Chapter 3 - The Sanctuary
"Home?" Elena laughed, a harsh, bitter sound. "I'm not moving back into your Gramercy Park penthouse, Tobias. That place was a museum, not a home. It felt like living in a luxury hotel where everything was designed to hide the fact that nobody actually lived there."
"I don't live in Gramercy anymore," I said, walking to my desk and pressing the intercom button. "Marcus, cancel all my appointments for the rest of the day. Call my private driver and have the SUV brought around to the executive basement garage. Now."
"Right away, Mr. Marrow," my assistant's crisp voice answered.
I picked up the envelope containing the signed divorce papers, walked over to the floor-to-ceiling glass, and fed the documents directly into the heavy-duty paper shredder beside my desk. The machine roared to life, chewing through the paper until it was nothing more than fine white dust.
Elena stared at the shredder in absolute shock. "Are you out of your mind? That took three years!"
"And it took three seconds to destroy," I replied smoothly, adjusting my cuffs. "I bought an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut eighteen months ago. Sixty acres. High security. Private woods, a playground, and a guest house. You and the boys are staying there. It's safe, private, and my mother's lawyers don't have access to the perimeter security."
"Tobias, I have a life in Hudson!"
"You have a part-time job at a library and a mother-in-law threatening to steal your children," I corrected, stepping close enough that I could smell the subtle scent of vanilla and rain that had always belonged to her. "You don't have to stay with me as my wife, Elena. But you will let me protect you and my sons. You said it yourself—you can't fight Victoria alone."
She looked at me, her green eyes searching my face for any sign of deception. For three years, she had known me as a man of ruthless efficiency, a corporate machine who calculated risk and reward down to the decimal point. But right now, she was seeing something else.
She was seeing a father who had just realized what he had lost.
"Just until we figure out a legal agreement," she said softly, conceding the point. "And your mother stays away."
"If my mother sets foot on that property without your permission," I promised, "I will strip her of her seat on the Marrow Holdings board before the sun sets."
Ten minutes later, we were in the back of my armored Maybach, gliding silently through the Manhattan traffic toward the highway leading north to Connecticut.
The boys were secured in brand-new, top-of-the-line car seats that my security chief had rushed to install in the vehicle before we left the basement. Noah was already fast asleep, his thumb tucked firmly into his mouth, while Gabriel sat kicking his tiny sneakers against the leather seat, fascinated by the passing trees outside the tinted windows.
Elena sat across from me, her back rigid against the leather upholstery.
"They're healthy," I said quietly, breaking the heavy silence inside the cabin.
"They are," she replied, keeping her gaze on the boys. "Noah had asthma when he was born, but he outgrew it. Gabriel eats everything in sight. They're smart, Tobias. Too smart. Noah figured out how to unlock the child-proof gates at eighteen months."
A small, proud smile tugged at the corner of my lips. "A problem-solver. Sounds familiar."
Elena didn't smile back. "He gets his stubbornness from you, too. Whenever he doesn't get his way, he crosses his arms and stares at the wall for twenty minutes."
"And Gabriel?"
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"Gabriel is sweet," she said, her expression softening. "He reminds me of how you used to be... before the company took over everything."
The words hit me like a quiet punch to the gut. I looked out the window at the passing blur of the highway, the heavy weight of my past choices pressing down on my shoulders.
