Chapter 11 - THE EX-HUSBAND WHO CAME BACK
We escaped the bank through an old maintenance tunnel.
Luka had been shot.
The bullet only grazed his shoulder, but the blood soaking through his black shirt terrified me.
He barely reacted.
“We need Sofia.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No one is using my daughter as payment.”
Luka nodded.
“Good.”
That surprised me.
“You agree?”
“I wanted to know whether you were thinking clearly.”
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
Daniel’s words from the hospital came back to me.
Call me when you can think clearly.
I looked at Luka.
“I’m thinking very clearly now.”
When we reached Alessia’s apartment, Daniel was waiting outside.
Marcus grabbed him before he could approach.
Daniel raised both hands.
“I came alone.”
“You’re an idiot,” Luka said.
“Probably.”
Daniel looked at me.
“I know where Claire is.”
I stepped forward.
“How?”
“Vanessa works for Vale.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t understand.”
His eyes were red.
“She has worked for him since before I met you.”
Daniel explained that Vanessa was not simply his mistress.
She had been assigned to monitor him.
When Daniel began hesitating about Meridian’s plans for Sofia, Vanessa started the affair deliberately.
She collected messages.
Photographs.
Financial evidence.
Anything Vale could use to control him.
“Why should I believe you?”
Daniel pulled a phone from his pocket.
On the screen was a live location.
An industrial property near the river.
“Vanessa left this morning.”
“Tracking her?”
“She thinks I’m stupid.”
Luka looked at him.
“She isn’t wrong.”
Daniel accepted it.
Then his eyes moved to the bandage on Luka’s shoulder.
“You went to the bank.”
Luka’s gaze sharpened.
“How do you know about the bank?”
Daniel swallowed.
“My father helped Vale raid it thirteen years ago.”
I stepped back.
Daniel continued.
“My father was in the car the night Michael Hart supposedly died.”
My heart stopped.
“Was my father there?”
“Yes.”
“Did he kill Michael?”
Daniel’s face crumpled.
“No.”
He looked directly at me.
“Michael killed him.”
Silence filled the hallway.
Daniel wiped his eyes.
“That’s why my family owed Vale.”
I finally understood.
Five million dollars had not been about debt.
It had been payment for revenge.
Daniel’s entire family had been positioned near mine because Vale wanted access to Michael Hart’s daughter.
I should have hated Daniel even more.
Instead, I saw what he really was.
A weak man born inside someone else’s war.
He reached into his jacket.
“There’s something else.”
He handed me a small key.
“Vanessa has the last DNA envelope.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where?”
May you like
Daniel looked toward the river on his phone.
“With your mother.”
