He Came Back Running (Maya and Mason) novel Chapter 125

Chapter 125

Maya’s POV

The notifications were still running when we got back to the house.

I had counted forty-seven in the car. By the time Catherine pulled into the driveway, the number had stopped being useful as a measure of anything except scale.

I turned my phone face down on the seat.

Got out.

Went inside

The sitting room had the specific quality of a space that had absorbed news before I arrived – Alex on his phone near the window, the expression of someone who had been managing incoming information for the past forty minutes, Olive beside me with her hand briefly on my arm before she moved to her mother.

Richard was in the armchair…..

He looked at me when I came through the door with the expression of a man who had been waiting to be right about something and had just received the confirmation.

“I said it,” he said.

Not to anyone specifically

“Richard.” Alex’s voice was the flat one.

“I said she would bring chaos into this house.” He looked at me directly. “I said the situation around her was

unstable and it was only a matter of time before it landed on the family.” He folded the newspaper he had not been reading

“Here it is….”

I looked at him.

“The chaos was planted by someone with access to information about my marriage,” I said. “Not by me.”

“The result is the same,” he said

“Richard.” Alex crossed the room. “That’s enough”

“I’m noting a fact…”

“You’ve been noting facts all week,” Alex said. “Most of them are opinions. All of them are unhelpful. I need you to stop.”

Richard looked at his son.

Then at me.

Then back at his newspaper

Zara was in the kitchen.

I saw her from the hallway….. standing at the counter with her phone, the specific, contained quality of someone who was reading something that pleased them and was managing the expression it wanted to produce.

1/4

+25 Bonus

She looked up.

Saw me….

The expression resolved into the composed version.

“Terrible timing,” she said. Pleasant. “These things always find the worst moments.”

I looked at her.

“Yes,” I said. “They do”

I went past her to the kitchen table and sat down.

She stayed at the counter.

Alex came to the table ten minutes later

He pulled the chair beside me and sat and looked at me with the direct, uncomplicated quality he brought to situations that required clarity rather than management.

“I know it wasn’t you,” he said.

“I know you do,” I said.

“I want you to hear me say it.” He held my gaze. “Not as reassurance. As a fact. There is no version of this that I read as coming from you.”

I looked at him.

At the face that had been consistent since the warehouse and the bedroom floor and the study and every kitchen table between those points.

“Mason,” I said.

“Yes….”

“The timing,” I said. “His conversation with me in the corridor. Whatever is running in his head about the pregnancy.” I pressed my fingers together. “He convinced himself of something and then created a condition that might make it visible.”

Alex said nothing….

Which meant he had arrived at the same conclusion independently.

“The language in the piece,” I said. “Sources close to the former marriage. He’s the source. He was the marriage.”

I looked at the table. “He’s the only person for whom the framing makes sense”

“Carter is pulling the account trail,” Alex said. “The blog removed the post but the source message is in their system. It’ll take a day.”

“It doesn’t need to be traced to be addressed,” I said. “We know.”

“We know. Getting it on record is different.”

I nodded.

The company damage was real.

2/4

+25 Bonus

Lila had called twice. Three board members had messaged through Rivaldi’s office….. not hostile, cautious. The specific, careful distance of people who supported the governance position but were sensitive to reputational pressure and needed to know it was being managed.

I had sent two messages from the car.

One to Rivaldi: Prepare a brief statement. Factual. No engagement with the substance of the claim. My medical situation is private. The question of paternity is not a matter for public comment.

One to Lila: Hold all press enquiries. I’ll issue guidance this afternoon. Thank you

Both sent before we reached the driveway.

The management instinct arrived before the emotional one, which was perhaps not ideal but was currently functional.

I looked at the table.

The guest list notebook was still open to the page with Rivaldi and Lila and Calloway’s names in the confirmed column.

My people

“What about the DNA question?” I said.

Alex looked at me.

“If Mason has convinced himself the child is his,” I said, “he’s going to keep pushing. The blog post is the first move…. There will be more.” I held his gaze. “At some point someone is going to ask for confirmation, and ignoring the question indefinitely isn’t a strategy.”

“You don’t owe anyone…..”

“I know I don’t owe anyone,” I said. “I’m thinking strategically. The question is whether to address it on our terms before someone else defines the terms for us.”

He was quiet

“The DNA test,” I said. “Proactive. On record. Before Mason arranges for someone to demand it in a way that looks like we had something to hide.”

“You’re confident,” he said.

I looked at him

“I’m thirteen weeks pregnant with your child,” I said. “Yes. I’m confident.”

He held my gaze.

The certainty in his expression was the kind that didn’t need performing.

“All right,” he said. “We address it proactively.”

His phone rang

He looked at the screen.

Looked at me.

3/4

+25 Bonus

“Mason,” he said.

“A direct meeting,” I said.

He looked at me.

“He’s been building toward this,” I said. “The corridor, the post, the meeting request. He wants to be in the room. “I held Alex’s gaze. “Let him be in the room”

Alex looked at the phone.

It was still ringing.

He picked up.

“Hargrove,” he said.

His voice was the operational register.

I watched his face.

And waited.

COIN BUNDLE: get more free bonus

P

Comments

J

Support

Share

GET IT

4/4

+25 Bonus