It would be difficult for her to defend her case as she stood bare before her husband, so Willow grabbed her discarded baggy shirt from the cold concrete floor and quickly slipped it on. She tugged at its hemline nervously, as if it would protect her from his piercingly predatory gaze. In that moment, she felt like an utter fool for thinking for one moment that she had any type of privacy in her. Of course, Juliette was a voyeuristic bitch who wanted to do everything in her power to destroy this marriage. She should have known better to think otherwise and now she was faced with the consequences of her stupidity.

Sebastian didn’t budge an inch from his spot on the daybed.

Instead, he sat there quietly, waiting for her to speak—to tell her side of the story.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, steadying her nerves as she spoke carefully, choosing her words wisely as there was this terrible feeling in her gut that he was a dormant volcano on the brink of eruption. And in all honesty, she would have much preferred his volatile anger than his dark icy regard.

“Listen, Sebastian,” she spoke calmly. “This day has been a day from Hell. One minute everything’s great and makes sense and then the next minute, everything is in total chaos and crashing and burning. When I was found out…”

‘I was pregnant’, she wanted to say, but she trailed off as the word pregnant lodged in her throat like a terrible lump refusing to come off her tongue or be swallowed back down.

“I was angry and scared. It totally blindsided me, but it shouldn’t have. I mean, what in the hell did I expect would happen after months of us having unprotected sex?”

She ran her fingers through her hair, pacing back and forth. “I know I was in the wrong for saying that I should have an abortion without telling you, but I only said that out of fear. I couldn’t keep something like that from you, Sebastian. Not after spending so much time trying to make things work between us.”

He pondered in a gelid emotionless voice, “So, you only said you were going to have an abortion because you were afraid?”

Willow shook her head and halted her pacing to look at him. “No, that’s not what I said. Saying that I was going to have an abortion without telling you was something I did out of fear. I still want to have an abortion, Sebastian.”

“Does the thought of carrying our child,” he paused, “disgust you?”

Her head jerked back in shock at such a question. Willow blinked her eyes rapidly as her mind carefully processed his words and insecurities that lurked underneath.

“No,” she rasped. “No, it’s not that at all.”

When he spoke next, his flat voice gained depth once more as a touch of irritation and impatience colored his words. “If not that, then what is it?”

“Sebastian, we’re not ready to bring a child into this world.”

“No one is ever truly ready for a child,” he countered, anger worming its way into his tone more and more, palpable rising pressure rolling off him in waves. “Giselle and I weren’t ready for Valerie, but we did what we had to do and we made do.”

Willow shook her head. “No, Sebastian. That was completely different.” 

Sebastian shot up from the daybed, stalking over to her. “How is it any different than here and now, Willow?”

She stood her ground, cocking her head back just enough to look him straight in the eyes. “Because when Giselle was pregnant with Valerie, she didn’t have to worry about you running around as a contract killer with your father and Juliette pulling on your goddamn puppet strings! You can’t seriously expect me to be okay with bringing a child into that kind of life, Sebastian. You can’t expect me to accept a life of you missing out on our child’s first words or first steps because you’re halfway across the country dissolving someone’s body into a drum of lye. I’m not fucking doing it!”

“I honestly don’t think I’m ready for this. I’m not going to walk around this goddamn city pregnant with Juliette following my every move and listening to everything I say,” Willow snapped, darting her eyes around the ceiling as if searching for Juliette’s face. “Always wondering and worrying what she’ll do next. I won’t give that sick bitch the satisfaction.”

Sebastian cupped her face, his calloused thumbs gently stroking her cheeks. “I’ll protect the three of us. You know I can. I’m not going to fuck up this time.”

Her anger dissipated at his words and she placed her hands atop of his.

“I’m not Giselle, Sebastian,” she said softly, “and this baby isn’t Valerie.”

Pain rippled across his face as if she had stabbed him pointblank in the chest and twisted the knife counterclockwise for good measure.

“No, you’re not,” he agreed coolly, clenching his jaw tight.

In turn, she replied, “Then stop comparing what we have now to what you had back then. We’ll never have that, Sebastian. I’ve accepted that, and you should too.”

“I know I can never have that again. That’s not what I want. I want us. I want this baby,” he said, his green eyes glistening with desperation.

