Page 71 of Say You're Mine

I laugh again, bitter and hollow. "Oh, that's rich. Use the fucked-up family dynamics to our advantage, huh?"

But even as the words leave my mouth, my mind is already racing. Elaine's paranoia, her obsession with control, her desperate need to maintain the perfect family image... there's something there. Something we can use.

"Judith's engagement," I say slowly, the pieces starting to click into place. "Elaine won't be able to resist making a big show of it. It's the perfect chance to-"

"To create a diversion," Dante finishes, a grim smile spreading across his face. "A way to get Cara out without Elaine realizing until it's too late."

For the first time in weeks, I feel a flicker of something dangerously close to hope. It's a fragile thing, as delicate as a butterfly's wing, but it's there.

"We'll need to be careful," I warn, already seeing the potential pitfalls. "If Elaine suspects anything, if she thinks I might show up..."

"She'll use it as bait," Dante nods. "Try to draw you out. We'll have to be smarter than that."

We spend the next few hours hunched over maps and blueprints, plotting and planning. It's almost like old times, back when Dante and I used to run cons together. Except now, the stakes are infinitely higher.

As night falls, Dante finally leaves me alone with my thoughts. I sink onto the edge of the bed, my head in my hands. The burst of adrenaline from planning is fading, leaving me hollow and aching.

I close my eyes, and immediately wish I hadn't. Because there she is, Cara, her face etched with pain and fear. I can almost smell her, that intoxicating mix of jasmine and something uniquely her. Can almost feel the swell of her belly beneath my palm.

"I'm coming for you," I whisper into the empty room. "Both of you. I swear it."

But the words feel empty, impotent. Because the truth is, I'm terrified. Terrified that I'll fail, that I'll give in to the darkness Faulkner planted in my mind. Terrified that even if we succeed, I'll be too broken, too damaged to be the husband and father Cara and our child deserve.

A sharp pain lances through my skull, and suddenly I'm back there, strapped to that chair, Faulkner's oily voice in my ear.

"She doesn't love you, Juniper," he croons, his words dripping with false sympathy. "She never did. It was all a lie, a beautiful delusion we let you believe. But now it's time to wake up. Time to be the son your mother always wanted."

I gasp, clawing my way back to reality. My shirt is soaked with sweat, my heart racing like I've run a marathon. This is what I'm afraid of, what keeps me up at night. The possibility that at any moment, I could lose myself. Could become the monster Faulkner tried to create.

With shaking hands, I reach for the burner phone hidden beneath the mattress. I shouldn't use it, I know I shouldn't. It's for emergencies only. But right now, hearing Cara's voice feels like the only thing that can keep me sane.

I dial the number from memory, holding my breath as it rings once, twice...

"June?" Cara's voice is barely above a whisper, but it hits me like a physical blow. "Is that you?"

"It's me, baby," I rasp, drinking in the sound of her breathing. "God, I miss you. Are you okay? The baby-"

"We're fine," she cuts me off, but I can hear the strain in her voice. "June, listen to me. We don't have much time. Elaine, she's planning something. I overheard her talking about making sure you can't interfere, about raising the baby without your influence."

Cold fury washes over me, pushing back the lingering shadows of Faulkner's conditioning. "I'll kill her," I growl, meaning every word. "If she so much as looks at you or our child wrong, I'll-"

"No," Cara says firmly. "No, June. We can't sink to her level. We have to be smarter than that. I have a plan, but I need you to trust me. Can you do that?"

I want to argue, want to insist that I should be the one protecting her. But I swallow my pride, my fear, my rage. "Always," I whisper. "I trust you with my life, Cara. With everything I am."

She lets out a shaky breath, and I can almost see her nodding, that determined set to her jaw that I love so much. "Okay. Here's what we're going to do..."

As Cara outlines her plan, I feel a shift within me. The helplessness, the crippling fear - they're still there, but they're no longer in control. Because Cara, my brilliant, fierce Cara, has found a way to fight back. And I'll be damned if I let her down.

"It's risky," I say when she finishes. "If anything goes wrong-"

"It won't," she insists. "We won't let it. June, this is our chance. Our only chance to end this, once and for all."

I close my eyes, seeing not the darkness of Faulkner's lab, but the future we've dreamed of. Cara, round with our child. A home filled with laughter and love, free from Elaine's poisonous influence.

"Okay," I say, resolve hardening my voice. "Let's do it. Let's burn it all down."

As I end the call, slipping the phone back into its hiding place, I feel a change come over me. The broken, frightened man I've been these past weeks is gone. In his place is someone harder, someone willing to do whatever it takes to protect what's his.

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