Chapter 10
Natalie’s message stayed with Audrey after the bride left. Not the words themselves—those were already saved—but the way Natalie had held her phone, embarrassed to be asking whether the promise she’d paid for was real.
By late afternoon, Grant had changed the house codes. The lock clicked as he tested the new keypad, then clicked again when he tried the old one.
“Good,” Audrey said, though the sound didn’t make her shoulders loosen.
They were taking Caleb’s nursery things to a small rental nearby: the bassinet, his folded clothes, the diaper caddy, the monitor. Every trip to the car seemed to make the house less like a place where a baby could sleep and more like a place they had to guard.
Audrey tucked a spare blanket around Caleb in his carrier. The soft blue one he slept with lay folded on the porch bench while she gathered the last of the nursery bags.
Grant came through the front door carrying the monitor.
“Last load,” he said.
A car turned sharply into the drive. It stopped behind their car, blocking the garage.
Audrey recognized Lenora before she opened the door. Beside her stood a stocky man with a tool bag and a small case of equipment.
Grant set down the monitor.
“What are you doing here?”
“Collecting my event equipment.” Lenora glanced at the open doorway, as if she still expected it to welcome her. “You’ve made it very difficult to manage a business.”
“You don’t have permission to enter.”
“I have every right to retrieve what belongs to me.”
The locksmith shifted his tool bag. “She said she owns the property.”
“She doesn’t,” Grant said. “I do. And I’m telling you not to open that door.”
For a moment, nobody moved. Then Lenora took a key from her purse and tried the new lock. It didn’t turn.
“You changed the codes.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t lock me out of my own family home.”
“It’s my home,” Grant said. “You know that.”
The words landed with a weight Audrey felt in her chest. For years, Grant had softened every boundary until it sounded like a request. This time he didn’t soften it.
The locksmith looked between them. Lenora’s cheeks had flushed, but her voice stayed smooth.
“Please open the door,” she told him. “My things are inside.”
“There are a few event cases in the garage,” Grant said. “We’ll arrange a pickup with someone here. You’re not coming in today.”
“Those cases are essential. I have a paid event.”
“The event you never had permission to book.”
Lenora’s eyes flicked toward Audrey and the carrier.
“Is this really what you want Caleb to see? His father making a scene?”
Grant stepped between them—not touching Lenora, not blocking Audrey, but making his answer impossible to miss.
“He’s not watching a scene. He’s watching me tell you no.”
Lenora’s gaze hardened. The locksmith lowered his tools to the ground.
Audrey lifted the carrier. Caleb stirred, making a small sound that was nearly a cry. The air carried the sharp smell of cold pavement and the locksmith’s machine oil.
“I’m taking him to the car,” she said.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Grant replied.
Audrey walked down the porch steps, keeping one hand on the carrier handle. She had almost reached the car when the front door opened behind her. A moment later, the neighbor she’d called—Marisol from two houses down—hurried across the lawn, her coat still unbuttoned.
“I’m here,” Marisol said, looking first at Audrey, then at the people by the door. “You said you wanted someone to witness what happened.”
Lenora gave a short, incredulous laugh.
“This is a private family matter.”
“No,” Marisol said. “It stopped being private when you brought a locksmith to force your way into someone else’s house.”
“I’m retrieving equipment that belongs to me.”
“Then schedule a time with Grant. You don’t get to break in because you’re angry.”
The locksmith picked up his case. “I’m not opening anything without the owner’s permission.”
Lenora stared at him. “You were hired to do a job.”
“I was told you had authority. You don’t.”
For a beat, Lenora seemed to search each face for the one that might yield. Grant remained at the door. Marisol stood beside Audrey. Even the locksmith had stepped away from the lock.
Then Lenora turned toward the driveway.
“This family will regret humiliating me,” she said.
Grant didn’t follow her. “We’re not humiliating you. We’re keeping you out of our home.”
Lenora passed Audrey on her way to the car. Her eyes dropped to the blue blanket folded on the porch bench.
Audrey saw her notice it. She was still holding Caleb’s carrier, and Marisol had turned to check whether the baby was warm. Grant was watching the locksmith pack his tools.
Lenora snatched up the blanket.
“Put that down,” Audrey said.
Lenora hugged it to her coat. “It’s mine.”
“It belongs to Caleb.”
“Then you can get it from me.”
Grant came down the steps, but he stopped at the bottom, leaving space between them. Marisol moved closer to Audrey.
Lenora climbed into her car with the blanket. The door shut. The car backed out of the drive, tires crunching over the scattered grit.
Audrey didn’t chase it. She looked down at Caleb, secure in his carrier beneath the spare blanket, and felt the first flare of panic give way to anger.
“You all right?” Marisol asked.
“No,” Audrey said. “But he is.”
Grant came over. His face had gone pale around the mouth.
“I’m sorry I let her get that close.”
“She came here to cross a line. You stopped her.”
Marisol stayed while Grant called a locksmith of his own and arranged to have the garage cases collected another day. Then she walked them to their car, making sure they had what they needed for the drive to the rental. Audrey buckled Caleb in and checked the spare blanket around him.
Only after the car doors were shut did her phone vibrate.
A message from Lenora appeared on the screen.
Bring Caleb to the house on New Year’s Eve if you want his blanket back.
Audrey read it twice. The baby shifted in his seat, his small fingers opening and closing against the blanket covering him.
Grant leaned across the console. “What does she want?”
Audrey showed him.
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The house sat behind them, its new lock shining under the porch light.
Then Grant said, “We don’t have to go back.”
“I know.”
“She can keep the blanket.”
May you like
Audrey looked at Caleb. The missing blue blanket had been his comfort, but it would not be allowed to become a leash around him.
“She can keep it,” Audrey said. “She doesn’t get him.”