Willow closed her eyes as she spoke, “Sometimes, what we want isn’t what we need. We need each other. We don’t need this baby now nor does this baby need parents who aren’t ready to fully commit to that kind of responsibility.”

“You know for a goddamn fact that I’d do anything for the sake of us,” he growled. “You know that, Willow.”

Her eyes snapped open at his words. “Yes, I know you’d kill for me, Sebastian, but that’s easy for you. Killing is almost as natural as breathing to you. You didn’t think twice when you took Simon’s life, so was it that much of a sacrifice to you, Sebastian? The answer is no. It wasn’t a true sacrifice.”

Sebastian dropped his big hands from her face, backing away with a scoff. “Pray tell, what would be a true sacrifice for you? What do you want me to do to prove to you that my loyalty is to you and our growing family? What is it, Will? Don’t leave me in suspense.”

She chewed hard on her bottom lip before she finally spoke. “Walk away from the Authority.”

He chuckled, shaking his head as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. “You think it’s that easy? You think I can send in my two weeks’ notice to the Authority just like that?”

“A true sacrifice is never easy, Sebastian.”

“There is no leaving the Authority, Will. If you’re in, you’re in. If you’re out, it’s because you’re dead.”

“You’re his son,” she returned.

Sebastian finally snapped. “That doesn’t mean he won’t make an example of me! His blood might be in my veins, but he’d strike me down like the god he thinks he is to proof to everyone his only loyalty lies with the Authority. I’ve been nothing but a burden to him since the day he found out he was to have a child by his bed-warming whore. Eliminating me would indefinitely sever himself from her, but I suppose I thought wrong about them considering they’re so eager to partner up.”

Willow cocked her head, her face scrunching in confusion. “What do you mean your parents are so eager to partner up?”

“The choices I deemed necessary to protect you came with,” he paused, choosing his next word in a careful tone, “repercussions.”

She probed further, her words tumbling from her lips in a frantic rush. “What the fuck are you talking about? What repercussions?”

“Juliette and I were to be punished for acting against the interests of the Authority. After she received her punishment, she was given the honor to tell me what mine would be,” he stated.

Willow casted her eyes to the floor. “So, that’s the real reason she summoned you tonight. Telling you about the pregnancy was merely icing on the cake for her.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, turning away from him to avoid his gaze while her heart thumped wildly in her chest in fear. “So, what’s your punishment?”

The few moments of silence were too much for her fraying nerves, so she snapped at him in a crackling voice, “What is it, Sebastian?”

“I am to report to Vivien in forty-eight hours.”

She stiffened at the news, shock slamming into her full-force. “Your punishment is paying your mother a visit?”

“I am to remain there until I have her permission to leave.”

Willow turned halfway to face him. “And she’s holding you hostage too?”

Her salty tears burned her eyes as they bubbled up and spilled over, flowing freely down her face as she slowly made her way over to the bed. She sat down at the edge, leaning forward as she took deep breaths to calm herself. Her mind became clogged with jumbled thoughts she couldn’t untangle. If he reported to his mother, there was no way of telling when Vivien would release him from her clutches.

This was his personal hell handcrafted by his own parents. But as his wife, she’d be a fool if she let him go. She’d be a fool not to do something even as they were at odds with each other over this baby growing inside of her.

She sniffled, brushing her tears away with her hands as she rose up from the bed and approached him. Encroaching his personal space, she reached into his pants’ pocket and retrieved his phone quickly.

“What are you doing,” Sebastian queried with a frown. He reached for her, but somehow she managed to dodge him, avoiding his question as she rushed into the bathroom. He was hot on her trail, but her determination kept her ahead of him by an arm’s length and she slammed the door in his face. Within a nanosecond, she managed to twist the lock on the doorknob to secure her privacy just mere moments before he twisted, jerked, and rattled the knob.

“Willow, what the hell are you doing?”

She flipped on the light switch before she focused her efforts on searching through his phone contacts. She attempted to locate his father’s number by hunting for a contact labeled Father, Dad, Sperm Donator, or Phillip, but she had no such luck. As her husband pounded at the bathroom door, demanding she open it, she combed through his list of contacts once more until one stuck out upon closer inspection.

The contact had been named HIM in all capital letters.

Going on a hunch, she chose that one and brought the phone to her ear to listen to ringing. She counted out the rings in her head and just before the last one, her call was answered.

