On the drive back, Ste debated it for a moment before she finally gave in and asked, "Joshua, do you know where Sellers is?"
Joshua''s hands barely flinched on the steering wheel. He kept his tonepletely casual. "No idea."
"Do you have any idea who might have taken him, then?" Ste pressed.
"He''s crossed a lot of people," Joshua noted smoothly. "It could be anyone."
Ste lowered her gaze, letting the conversation drift into a heavy silence.
...
The Williams residence.
When Aurora got the call from Sherman detailing Sellers''s disappearance, all the remaining colorpletely drained from her face.
Sellers was missing.
The head of the family just gone, vanished into thin air.
Aurora''s mind immediately went straight to Joshua.
"Joshua has to be behind this!"
Sherman took a steadying breath and recounted every single detail of the confrontation that had just gone down at Mr. Burton''s estate.
Aurora listened in absolute, stunned silence.
A bone-deep chill settled over her chest.
She had just handed Sellers the dirt she''d dug up on Joshua, and now Sellers was mysteriously missing. It was impossible to view it as a mere coincidence.
Joshua was bold enough to kidnap a family head.
Who was next?
Was heing for her?
No. She couldn''t just sit around and wait for the axe to fall.
If Joshua targeted her, there was zero chance Sherman could protect her. Right now, her only potential lifeline... was another family head: McCoy Chapman. Even though the Chapman family had canceled the engagement after the disaster at the party, Aurora knew that McCoy was genuinely head-over-heels for her.
She still had a y to make.
Not to mention...
She nced down, her hand resting gently against her stomach. A toxic, triumphant smirk pulled at the corners of her mouth.
This trump card couldn''t havee at a better time. Whether the Chapman family wanted her or not, they were going to have to marry her.
A weekter, Ste received a phone call from Skyler Williams.
"Star, are you free this weekend for dinner?"
"What''s the asion, Dad?" Ste asked.
"Aurora and McCoy officially got their marriage license," Skyler exined. "They aren''t doing a big wedding right now, so our two families are just going to have
-private dinner to cel keep
things simple."
Ste waspletely blindsided. "Their license? Aurora and McCoy are actually married?"
"Yes," Skyler confirmed. "If you don''t have other ns, make sure you''re on time."
He sounded like he wanted to get off the phone as quickly as possible, tossing out a few more instructions before hanging up.
Ste stared at the dead screen, her brow furrowed in utter confusion.
The Chapman family had definitively called off the engagement. Why on earth would they suddenly agree to the marriage?
Skipping the wedding, going straight for the legal paperwork, and just hosting a small family dinner? It was a ssic move to keep the marriage entirely under the radar.
Needing answers, Ste dialed Lauretta Chapman.
"Lauretta, did you know that Aurora and McCoy just got their marriage license?" "Yeah," Lauretta said quietly. "I just heard my parents talking about it, actually."
She paused for a beat before dropping a massive bombshell.
"Aurora is pregnant."
Ste was stunned. "Are you sure?"
"My parents and McCoy took her to the doctor themselves to confirm it. It''s real," Lauretta said.
Ste knew she probably shouldn''t ask, but she couldn''t bite her tongue. "Are they... absolutely sure the baby is McCoy''s?"
"My parents were extremely skeptical at first, too," Lauretta admitted. "But McCoy swore up and down that the baby is his.
"As for
night happened that day at
the party... even though it was a RR nightmare, McCoy still firmly. believes that Aurora was the victim.
"He thinks that whatever she did, she was just trying to survive.
"As a man, it''s definitely a hard pill for him to swallow, but he genuinely doesn''t hold any malicious resentment against her.