Chapter 236: The Way Home
When Serena and Liora reached the underground garage, the elevator had not even arrived.
That alone showed how fast Serena had forced herself down the emergency stairs.
The floor display above the elevator doors kept changing, each number drawing nearer. Serena stood in front of it breathing hard, one hand braced against the concrete wall. Relief broke through her so suddenly that her legs nearly folded under her.
She caught herself before she hit the ground.
Liora looked at her. "Are you all right?"
Serena gave a slow nod. Her fingers went to the perfectly knotted tie at her throat. She pulled it loose with an impatient tug, opening the collar of her shirt enough to let air reach her skin.
Her breathing eased by degrees.
There was no chance she would look weak in front of Giselle.
Especially not with Elias watching.
The elevator chimed.
The sound snapped through the garage.
Serena stepped forward at once and planted herself directly in front of the doors. She had made it in time. The doors were opening, and Giselle was still inside. Whatever happened next, Serena could stop her before the girl reached the exit lanes.
That certainty lasted less than a second.
The doors parted.
Before Serena could make out the inside of the car, a pale fist filled her vision.
The punch landed hard across her face.
It came with none of the hesitation Serena had expected from Giselle. No warning. No argument. No time for Serena to lift a hand or turn aside. Giselle had seen the marks on Elias’s face and the way he had collapsed against the wall upstairs. She had heard enough. The blow was an answer to all of it.
The bodyguards who had rushed in behind Serena froze. Liora’s pupils tightened.
Serena went down almost straight back, striking the cold garage floor with enough force to leave her stunned. In the short time since the corridor, her emotions had been torn apart and dragged back together too many times. The ringing in her head, the loss of sleep, the blow she had dealt herself, the sprint through the stairwell, and the pressure of seeing Elias in Giselle’s arms had spent whatever strength she had left.
She could not get up.
All she could do was lie there as the ringing returned and the edges of her vision darkened.
Liora dropped beside her and caught her under the arm.
With Liora’s help, Serena managed to push herself upright.
The sight she made was ugly.
Her long dark hair had come loose around her shoulders. Her collar hung open, her tie crooked and half undone. A bruise was already spreading across her face, while dust marked the expensive fabric of her suit. The woman who had walked into the garage prepared to take Elias back looked less like the head of Blackwood Group than someone who had been dragged through the worst moment of her own life.
Humiliation had become visible.
Serena barely noticed.
Remaining conscious took everything she had.
Giselle looked at Serena only once.
Then she tightened her hold around Elias and moved to leave.
The bodyguards surged forward together and blocked the path.
Giselle’s eyes hardened. "Move."
No one moved.
Her presence could make them cautious. She was a Frost, and that name had weight in the city. But caution was different from obedience. The bodyguards worked for Serena Blackwood. Serena’s orders carried more force than the anger of a young heiress, even one who was willing to stare them down.
Giselle took a slow breath.
She had carried Elias down from the executive floor and kept one arm around him all the way through the elevator. He had not looked steady enough to walk alone. Now she let him go, though only enough to guide him behind her.
"Stay behind me," she said.
Elias obeyed. His fingers brushed the back of her sleeve, weak enough to look accidental. Giselle shifted one step farther in front of him.
She had no interest in proving she could fight Serena’s staff. She hated the thought of violence landing anywhere near Elias. But the guards had closed every easy route out, and Serena had already shown that she would turn the building into a cage if fear gave her enough reason.
If they wanted to keep him here, then she would have to use the oldest solution available.
Force.
Behind her, Serena had finally forced herself to stand without Liora’s full support. Her face had taken the blow, but her hand pressed against her chest as though that was where she had been hurt.
Every breath came shallow and difficult.
Each inhale brought a small stabbing pain.
She breathed anyway.
Breathing was an instinct. Stop, and the body died.
Holding on to Elias had become the same kind of instinct. The thought of him leaving her made something inside Serena tighten with a pain too close to death to be ignored.
"Eli..."
