Chapter 1345:


    She pressed two fingers against his wrist. The pulse beneath her touch was faint and irregr. His skin carried an unsettling coldness.


    Her brows drew together sharply. Laurence had crossed into territory where every second mattered.


    She lifted her gaze to Kiley, reading the calction behind those eyes. Kiley had dragged Laurence out here for leverage, nothing more.


    Maia dropped her voice low, but the steel in it left no room for argument. “Have Chris take Laurence somewhere he can rest. Right now. Whatever I have, it’s yours.”


    Nothing outweighed getting Laurence to safety. A clear offer would cut through the negotiation faster than appeals, and Maia had never been one to hesitate over costs when lives were at stake.


    Kiley’s eyebrows climbed. She drifted closer, lips nearly brushing Maia’s ear, and let out a softugh. “Three things, then. That’s fair, wouldn’t you say?”


    She wasn’t about to leave empty-handed. The whisper continued, carrying a note of false sweetness. “Rx. I’ll pick from what you mentioned before.”


    Maia gave a single nod.


    Only then did Kiley release her hold and pivot toward Chris. “Take Grandpa up to the third-floor lounge, would you?”


    She showed no concern that Chris might try anything reckless. Cooper family members filled every corner of the venue. Her father waited upstairs, surrounded by bodyguards who answered only to him.


    Kiley had yed this exactly as she’d intended—using Laurence without wasting a single move.


    Chris didn’t acknowledge her. He moved forward and gripped the wheelchair’s armrests.


    Bending down, he brought his face level with Laurence’s. “Grandpa, it’s Chris. Let me get you somewhere quiet.”


    Laurence nodded with surprising energy. Confusion clouded his thoughts, yet he could still summon the image of his eldest son, Kyle, and even more vividly, Kyle’s son standing before him now.


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    Time seemed to blur. He might have slipped back a decade, to the day he’d drafted his will and decided the entire Cooper Group would pass to Kyle.


    Then pain seized his chest. Memories he’d buried wed their way to the surface.


    Laurence remembered now—Kyle’s death hade too soon, and Zoey, his youngest daughter, sat behind prison walls.


    He still couldn’t ept it. Zoey would never have killed Kyle.


    She couldn’t have.


    His temple pulsed. The rity in his eyes dissolved.


    He peered up at Chris, searching. “Who… are you?”


    Chris, mid-step, went still. The questionnded like a blow to the ribs. His grandfather no longer knew him.


    “I’m… Chris.” His voice came out rough, strained by the ache of being forgotten by someone he loved.


    “Chris?” Laurence tilted his head, puzzled. “Why are you pretending to be seven years old?”


    Chris looked down. He resumed pushing the wheelchair without a word.


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