Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Couldn’t Be Fired
Lena turned.
Her younger brother stood between two security guards.
Evan Marlow was twenty-six, still wearing blue hospital scrubs beneath a gray jacket. He looked confused, exhausted, and terrified.
“Lena?”
She crossed the room.
“What are you doing here?”
“One of Mr. Vale’s security people called me.”
Adrian looked sharply at Marco.
Marco shook his head.
“I didn’t.”
Dante’s voice changed.
“Who called you?”
Evan held up his phone.
“A man said Lena had been hurt.”
Lena looked at Dante.
“No one called him from here.”
Adrian took Evan’s phone and inspected the number.
“Burner.”
Bianca laughed bitterly.
“How convenient.”
Dante ignored her.
“Evan, did the caller say anything else?”
“He said if I cared about my sister, I should come before ten.”
The wall clock read 9:47.
Adrian’s face hardened.
“This was planned.”
Lena felt suddenly exposed.
The transmitter.
The tool.
The photograph.
Her brother arriving at the exact moment.
Someone was building a story around her.
Bianca stepped closer.
“Or Lena planned it.”
“Enough,” Dante said.
“Why? Because you like her?”
Lena flinched.
Dante didn’t.
“I said enough.”
Bianca looked as if she wanted to throw something.
Instead she turned to Evan.
“Do you know what your sister has been doing?”
Lena stepped between them.
“Leave him out of this.”
“Apparently your entire family is already in it.”
Evan looked at Lena.
“What is she talking about?”
“Nothing.”
Dante spoke.
“Evan, your sister has been framed.”
Bianca stared at him.
“You’ve decided that already?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because if Lena wanted to harm me, she had seven weeks of private access to do it.”
No one answered.
Dante continued.
“She didn’t.”
Lena looked at him.
It was not affection in his voice.
It was logic.
And somehow that meant more.
Adrian began issuing orders.
“Lock elevators at the service level. Freeze all badge records. Pull camera footage from the last seventy-two hours.”
Marco nodded.
“What about staff?”
“Keep everyone in assigned rooms.”
Bianca scoffed.
“This is insane.”
Dante looked at her.
“You’re free to leave.”
Her eyes widened.
“You just said no one leaves.”
“I changed my mind.”
The insult was clear.
If she left during a security investigation, suspicion would follow her.
Bianca understood immediately.
“I’m staying.”
“I thought so.”
For the first time, Lena saw fear beneath Bianca’s anger.
It disappeared quickly.
But it was there.
Dante transferred back into a temporary medical chair while Adrian took the black wheelchair for forensic examination.
Dr. Harrow insisted therapy was over for the day.
Dante refused.
“I felt pressure.”
“You also discovered your equipment was altered.”
“That’s exactly why I’m continuing.”
Celeste sighed.
“You’re impossible.”
“I’ve been told.”
Lena nearly smiled.
Bianca noticed.
That small almost-smile became another crime in her eyes.
Dante saw that too.
“Bianca.”
“What?”
“Go downstairs.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you downstairs.”
She stared at him.
“Are you sending me away so you can be alone with her?”
“No. I’m sending you away because every time Lena breathes, you behave as if she proposed marriage.”
Evan looked down, hiding a grin.
Lena wanted to disappear.
Bianca’s cheeks flushed.
“Fine.”
She grabbed her handbag.
“But when this ends badly, remember that I warned you.”
She walked out.
The room felt ten degrees lighter.
Celeste began preparing another sensory test.
Evan stood beside Lena.
“Is he always like that?”
Dante heard him.
“Yes.”
Evan froze.
Dante added, “Usually worse.”
That broke the tension.
Even Lena laughed.
For a few minutes, the penthouse became almost normal.
Then Celeste touched a neurological testing tool against Dante’s foot.
Nothing.
His ankle.
Nothing.
His calf.
Nothing.
Then his knee.
Dante’s fingers tightened on the chair.
“There.”
Celeste looked up.
“You felt that?”
“Yes.”
She repeated it.
Again.
Again.
Every time, Dante felt pressure.
Celeste stood.
“This is significant.”
“How significant?” Lena asked.
“It means the original prognosis may no longer be accurate.”
Evan, who was studying to become a nurse practitioner, leaned closer.
“Could swelling have masked nerve function?”
Celeste glanced at him.
“Yes.”
“What about medication?”
That changed the room.
Celeste looked at Dante.
“What medications?”
“The list you prescribed.”
“I prescribed several.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“Bianca manages them.”
Celeste went to the locked medication drawer.
She opened it.
Removed three bottles.
Checked the labels.
Then she froze.
“This isn’t right.”
Lena stepped closer.
“What?”
Celeste held up a bottle.
“The dose.”
Dante’s expression changed.
“Explain.”
“This medication suppresses muscle spasms.”
“I know.”
“The prescribed dose was five milligrams.”
She turned the bottle.
“This label says fifteen.”
Silence.
“Could that delay recovery?” Lena asked.
“It could reduce visible muscle response. It could also cause extreme fatigue and weakness.”
Dante’s face went completely still.
Lena remembered months of him falling asleep during therapy.
The complaints of dizziness.
The days he could barely lift himself from the chair.
Bianca always said recovery exhausted him.
Maybe recovery had not been the problem.
“Who changed the dose?” Dante asked.
Celeste examined the bottle.
“The pharmacy would have records.”
Adrian entered at that exact moment.
His face told them he had more bad news.
“The wheelchair tracker transmitted to a device inside the building.”
“Where?” Dante asked.
