Chapter 6 - The Price of Elara Fagan
The address led to an abandoned lakeside clinic.
Elara remembered it.
Her mother had volunteered there.
Vadim wanted her behind security.
Elara refused.
"You married someone stubborn," she told him.
"I noticed."
Inside, they found Margaret and Mara's mother waiting.
Neither was restrained.
Mara ran to her mother.
Elara stared at Margaret.
"What does 'want her back' mean?"
Margaret's eyes filled.
"It wasn't my wording."
"Whose was it?"
A door opened.
Patrick entered behind them.
Elara spun.
Vadim's men reached for their weapons.
Patrick raised both hands.
"I was invited too."
Margaret sighed.
"This has gone far enough."
She led them into an examination room.
There she told the truth.
Catherine hadn't died on October 17.
She survived Gerald's attack.
Patrick helped move her secretly to the clinic because Gerald believed she was dead.
But Catherine's injuries caused serious complications.
She lived another eleven months.
Elara staggered.
"Eleven months?"
Margaret nodded.
"She wanted to see you."
"Then why didn't she?"
"Gerald was watching you constantly."
Elara turned toward Patrick.
"You knew she was alive?"
His silence answered.
Rage exploded through her.
"You let me mourn her while she was alive?"
Patrick's voice broke.
"I thought I was keeping you alive."
"You stole eleven months from me!"
Vadim stepped closer but allowed Elara to choose whether she wanted comfort.
She did.
For the first time, she reached for him in front of everyone.
He took her hand.
Margaret handed Elara a box.
Catherine had recorded messages during those final months.
Birthdays.
Advice.
Apologies.
One recording was labeled:
FOR THE MAN ELARA CHOOSES.
Elara almost laughed through her tears.
"She didn't know about Vadim."
Margaret smiled.
"No. That's why she wrote chooses."
Elara looked at Vadim.
Not the man her father selected.
The man she was beginning to choose herself.
They played it privately later.
Catherine appeared thin but smiling.
"If you're watching this with my daughter, understand something. Elara may believe love is something she has to earn. That's Patrick's damage, not hers."
Elara cried.
Vadim said nothing.
He simply sat beside her.
Catherine continued.
"Never make her smaller so you can feel larger."
Vadim looked at Elara.
"I won't."
The recording ended.
Elara wiped her eyes.
"She would probably be horrified by your résumé."
Vadim almost smiled.
"Probably."
Then his phone rang.
Gerald had escaped custody during transfer.
Someone inside law enforcement had helped him.
And he had taken the original trust documents.
Without them, proving Patrick's fraud became harder.
But Gerald wanted something bigger.
He contacted Vadim directly.
His demand was simple.
Trade Elara for the documents.
Vadim read the message once.
Deleted it.
Elara stared.
"What did it say?"
"Nothing important."
"Vadim."
He sighed.
She took his phone from his hand.
The deleted message was recoverable.
She read it.
Her face changed.
"He wants me."
"He isn't getting you."
"He wants something he thinks I know."
"Still no."
"Stop deciding for me."
Vadim froze.
The words hung between them.
Elara softened.
"Please."
He looked away.
"I know what it is to have someone control your choices."
That hit him.
She continued.
"If you protect me by taking away my decisions, eventually it becomes another cage."
Vadim nodded slowly.
"You're right."
Together they constructed a plan.
Elara would agree to meet Gerald.
Vadim would monitor everything.
The meeting was arranged for an old Fagan warehouse.
Elara entered alone.
Gerald stood beneath a single overhead light.
He smiled.
"You look different."
"I am."
"Marriage suits you."
"Having my father exposed suits me better."
Gerald laughed.
Then he placed Catherine's original trust documents on a table.
"What do you want?"
"You."
"Why?"
"Because Catherine gave you something before she died."
"No."
"She did."
Elara remembered the box.
The recordings.
The letters.
Nothing else.
Gerald approached.
"Your mother hid the access key to every file she collected."
"I don't have it."
"You do. You just don't know it."
His eyes dropped.
To Elara's wedding ring.
She stared at it.
The ring hadn't come from Catherine.
Vadim had provided it.
Unless—
Elara removed it.
Inside the band was a tiny engraved number.
She had never noticed.
Gerald smiled.
"There it is."
Elara's blood chilled.
"How did this get into my ring?"
Gerald's smile widened.
"Ask your husband."
A sound came from behind the warehouse.
Elara turned.
Vadim stepped from the shadows.
His face was unreadable.
Gerald laughed.
"Go ahead, Sokolov."
May you like
Elara stared at Vadim.
"Tell her who gave you that ring."
