Chapter 2: The Man in the Gray Coat
Rowan walked in Monday afternoon with a gift bag and a look that said he expected me to be grateful he came home at all.
He stopped in the doorway.
Dad was seated in the chair by the window, holding Leo against his chest, humming softly.
He didn't look up.
Rowan's face went the color of old ash.
"Who is that?" he said.
"My father," I said.
"Gideon Sterling."
The gift bag slipped from Rowan's hand.
I watched him search his memory.
I watched the moment he found it.
Gideon Sterling.
The name from the financial headlines.
The founder.
The billionaire.
The man Rowan had called "the kind of parasite who buys people instead of earning them" at his cousin's dinner table eight months ago.
Dad looked up then.
Calm.
Unhurried.
The way powerful men look when they have nothing to prove.
"You must be Rowan," he said.
"Phoebe told me you were at a birthday dinner."
Rowan opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
"She didn't tell me much else," Dad added quietly.
"She didn't need to."
Rowan turned to me.
His voice dropped to something tight and urgent.
"Phoebe.
Why didn't you ever—"
"Tell you?" I said.
"You never asked who my family was.
You were too busy explaining why people like them didn't deserve what they had."
Leo made a small sound.
Dad adjusted him gently, never taking his eyes off Rowan.
And then Rowan's phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
His face changed in a way I had never seen before.
He stepped into the hallway and pulled the door almost shut — but not completely.
May you like
I heard three words before the door clicked.
*"She knows everything."*