Adrian looked toward the hall.
“Bianca’s suite.”
Nobody spoke.
Then he continued.
“But the receiver isn’t hers.”
“What does that mean?”
“It was planted behind the wall.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“So someone wants us looking at Bianca.”
Adrian nodded.
“Just like someone wants us looking at Lena.”
A chessboard.
Lena understood now.
Someone was moving every person against every other person.
Dante looked at her.
“Who benefits if I stop trusting everyone?”
She answered immediately.
“The person you already trust.”
Adrian’s gaze sharpened.
Dante said nothing.
Lena wished she could take the words back.
Then Dante asked, “Who do I trust?”
That was the problem.
Everyone in the room knew the answer.
Dante Vale trusted almost nobody.
Except perhaps Adrian.
Dr. Harrow.
His longtime attorney.
And Bianca.
Or he had.
Evan pulled Lena aside while security searched the rooms.
“You need to leave.”
“I can’t.”
“You absolutely can.”
“If I leave now, it looks like I’m running.”
“I don’t care how it looks.”
“I do.”
Evan lowered his voice.
“This family is dangerous.”
“So is whoever planted evidence in my locker.”
“Exactly.”
Lena touched his arm.
“I won’t let them drag you into this.”
“They already did.”
He looked at Dante.
“Why is he protecting you?”
Lena had no answer.
Across the room, Dante was watching them.
When their eyes met, he looked away first.
That unsettled her more than anything else.
Hours passed.
Security collected phones.
Staff were questioned.
Bianca returned from downstairs and remained in the library with two lawyers.
By late afternoon, Adrian had discovered that the tool in Lena’s locker had been purchased with cash near Grand Central.
No useful fingerprints.
The transmitter used disposable components.
The photograph came from a private police evidence database.
That narrowed the suspect pool.
Someone had either bribed law enforcement or had access through Vale Security.
Dante ordered an internal audit.
At six, Celeste received the pharmacy records.
She read them twice.
Then she looked at Dante.
“The dose change was authorized electronically.”
“By whom?”
“Me.”
Her face had gone pale.
“I didn’t authorize it.”
Adrian took the tablet.
“Credentials compromised.”
Celeste sat down.
“This started four months ago.”
Lena calculated.
Two months after Dante’s accident.
Exactly when his early improvements had stopped.
Dante did the same calculation.
His voice was low.
“Someone has been keeping me weak.”
No one contradicted him.
Bianca entered the room.
She had changed clothes.
The ivory gown was gone.
She now wore a cream suit and the expression of a woman entering court.
“My father’s attorney is here.”
Dante didn’t look impressed.
“Why?”
“Because this has become ridiculous.”
“A person altered my medication.”
“And I’m sure your people will solve it.”
“They’re trying.”
“Then release me from this house.”
Dante looked at Adrian.
“Has she been detained?”
“No.”
He looked back at Bianca.
“You could have left hours ago.”
She realized her mistake.
“I didn’t want to abandon you.”
“Of course.”
Lena saw Bianca’s fingers tighten.
Dante had begun testing her.
Every sentence was bait.
Bianca knew it.
“So what happens now?” she asked.
“Now I move.”
Everyone stared.
Celeste spoke first.
“You are not medically cleared.”
“I didn’t say I was walking.”
Dante turned to Adrian.
“Prepare the Hudson residence.”
Bianca’s face changed instantly.
“No.”
Dante noticed.
“Problem?”
“That house isn’t equipped.”
“It is.”
“You haven’t used it in years.”
“It’s secure.”
“Dante—”
“We leave tonight.”
Bianca glanced toward Lena.
“She doesn’t come.”
Dante didn’t hesitate.
“Yes, she does.”
Lena stared.
“Sir—”
“You’re part of the investigation.”
Bianca gave a harsh laugh.
“How romantic.”
Lena’s face burned.
Dante’s did not change.
“Evan goes too.”
Evan protested.
“I have clinical rotation tomorrow.”
Dante looked at him.
“You were lured here by someone targeting your sister.”
Evan stopped.
“You’re safer with us.”
That word struck Lena strangely.
Us.
Not me.
Us.
By eight, vehicles waited in the private garage.
Adrian divided the staff into groups.
Dante would travel in an armored SUV.
Lena and Evan in another.
Bianca refused to ride separately from Dante.
Dante refused to argue.
As Lena packed a small overnight bag from the staff changing room, she noticed something strange.
Her locker door was open.
Security had searched it.
Everything had been removed and returned.
Except one item.
A small envelope lay beneath her shoes.
Her name was written on the front.
LENA.
She looked toward the hallway.
No one.
She opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Not Dante this time.
Her.
Taken from across the street outside her apartment.
She was carrying groceries.
Evan walked beside her.
The photograph was dated six months earlier.
The day after Dante’s accident.
Lena’s hands began to shake.
There was writing on the back.
YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE HIM.
She stared.
See whom?
That day she had gone directly home after work.
Except—
No.
She remembered now.
A man had been standing beside the pharmacy across from her apartment.
He had been injured.
Blood on his forehead.
He asked to borrow her phone.
She let him.
He called someone.
Then disappeared before police arrived.
Lena had forgotten the incident.
Until now.
She ran to the hallway.
“Adrian!”
Footsteps approached.
But they were not Adrian’s.
A man in a Vale Security uniform appeared at the far end of the corridor.
Lena recognized his face.
Her heart stopped.
It was the injured man from six months ago.
May you like
He smiled.
Then he reached inside his jacket.
