I crossed the room quickly and touched Leo’s forehead. He was burning up with fever.
“How long has he had this fever?” I demanded.
Sophia opened her mouth to answer, but Eleanor cut in first. “Since yesterday. She was making quite a scene about it.”
Sophia’s voice came out trembling. “His temperature was 104 degrees, Lucas. They took my phone away from me. They wouldn’t let me leave the house.”
Audrey laughed softly at that. “You always did choose weak women to marry, Luke.”
I looked between both of them and forced myself to breathe slowly, deliberately. Anger makes people reckless and sloppy. Calm makes people reveal everything they’re trying to hide.
“Why exactly is my wife lying on the floor?” I asked evenly.
Eleanor smiled like she believed she’d already won something. “Because this is my house, Lucas, and she simply forgot where she belongs in it.”
Why the House Was Never Actually Hers
That particular sentence turned out to be her single biggest mistake of the entire night. The house had never once actually belonged to my mother. Three years earlier, after my grandfather passed away, I had personally purchased the property through a military family trust set up specifically for that purpose. Eleanor had only ever been permitted to stay there under a temporary occupancy agreement I’d arranged.
She had no ownership stake whatsoever. No lease agreement. No legal authority over Sophia at all. And absolutely no right to keep anyone trapped inside that house against their will.
During my deployment overseas, Sophia’s messages to me had grown progressively shorter and colder over time. Then, quite suddenly, they had stopped coming almost entirely. Eleanor had told me, over the phone, that Sophia was simply tired, overly emotional, and deliberately avoiding contact with everyone.
