CHAPTER 4: THE NIGHT ELI SPOKE AGAIN
It happened at 3:14 a.m.
Grace heard it first.
A whisper.
Not a full voice.
A broken sound.
“Gr—ace…”
She froze.
Her entire body forgot how to breathe.
She turned slowly.
Eli was standing in the hallway.
Barefoot.
Holding his drawing.
Tears on his face.
But he was awake.
And speaking.
Grace dropped to her knees instantly.
“I’m here,” she said quickly. “I’m right here.”
Eli shook.
His lips trembled.
Then—
“I saw…”
Grace stayed still.
“What did you see, sweetheart?”
Eli lifted the drawing.
His finger pointed.
At the tall figure.
Not Damon.
Not Grace.
But the shadow behind them.
A third man.
Dark.
Hidden.
Eli whispered again:
“Bad man… in house.”
Grace’s blood went cold.
Because Eli had not been silent for two years.
He had been watching.
Carson burst into the hallway moments later.
“Boss—we have a breach.”
Damon appeared behind him instantly.
“What kind?”
Carson swallowed.
“Internal. Someone has been inside the house systems for months.”
Damon’s eyes sharpened.
“Who?”
Carson hesitated.
Then:
“The man who arranged Evelyn’s crash… never left your payroll.”
Silence.
Damon turned slowly toward the staircase.
And for the first time in his life—
May you like
he realized the enemy wasn’t outside the house.
It had been raising his son inside it.
