Hermione's POV
I yanked my arm away from James.
"Linda's pregnant?" My head spun. "That doesn't make sense. She said she was dying!"
"She lied about everything." James tried to grab my hand again, but I stepped back. "Hermione, we need to go. Now."
"No!" I shook my head hard. "How do I know you're not lying too? How do I know this isn't some trap?"
James's face tightened. "A trap? I just saved you from—"
"From what? Rebecca? The Senator?" I laughed, but it came out bitter and broken. "For all I know, you're working with them! Maybe this whole thing is just another way to control me!"
"That's insane."
"Is it?" I backed toward the car. "You show up out of nowhere. You know everything about my family. You have all these convenient papers and folders." My voice got louder. "And now you want me to get on a plane with a fake passport? To disappear overseas where nobody can find me?"
"To protect you!"
"Or to get rid of me!" Tears burned my eyes. "Just like they got rid of my mother!"
James went very still. "You think I killed your mother?"
"I don't know what to think anymore!" I screamed it. "Everyone I trusted destroyed me! Jerry lied. Linda lied. Rebecca stole everything. Why should you be different?"
The jet engines hummed behind us. James's men stood near the plane, watching but not interfering.
"You're right," James said quietly. "You have no reason to trust me."
I blinked. "What?"
"I'm a stranger. I have suspicious timing. I know too much." He pulled out his phone and handed it to me. "So call someone. Call the real police, not Rebecca's corrupt friends. Call a lawyer. Call anyone you want."
I stared at the phone. "You're letting me call for help?"
"I'm letting you make your own choice." James stepped back, giving me space. "But know this—Rebecca has people everywhere. The moment you call anyone connected to this city, she'll know where you are."
"Then I'll run somewhere else!"
"With what money? What ID?" James's voice stayed calm. "Your bank accounts are frozen. Rebecca claimed you stole from the family. She's building a case to have you arrested."
My stomach dropped. "She can't do that."
"She already did." James showed me his phone screen. A news article with my photo. Hale Family Heiress Wanted for Theft and Fraud.
"This is a lie!" I grabbed the phone, reading frantically. "I didn't steal anything!"
"I know. But the public doesn't." James took the phone back gently. "Rebecca works fast. By tomorrow, your face will be everywhere. You'll be hunted."
I sank to the ground, my legs giving out. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't get worse.
But it did.
James knelt beside me. "I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to survive. Come with me tonight. Just tonight. If you still want to leave tomorrow, I'll give you money and a real passport and help you disappear."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because I made a promise to your mother." His voice cracked. "And I keep my promises."
I looked up at the plane. Then back at the city lights in the distance. Somewhere out there, Jerry was marrying Linda. Rebecca was celebrating. They all thought they'd won.
"If I get on that plane," I whispered, "will you teach me how to destroy them?"
"Yes."
"All of them? Even Senator Kingston?"
"Especially him." James held out his hand. "But we do it my way. Smart. Careful. With evidence they can't deny."
I stared at his hand. This was the moment. The choice that would change everything.
I took his hand.
Twenty minutes later, we were in the air. I pressed my face against the window, watching my city disappear below the clouds.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Not overseas." James handed me a blanket. "That was a misdirection. We're actually going two states over. To a hotel I own under a different company name."
"You lied about the overseas thing?"
"I lied to anyone who might be listening." James pointed to his phone. "Rebecca probably has people tracking my movements. Now they'll waste time watching international flights."
Smart. Scary smart.
The plane ride took less than an hour. A car met us at a small airport, and we drove through darkness to a hotel that looked expensive and quiet.
"Top floor," James told the driver. "Private entrance."
We took an elevator that required a special key card. The doors opened directly into a huge hotel room. No, not a room. A whole apartment.
"You'll stay here." James walked to the windows and closed the curtains. "My men will guard the elevator. Nobody gets up here without my permission."
"You mean I'm trapped."
"I mean you're safe." James turned to face me. "There's food in the kitchen. Clean clothes in the bedroom. Everything you need."
"Except freedom."
"Freedom comes later." James headed for the door. "After we plan. After we prepare. After we win."
"Wait!" I grabbed his arm. "You're leaving?"
"I have things to handle." He gently removed my hand. "Get some rest. We start training tomorrow."
"Training for what?"
"Everything." James's eyes went cold. "Business. Strategy. How to spot lies. How to tell them. How to be the woman Rebecca fears instead of the girl she destroyed."
He left before I could ask more questions.
I stood alone in the fancy apartment, my whole body shaking. What had I done? Where was I really?
I walked to the bedroom and found a phone on the nightstand. A real phone, not a cell phone.
James said I could call anyone. But who? I had nobody left.
My hand picked up the receiver anyway. I dialed the only number I had memorized besides my own.
Jerry's number.
It rang three times. Then a woman answered.
"Hello?" Linda's voice. Weak and tired. "Who is this?"
I should hang up. Should say nothing.
Instead, I spoke.
"Congratulations on your wedding," I said coldly. "And your pregnancy. Does Jerry know the baby isn't his?"
Linda gasped. "How did you—who told you—"
"Does. He. Know?"
Silence. Then Linda's voice turned to poison. "You're dead, Hermione. Rebecca will make sure of it."
"Tell Rebecca I'm coming back." My hands stopped shaking. My voice got stronger. "Tell her I'm going to take everything. The house. The company. The truth about my mother. Everything."
"You can't! You have nothing!"
"I have something you'll never have." I smiled even though she couldn't see it. "I have nothing left to lose."
I hung up.
The door burst open behind me. James stood there, breathing hard like he'd run all the way back.
"Why did you call them?" He looked furious. "I heard everything! The room is monitored for your safety!"
"Good." I stood up, facing him. "Then you heard me declare war."
"You just told them you're alive! Told them you're coming back!" James ran his hands through his hair. "They'll prepare now! They'll hide evidence! You just made everything ten times harder!"
"I don't care." Something inside me had shifted. Changed. "I'm done hiding. Done running. They wanted to destroy me? Fine. Let them try."
James stared at me like I'd lost my mind. Maybe I had.
"You're either very brave," he said finally, "or very stupid."
"Maybe both." I walked toward him. "Now teach me. Teach me everything. Because in five years, I'm going back to that city, and I'm going to burn their world down."
James studied my face for a long moment. Then slowly, he smiled.
"Five years," he agreed. "But first, there's something you need to see."
He pulled out a folder I hadn't seen before. Inside was a photograph. Recent, from the looks of it.
Rebecca and Senator Kingston. Standing together outside a courthouse.
Kissing.
"They're having an affair," James said quietly. "And have been for thirty years. Since before your mother died."
My vision went red. "Does Jerry know his father—"
"Nobody knows. Except them." James closed the folder. "And now us."
The hotel phone rang. We both stared at it.
James picked up. Listened. His face went white.
"When?" He grabbed my arm. "Are you sure?"
He hung up and looked at me with something like fear.
"That was my contact at the hospital." His voice shook. "Dr. Patricia Mills. The doctor who called you about your mother."
"What about her?"
"She's dead. Died an hour ago." James's grip tightened. "And Hermione—she left a message. Said if anything happened to her, we should check her safety deposit box."
"What's in it?"
"Evidence. Thirty years of evidence about every patient Rebecca ever poisoned." James pulled me toward the door. "We need to get that box before Rebecca finds out it exists."
"But you said I should hide! That it's too dangerous!"
"It is dangerous." James's smile turned savage. "But you wanted war. So let's start fighting."