“I had never pegged you to be weak enough to call me after you’ve been informed of your punishment’s conditions. Have we finally hit a nerve,” his father answered, his voice deep, smooth, and taunting.

“I’m sorry to disappoint, but this is your daughter-in-law speaking,” she returned, narrowing her eyes at how easily this man’s tongue slashed out digs and insults when aimed at his only son. Her hand clenched the phone in anger.

Silence.

Then he said coolly, “I’m listening.”

“We need to talk in person.”

“Define we.”

“You and me,” she answered.

He chuckled momentarily. “And exactly would this talk between you and I entail?”

“Unfortunately, due to time constraints and other variables,” Willow stated, snapping her attention the door as Sebastian’s growly protests and door-banging finally died down to nothing, “I cannot disclose that to you, but know that this is a meeting you don’t want to miss.”

“You’re coming to the table with a high-priced demand but empty pockets.”

“My pockets are far from empty, Mister Mercer. I can assure you that. Forty-eight hours. 9PM at the river ferry boarding docks.”

He then questioned, “What makes you think I will be there?”

“Do you really want your stubbornness to be a potential factor in the downfall of the Authority, Mister Mercer? Two nights from now. 9 o’clock sharp at the river ferry boarding docks,” she stated confidently before she hung up. She squeezed her eyes shut, taking a deep inhale as a tiny impossible idea sparked into her head and she had less than twenty-four hours to grow it into something grand.

She unlocked the bathroom door and opened it, nearly jumping out of her skin as Sebastian waited for her on the other side, gripping the doorframe his hands.

“What did you do,” he interrogated, seething.

“A choice I deemed necessary to protect you…to protect us,” she answered, recycling his words for her own purpose.

Willow ducked under one of his arms to escape the bathroom, marching into the bedroom.

“Who did you call?”

“The answer to all our problems,” she answered, tossing his phone onto the bed. 

He went after her, grabbing ahold of her arm to force her to look at him. “He’s not the answer. He’s the goddamn problem, Willow.”

“Then let’s be his problem together, Sebastian. We can’t keep taking this laying down! I can’t take this anymore,” she returned angrily. “I’m meeting with him two days from now whether you like it or not. You’re my husband, not their slave. Not a puppet to do their bidding. Not a toy for their twisted amusement. This is our lives they’re fucking with. This is our marriage they’re fucking with. I get it that you’re afraid because you know what they’re capable of, but you’ve been brave enough for the both of us since the very beginning and now it’s my turn. I need to do this.”

Her eyes glistened with tears. “Please, let me do this.”

A pained hesitation rippled across his face at her plea. She broke free from his grasp and closed in on him, reaching up to hold his face with her hands. Lifting on her tiptoes, she kissed him softly.

“I need your support, Sebastian,” she whispered against his lips. “I need you. Say you’ll let me do this.”

He pressed his forehead against hers. “It’s too dangerous.”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” she returned, “for you…for us, but I need your support and…your help.”

“If I agree to this, I’m going to be there.”

“I told him it would be only he and I meeting on the ferry,” she admitted. “I don’t think he’ll bite the bait if you’re there at my side, Sebastian.”

He replied gruffly, “And I’m not letting my wife meet him without any backup. I’ll cover you. Keep him outside on the deck. Starboard.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I guess I don’t have a choice, but to say yes.”

“You guessed fucking right,” he stated stubbornly.

She fought the urge to roll her eyes. “But that wasn’t the type of help I’m asking for though.”

He narrowed his eyes in turn. “Well, you’re still gonna get it.”

“Alright, so you’ll be my backup, but I need something else from you.”

Sebastian pulled his head back slightly to gaze down at her, cocking an eyebrow as a telltale sign that she had his full attention.

“I need intel about the Authority.”

He blinked at her in surprise, tilting his head as his brain swiftly connected the dots. “You’re trying to blackmail him?”

She chewed on her bottom lip, guilt flashing across her face. “I wouldn’t exactly call it blackmailing. More like…bribing.”

Sebastian frowned deeply, taking a step back from her. “Have you lost your goddamn mind?”

