Chapter 5 - The Uninvited Guest Within"Did the FBI miss someone?" I stood up instantly, my muscles tensing as I scanned the kitchen for anything heavy enough to use as a weapon.
"No," Emily whispered, her face pale once more. "The back door... it leads to the mudroom. Only one other person has a key to that lock."
Before I could ask who, the door swung open with a dry creak.
A tall, elegant woman stepped into the warm kitchen, shaking snow from an expensive designer winter coat. Her platinum-blonde hair was perfectly styled, and her diamond earrings caught the light. It was Victoria Rowan—my mother.
Victoria stopped dead in her tracks, her icy gaze sweeping from me, bruised knuckles and all, to Emily sitting at the table, and finally down to the bassinet containing my newborn son.
"Well," Victoria drawled, her voice dripping with the aristocratic disdain that had defined my entire childhood. "I received a frantic call from your corporate fixer saying you were missing from the Bellevue estate on Christmas Eve, Gavin. I certainly didn't expect to find you playing domestic hero in a slum with your disgraced ex-wife."
"Mother, get out," I said, my voice dropping into a lethal chill. "Now."
"Oh, stop being dramatic, Gavin," Victoria scoffed, stepping further into the room and peering down into the bassinet with undisguised distaste. "What is this? Is this why you neglected the quarterly earnings review? Some random child your little ex-wife dredged up to trap you back into a high-society alimony settlement?"
The sheer audacity of her words made my blood boil. In a fraction of a second, years of repressed resentment toward the woman who raised me without an ounce of warmth boiled over.
"That 'random child' is your grandson, Mother," I roared, stepping between her and the bassinet. "And if you ever speak to Emily—or my son—with that tone of voice again, I will strip you of every corporate share, every trust fund, and every cent of Rowan wealth before the sun comes up tomorrow."
Victoria’s jaw dropped. In all her years of manipulating corporate boards and controlling my life, I had never spoken to her with such absolute, unfiltered fury.
"Gavin... you are out of your mind," she stammered, clutching her designer handbag like a shield. "You're letting a gold-digger ruin everything we built!"
"Everything we built?" I laughed bitterly, the sound harsh and ugly. "You built a prison of cold marble and silent dinners, Mother. Emily built a home. Now get out of my sight before I forget you gave birth to me."
Victoria glared at Emily with pure venom, then turned on her heel and stormed out into the snow, slamming the door behind her.
The kitchen fell back into a heavy, trembling silence.
May you like
Emily looked up at me, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and profound gratitude. "Gavin... you just declared war on your own mother."
"My mother lost the right to an opinion the moment she walked through that door," I said, dropping to one knee beside Emily’s chair and taking her hand in both of mine. "My family is right here. And I’m never leaving."
