightened me more.
“You’re being taken to Robertson Medical Center. A specialist will examine you.”
“Dad, I don’t need special treatment.”
“You needed basic human decency, Hailey. Your husband couldn’t provide it.”
I looked down at Toby.
“I should go back to the apartment. My clothes—”
“Already being handled.”
Twenty minutes earlier, my father’s security team had entered the apartment with the building manager and my attorney.
The apartment had been purchased through my family trust before my marriage.
The furniture had been paid for from my personal account.
Even the nursery had been funded through a gift account my grandmother established for me years ago.
Jasper had never bothered to ask whose name appeared on the paperwork.
He simply assumed anything around him belonged to him.
“Your personal belongings are being packed,” my father explained. “The locks are being changed.”
“What about Jasper’s things?”
“They’ll be inventoried. He’ll receive supervised access.”
I should have felt guilty.
Instead, I remembered him driving away while I struggled onto a bus.
The guilt disappeared.
At the restaurant across town, Jasper was sitting between Gillian and Priscilla when a parking attendant approached the table.
“Mr. Whitmore?”
Jasper looked up irritably.
“There seems to be a problem with your vehicle.”
“What kind of problem?”
“The engine has been remotely disabled.”
Jasper frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
A tow truck was already waiting outside.
The attendant handed him a card bearing the logo of Robertson Asset Management.
The words beneath it were simple.
Vehicle recovered by legal owner.
Jasper rushed outside.
The SUV was being loaded onto the truck.
He called me six times.
I didn’t answer.
Then his phone vibrated with an email from his company’s board.
His access to all corporate systems had been suspended.
An emergency meeting had been scheduled for four o’clock.
And at the bottom of the message was one final sentence:
Robertson Capital has requested a complete review of every investment connected to Jasper Whitmore.
May you like
For the first time that afternoon, my husband stopped shouting.
Because he was finally beginning to understand whose money had built his future.
