Chapter 4 - Savannah Came Without Guards
Savannah Calloway arrived the next afternoon in a rented gray sedan with no security detail.
June watched from the window.
“She’s prettier than television.”
I glared at her.
“What?”
“Facts aren’t betrayal.”
Savannah wore jeans, a navy sweater, and flat boots.
No pearl dress.
No photographers.
No perfect engagement smile.
She looked tired.
Declan met her on the porch.
I stayed inside.
She refused to enter until I invited her.
That helped.
A little.
I opened the door.
Her eyes went immediately to my stomach.
Then to my face.
“I’m sorry.”
I folded my arms.
“For what?”
“The announcement.”
“You looked happy.”
“I was performing.”
“So was Declan.”
“Yes.”
She glanced toward him.
“He’s worse at it.”
Declan almost objected.
Then thought better of it.
Savannah sat at the kitchen table.
June placed coffee in front of her with the expression of a woman interviewing a suspect.
Gavin remained near the back door.
“I came because my father knows,” Savannah said.
“How?”
“Marco wasn’t his only source.”
Declan’s jaw tightened.
“Who?”
“My brother.”
Savannah looked ashamed.
“Adrian has been tracking your search since Amelia disappeared.”
“Why?”
“He thought finding her first would give Father leverage.”
My hand went to my stomach.
Savannah saw.
“I told him nothing about the pregnancy.”
“Then how?”
“He saw the North Carolina grocery footage before Gavin reached it.”
Gavin swore softly.
Savannah continued.
“My father thinks a Voss heir changes everything.”
I hated the word.
“Heir.”
Savannah nodded.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Her expression sharpened.
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then she said, “I was eighteen when my father promised my future son to a territory agreement.”
That shut me up.
Declan looked at her.
“You never told me.”
“You never asked.”
The sentence hit more than one person at the table.
Savannah took a breath.
“My father does not think in terms of children. He thinks in continuity.”
“I think he’ll find this child disappointing,” I said.
“She’s a girl?”
I regretted revealing it.
Savannah smiled faintly.
“That will confuse him. Good.”
Despite myself, I smiled too.
Only for a second.
“What does Vincent want?”
Savannah’s face turned serious.
“Confirmation. Then control.”
“How?”
“If he can prove Declan has a child with a civilian, he can destabilize the Voss board.”
I looked at Declan.
“You have a board?”
“Not corporate.”
“Of course not.”
Savannah explained.
Three older Voss captains still held influence over succession decisions.
Declan had no legal wife.
No acknowledged children.
The engagement to Savannah reassured them because it suggested future continuity with another powerful family.
A civilian daughter changed the equation.
“They may pressure Declan to marry you,” Savannah said.
I laughed.
“No.”
“They may pressure him to take the child into the family structure.”
“No.”
Declan said, “No one is taking her anywhere.”
Savannah looked at him.
“Then you need to dismantle the succession customs before she’s born.”
“That’s what I’ve been working on.”
I stared.
“Working on?”
He nodded.
“Gavin and I started restructuring legitimate holdings and removing inheritance links from the organization.”
“Started when?”
“The week you vanished.”
I looked away.
Again, I did not want his actions to matter.
Again, they did.
Savannah handed Gavin a flash drive.
“My brother copied Father’s plans.”
“What plans?”
“Meeting notes. Names. People he thinks will support replacing Declan if he refuses family demands.”
Declan’s expression went cold.
“Who?”
Savannah looked at me.
“You should hear this too.”
“No.”
Declan frowned.
I continued.
“I don’t need names of men planning internal mafia politics. I need to know whether any of them can hurt my daughter.”
Savannah nodded.
“Three can.”
That was enough.
Gavin took the drive.
“Then we handle those three.”
I turned to him.
“Handle how?”
He looked at Declan.
Declan answered.
“Legally where possible.”
“Where possible?”
He held my gaze.
“Nonviolent unless immediate defense is necessary.”
That language still sounded like his world.
But it was a line.
Lines mattered.
Savannah stayed for dinner because roads iced over.
June made chicken soup and interrogated everyone’s childhood.
Apparently billionaire heirs and mafia daughters were still vulnerable to elderly women with ladles.
Savannah told us she had wanted to become an architect.
Declan admitted he once played piano badly.
Gavin said almost nothing.
June told him that meant he had the most secrets.
After dinner, Savannah found me alone in the living room.
“You hate me.”
“I don’t know you well enough.”
“Fair.”
She sat across from me.
“I did kiss him once.”
I looked at her.
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because if you ever decide whether to forgive him, I don’t want a technical lie sitting between you.”
I appreciated that more than I wanted to.
“It was for photographers?”
“Yes.”
“Did you want to?”
“No.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“Romantic.”
She laughed.
Then her face softened.
“I envied you.”
I stared.
“You didn’t even know me.”
“I knew what he was like after seeing you.”
“What was he like?”
“Distracted.”
“That’s flattering.”
“For Declan, it was practically poetry.”
I smiled before I could stop myself.
Savannah continued.
“He started leaving meetings early. Stopped sleeping at the club. Knew what restoration varnish was.”
I looked down.
“He told you about that?”
“He told everyone about that.”
My chest hurt.
Not in the clean way sadness should hurt.
Messier.
Then Savannah said, “He should have trusted you with the danger instead of deciding for you.”
I looked up.
“Yes.”
“That’s the part I would not forgive quickly.”
“Good.”
“He needs the difficulty.”
That made me laugh.
For the first time, I saw Savannah not as the woman on television but as another woman raised inside a system that treated marriage like infrastructure.
Before bed, Declan asked if he could speak to me.
We stood near the front window.
“You laughed with Savannah.”
“Don’t make it weird.”
“I’m just noting a miracle.”
I looked at him.
“She told me about the kiss.”
His face tightened.
“I was going to.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
At least he knew.
I rested one hand on my back.
The baby had been pressing low all day.
Declan noticed.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Do you need a doctor?”
“No.”
“Water?”
“No.”
“Chair?”
“Declan.”
He stopped.
I almost smiled.
Then headlights appeared down the long driveway.
Three vehicles.
Gavin came running from the kitchen.
“No one was scheduled.”
Declan moved instantly.
Not toward a weapon.
Toward me.
Then he stopped two feet away.
“May I?”
I understood.
He wanted to move me.
I nodded.
He guided me behind an interior wall.
Gavin checked the cameras.
Savannah stood beside him.
Then she went pale.
“My father.”
Vincent Calloway stepped out of the lead car.
No gun visible.
No rush.
He simply stood beneath the porch light and looked directly at the house.
Then he raised one hand.
In it was a white flag.
June looked over my shoulder.
“Well,” she said, “that’s dramatic.”
Vincent called from outside.
“I came to discuss my granddaughter.”
Every person in the room froze.
I looked at Savannah.
Her face had emptied.
“That’s not his granddaughter,” she whispered.
And suddenly we understood.
May you like
Vincent was not talking about my baby.
He thought Savannah was pregnant too.
