Chapter 89

Atticus pulled a burning stick from the fire and used it to light his cigarette. He didn't think Elise had married Samuel. Back then, when he'd asked her, she wouldn't say who it was. Her mother had just passed away, and she'd looked so fragile that he hadn't pushed her. But now it all made sense. Only someone like Samuel could make a woman like Elise give up everything and walk away from her career. "If I'd known, I would've talked some sense into her," Atticus muttered, spouting a cloud of smoke. "I knew about him and Zara. Marrying him was practically signing up to be a single mother." "They already have a child," Stanley said. Atticus nearly burned his lips on the cigarette. Samuel having a son wasn't exactly news in the circle. The public didn't know, but people in their line did. But nobody had seen the mother before. Samuel was cold to the core, as if it ran in his very bones. Given the Holt family's standing, nobody dared to pry for information. If things turned out to b