Chapter 8 - What Rhett Had Planned That Night
The more Rhett remembered, the clearer the lost night became.
Six months earlier, he had asked Savannah to meet him in the observatory because he intended to tell her two things.
First: that he was ending his engagement to Celeste.
Second: that he wanted Savannah’s help launching the public science foundation there under her direction.
He had never said it aloud to anyone else, but he had already drafted the transition plan. Celeste would receive a negotiated settlement and public explanation. Gavin would be removed from all project oversight. Rhett would take the scandal, the donor backlash, whatever came with finally choosing honesty over convenience.
That was why the cancelled meeting mattered so much.
If Savannah had entered the mansion that night, everything would have changed before the pregnancy, before the months of interception, before Celeste tightened her hold.
Savannah listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she turned her face away.
“I waited at the gate for nearly half an hour,” she said. “I thought maybe you were delayed. Then one of your guards told me you’d given orders never to admit me again.”
Rhett shut his eyes.
“I know.”
“I left in tears. By the time your fake message reached you, I was already half-convinced you’d made the choice yourself.”
He walked closer but stopped before touching her. He had not earned that yet.
“Why didn’t you come back the next day?” he asked, knowing he might not like the answer.
“Because I was ashamed.” Her voice was very quiet. “And because Celeste came to see me after that.”
That explained the speed of it. Celeste had not merely blocked the meeting. She had followed up personally, making sure Savannah accepted the story.
Rhett crossed to his desk and pulled open the bottom drawer.
Inside lay an unopened velvet box.
Savannah stared at it.
“What is that?”
“The observatory key.” He swallowed. “And the director’s appointment letter I intended to give you.”
She said nothing.
He opened the box.
A silver key engraved with the observatory crest rested inside beside a folded letter on heavy paper: Savannah Hale — Founding Director, Whitmore Astronomy Outreach.
Savannah laughed once through sudden tears.
“This whole time,” she whispered, “I thought I was the woman you hid.”
“You were the woman I was too late getting to.”
The difference mattered.
But not enough to erase the damage.
Savannah looked at the key, then at him.
“And now?”
Rhett closed the box.
“Now I find out every hand that moved between us.”
That was not a romantic promise.
It was colder than that.
More useful.
Because by morning, Rhett no longer needed suspicion.
He had records. Logs. The clinic breach. The cancelled meeting. The fake text.
But one person still knew how all of it had been coordinated.
May you like
And that person was Gavin.
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