Bronwyn didn't move. She stood on the sidewalk, putting the car door between them.
"Say what you have to say from there," Bronwyn said.
Victoria lowered her sunglasses. Her eyes were cold, calculating. "I thought you understood five years ago that you aren't fit for my son."
"Your son is the one harassing me," Bronwyn shot back.
"Jennings is... spirited," Victoria said. "But I won't have you ruining his reputation or his engagement. This trial will be public. Messy."
"Then drop the charges."
"No," Victoria said. "Here is the deal. Make your brother plead guilty. I'll pull some strings with the judge. He'll go to a minimum-security facility upstate. Two years. Maybe eighteen months with good behavior."
"He's innocent of assault! It was a fight!"
"It doesn't matter what the truth is, Miss Brewer. It matters what we can prove. And we can prove whatever we want."
The window started to roll up.
"That's the best offer you'll get," Victoria said through the glass. "Reject it, and I'll make sure he gets ten years."
The car pulled away, spraying exhaust over Bronwyn's legs.
Bronwyn stood there, shaking. Two years. Leo would be destroyed in prison. He was soft, artistic. He wouldn't survive a week.
She needed money. She needed power.
Her phone rang. It was St. Jude's Hospital. The name sent a jolt through her; the Bowen Wing of St. Jude's was where she'd done her residency before they'd kicked her out.
"Miss Brewer? This is the ER. Your uncle... there was an accident at the construction site. He's listed as your emergency contact."
Her uncle. The man who had stolen her inheritance and kicked her out when she was sixteen.
But he was family. Technically. And maybe, just maybe, he knew something about her mother's papers.
She took the subway to the hospital. The ER was a war zone. A multi-car pileup on the I-95 had flooded the trauma bay. Doctors were shouting, nurses running.
Bronwyn pushed through the doors, looking for the intake desk.
And then she saw him.
Jennings Bowen.
He was standing near the nurses' station, wearing a dark suit, looking out of place amidst the blood and chaos. He was talking to the Hospital Administrator, looking bored.
He looked up and saw her. His eyes narrowed. He took in her disheveled hair, her pale face.
He said something to the Administrator, who stopped talking immediately. Jennings walked over to her.
"Here to sell alcohol to the patients?" he asked.
Bronwyn didn't have the energy to fight. "Move, Bowen."
He stepped in front of her, blocking her path. "Did you get my bill? Three thousand dollars for my shoes."
Bronwyn looked up at him. Her eyes were dry, burning. "I'll pay you. I'll sell my blood if I have to. Just get out of my way."
Something in her voice-the raw, unfiltered exhaustion-made him pause. The mockery slipped from his face.
"Who is Brewer?" a nurse shouted, running out of a trauma room. "Patient is crashing! We need a signature for surgery!"
Bronwyn shoved Jennings aside and ran toward the voice.
Jennings stood there, watching her go. He didn't leave. He followed.
