Chapter 48

Natalie, six months pregnant with her sixth child, spends a sleepless night after Caleb confesses he is in love with Shannon and wants to move to New York to start a new life. He claims Shannon challenges his ideas and hints he’d keep a possible pregnancy. Natalie doubts Shannon would stay with Caleb and steels herself.

At dawn, Natalie confronts Shannon in her room. Shannon admits engaging with Caleb after deciding to challenge his beliefs, denies coercion, and argues that Natalie treats Caleb as a project and has built a business, not a home. The exchange escalates as Shannon rejects blame, predicting Natalie’s children will resent her.

Triggered and dissociating, Natalie lunges and straddles Shannon, squeezing her throat until she realizes what she’s doing and releases her. Shannon, shaken, calls the ranch cursed. Natalie regains a brittle composure, schedules a meeting, and pointedly asks if Shannon is pregnant; Shannon says no and declares she would never have a child with Caleb.

Stumbling outside, Natalie experiences visual distortions and panic while her son Samuel calls to her. She retreats to the pantry and phones Doug, confessing the altercation and her hands on Shannon’s neck. Doug coolly assesses leverage, advises promoting and paying Shannon with a revised contract to deter legal action, and proposes rushing Caleb into a special election.

Despite knowing Caleb isn’t ready, Natalie agrees to win at any cost to avoid divorce and ruin. Doug insists on PR support; Natalie impulsively blurts an insult about Caleb to Doug, alarming herself at the thin line between thought and speech. Doug ends the call, leaving the plan in motion and the moral stakes heightened.