The little girl’s lip trembled.
“That we don’t deserve to be part of this family.”
The lobby went silent.
Grant’s smirk disappeared.
Lucinda’s fingers curled around the edge of the bench.
One bodyguard looked at the children. The other looked at the door.
Silvio took a step closer to Grant.
“Who told you to do this?”
Grant swallowed.
“It was a mistake.”
“No,” Silvio said. “A mistake is forgetting a key. This was a decision.”
Lucinda finally spoke.
“Silvio, you don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Because in that moment, Silvio saw the truth in her eyes.
The children had not been punished for being hungry.
They had been hidden.
And Grant’s only concern was that they were still breathing.
Silvio looked down at Ethan, then at Mia.
“Who else knew?”
Lucinda’s face went pale.
Grant took a step back.
One of the bodyguards quietly closed the lobby doors.
The SUV key was still in Silvio’s hand.
The estate maps lay scattered across the floor.
And the two children stood in the middle of it all, alive when someone had clearly expected them not to be.
What were Ethan and Mia not supposed to survive?
And who else knew they were supposed to disappear?