Her voice was hoarse.
It was also softer than anyone in the garage had ever heard it. The bodyguards had heard her give orders that rearranged schedules, careers, and entire divisions. Liora had heard Serena threaten people with a smile. Neither had heard her ask for anything.
"Eli, please. Come home with me."
The plea left Serena exposed in a way the punch had not. Her bruised face and ruined clothing could be repaired. This could not. She was begging in front of staff, in front of Liora, and in front of the girl who had come to take him away.
Giselle felt anger rise at once.
Serena had tried force. She had called security. Now that she could not take Elias by force, was she going to use emotion instead?
Giselle was ready to step in front of him again.
Elias turned first.
A faint laugh escaped him. It was so light that it seemed likely to disappear in the cavernous garage.
"Home?"
The word trembled.
His eyes were red and wet. The grief in his face made even the bodyguards lower their gazes.
"Where is my home?" he asked. "Do I even have one anymore?"
Serena’s expression tightened with panic. "Of course you do."
"No!"
Elias’s voice broke through the garage.
The sound left his eyes rawer than before. Tears clung to his lashes, and he looked at Serena as if she had torn away the last place he could have returned to.
"Your house was never my home," he said. "You destroyed my home."
The words landed harder than the fist that had put Serena on the floor.
She had brought him into the Blackwood residence, given him rooms, clothes, meals, doctors, security, and every expensive form of comfort she knew how to provide. In her own distorted logic, she had called it taking him in. She had never stopped to ask whether a locked door could become a home merely because the sheets were clean and the people outside it were paid.
Serena’s chest hurt more sharply.
She had thought about what her actions might do to Elias’s foster parents. She had even considered, in the abstract, what his dependence on them meant. At the time, none of it had mattered enough to stop her. Elias was Lucien Hart’s replacement. A temporary copy. Someone she could discard once she had grown bored, or once Lucien came within reach.
His pain had been a cost she could pay with someone else’s life.
She had never expected to care about him.
Now regret was useless.
Serena pulled in another difficult breath and tried to make her voice steady.
"Eli, you know Marlene better than anyone. She was already a compulsive gambler. It did not matter how small the stakes started. Once she kept gambling, she was going to end up under debts she could never repay."
Her eyes fixed on him.
"I only sped up what was already coming. I didn’t hurt her. I never sent people after her. I never let anyone lay a hand on her."
She continued before Elias could speak.
"And Arthur did have health problems. He did not need to stay at Longhaven, but he had conditions that would have become worse as he aged. I gave him access to one of the best hospitals in the world. He was treated early. He was cared for. How is that bad for him?"
Elias listened in silence.
Internally, he almost admired the performance.
Serena had the kind of corporate mouth that could make a prison sound like a wellness retreat. She had taken debt, fear, manipulation, and control, then arranged each piece until it resembled help.
On the surface, parts of her explanation even sounded reasonable.
He could tear it apart if he wanted. He could tell her that a gambler’s weakness did not give Serena the right to manufacture a catastrophe. He could point out that Arthur’s treatment had never been a gift when it was used to keep Elias obedient. He could name the entire mechanism for what it was.
He did not.
Silence worked better.
Serena took it as an opening.
"Didn’t you meet my old classmates?" she asked. "They liked you. They’ve asked when I’ll bring you to dinner again."
A bright smile came over her face.
For a brief, unbearable second, she looked as if she and Elias were still happy. Like the two of them had a future full of dinners, private jokes, and ordinary invitations that Serena would never have to force into existence.
The offer was wrong in a way that made the garage feel colder. Serena was trying to build a future out of the social life she had once used to display him. She spoke as though another dinner could cover the fact that every pleasant memory had been built beside an exit she controlled.
Giselle had remained quiet.
She wanted Elias to decide this himself. Serena had done enough speaking for him. This was his pain, his history, and his right to answer.
Yet as she watched him stand there with tears in his eyes, Giselle’s hand tightened at her side.
Was he going to...