“If you can type up all the Authority’s dirty secrets, we can hold it against them—against your father. If they hurt us, if they hurt any of our loved ones, the truth will be sent out to newspapers, news stations, blogs, law enforcement, the government, everyone. Since the Authority operates in the shadows, if they don’t set you free then their terrible sins will come to light,” she reasoned. “My best friends from highschool, Andrew and Evan, are self-proclaimed social justice hackers. After you type everything up, we’ll send it to them with instructions to send it out if something happens. Tell me it’s a bad idea.”

He closed his eyes, shaking his head. “It’s a bad idea…”

Her lips parted to speak, but he tacked on something else, “…but it just might work.”

“Really?” Her eyes lit up with hope.

“Or it could end in a bloodbath.”

The sense of hope dissipated as quickly as it had come, but still she said, “It’s our best shot.”

“If it’s our best shot, it’s going to take more than me typing up a tell-all novel. If we’re threatening to unbury the Authority’s skeletons and parade them around for public consumption, we’re gonna need files as hard evidence or it will be nothing more than a sensational hitman thriller that might top a New York Bestsellers adult fiction chart,” he replied.

She crossed her arms over her chest and paced back and forth, processing his words carefully. “And what exactly are in these files?”

“Eliminated targets, clientele lists, government insiders, field assets, executive members of the Authority, financial reports, weapons suppliers, foreign allies,” he listed coolly. “If we can get our hands on those files, the Authority might just back off.”

“Where can we get these files,” she asked. “Would they be at the Authority main headquarters?” 

He shook his head. “The Authority doesn’t have a main headquarters. That would be too risky. It has small branches all over the world, which are all linked to an extensive private network that took nearly four-hundred million dollars to manufacture. Its private servers are near-impenetrable. To access all these files, you must top clearance in the system. Otherwise, the files are compartmentalized based on your assigned access level. You access only files the Authority deems necessary for your role.”

“Who has top clearance?”

“All the high-ups and a few Authority favorites.”

She paused in her pacing, arching an eyebrow. “Would…Juliette have that kind of clearance?”

He clenched his jaw for a moment, eyeing her as he caught onto her intent. “It’s a high possibility considering her close ties to the executives…and my father.”

“So, it’s a ‘high possibility’ that you could get these files by using Juliette’s top clearance,” she asked.

“If I had her company laptop and knew her password,” he answered.

Willow cocked her head. “After all these years of knowing her and working for her, you aren’t sure what her password could be?”

“The Authority requires all managing staff to change their passwords every seventy-two hours to avoid security breaches,” Sebastian informed.

“So, how would you be able to get her password?”

“Torture.”

Willow’s eyes widened, her heart quickening in pace at the nonchalant reply that came out of her husband’s mouth so freely and unhesitant. Not that Juliette didn’t deserve such a thing, but it was an ongoing process for her to accept her husband’s violent nature.

She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “If that’s what it takes. Do you think we’ll be able to get everything we need in the next forty-eight hours?”

“It’s a—”

“…high possibility?” She finished for him in a pondering tone that made his lips quirk upward slightly.

“In the meanwhile, we need to go off the grind until we get everything we need for this meeting,” he stated. 

“I’ll pack light,” she assured with a nod.

Sebastian approached her, lowering his voice, “We still need to finish our discussion about the three of us.”

At first, she was confused as to what he meant by 'the three of us' until the realization finally hit her. She had been so consumed with trying to free her husband from the chains imposed by the Authority that she had completely forgotten that she was...

Willow casted her eyes down, running her tongue along her top front teeth. “We have more important things to worry about right now, Sebastian.”

He placed an index finger on her chin, tilting her head up to align her gaze with his. “This is important. I’m letting my pregnant wife walk into the lion’s den. I would burn this fucking world to the ground if something happened to you—to the two of you. It’s difficult for me to accept your plan, knowing all the things that could go wrong. I reserve the right to put a bullet in that bastard’s head and anyone else’s on that ferryboat if they even so much as look at you wrong.”

For some reason, she smiled weakly. “That’s kind of romantic in a way…I think?”

“That’s the truth,” he said.

“Well, let’s hope it doesn't get to that point where you have to put bullets in heads,” Willow returned.

His gaze hardened. “I want it to get to that point.”

She gulped at his words, unsure of what to say.

Then he bent his head downward to plant a kiss on her forehead and her eyelids fluttered shut, goosebumps prickling across her skin at the sensation.

He breathed, “Get dressed in something comfortable. We’re going to ground.”