Chapter 9 - Sixty Thousand Dollars and a Lie
“You're with her.”
Wyatt looked ashamed.
“Not exactly.”
Catherine laughed.
“Men always say that when two women compare notes.”
Hazel felt something inside her finally break free.
Not heartbreak.
Relief.
She had spent six months wondering whether she had failed Wyatt.
Now she understood.
He had failed her.
Wyatt approached.
“I needed Catherine to believe—”
“Stop.”
“Hazel.”
“No.”
Her voice was calm.
That surprised even her.
“You don't get to explain before you untie me.”
Wyatt hesitated.
Then cut the ropes.
Catherine reached for her gun.
Wyatt aimed first.
“Don't.”
Hazel stood.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting you out.”
“You kidnapped me.”
“I arranged the van. Michael’s men would have killed you otherwise.”
“Your plans are terrible.”
“I know.”
“Did you forge the debt?”
“No.”
Catherine smiled.
“I did.”
Hazel looked at her.
“Why?”
“To make you desperate enough to take the Romano job.”
Everything stopped.
The job.
The debt.
The threats.
They had engineered all of it.
Hazel hadn't wandered into Damian’s world.
She had been pushed.
“Why Damian?”
“Because Elena left the second half of Sarah’s system inside his estate.”
Wyatt looked at Hazel.
“You were supposed to find it without realizing.”
“And when I didn't?”
Catherine shrugged.
“We accelerated things.”
Hazel wanted to hit her.
Instead she asked the question that mattered.
“Where's Michael?”
Catherine’s confidence flickered.
Wyatt answered.
“Going after Damian.”
Hazel moved toward the door.
Wyatt stopped her.
“You can't.”
“Watch me.”
“Michael wants you to do exactly that.”
“Then for once, he gets what he wants.”
Damian was at the Romano estate when Hazel called.
He answered before the first ring ended.
“Hazel.”
She closed her eyes.
Just hearing his voice nearly undid her.
“I'm okay.”
“Where are you?”
“Wyatt has me.”
Damian’s silence was murderous.
“He's helping.”
Another silence.
Slightly less murderous.
Hazel gave the location.
Then gunfire erupted upstairs.
Wyatt pushed Hazel down.
Catherine ran.
Michael’s men had arrived.
Damian reached the building twelve minutes later.
He found Hazel in the alley.
She ran toward him.
Neither slowed.
Damian caught her.
Hazel wrapped both arms around him.
For four years he had avoided touch.
Now he held her as though letting go were impossible.
“You're hurt.”
“Not mine,” she whispered, indicating the blood.
He pulled back enough to look at her.
“Don't ever disappear again.”
“I'll put it on my schedule.”
He almost laughed.
Then he kissed her.
It was not dramatic.
Not hungry.
Just one careful kiss against her forehead.
Hazel closed her eyes.
“Damian.”
“Yes?”
“You missed.”
He stared.
She rose onto her toes and kissed him.
This time he forgot how to breathe.
When they separated, Marco politely studied the alley wall.
Wyatt less politely stared.
Hazel turned toward him.
“Don't.”
“I didn't say anything.”
“Your face did.”
Back at the estate, they examined Catherine’s files.
The sixty-thousand-dollar debt was fake.
But the amount wasn't random.
$60,000 represented a transfer Sarah had made twenty-five years earlier.
To Elena’s mother.
Damian frowned.
“Why?”
Marco opened the associated record.
Payment description:
CHILD CUSTODY.
Hazel stared.
“Whose child?”
A birth certificate appeared.
The name had been blacked out.
But the date remained.
Damian knew it immediately.
His own birthday.
The room went silent.
Then Marco recovered another layer of the document.
The black bar disappeared.
The child’s name became visible.
DAMIAN BROOKS.
Damian stared.
His surname wasn't Romano.
Not originally.
And beneath the certificate was the name of his biological mother.
Sarah Brooks.
Hazel looked at Damian.
Then at herself.
Neither spoke.
Because if the document was real, everything between them had just become impossible.
Then Samuel entered.
He saw the birth certificate.
And whispered, “That document is a fake.”
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Behind him stood a woman nobody expected to see.
Sarah Brooks.
