Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Knew My Marriage Was a Lie
The lights went out.
David grabbed Blaire.
She fought him.
“Stop,” he hissed. “I’m trying to keep you alive.”
Glass shattered.
Then Luca’s voice came from the darkness.
“Blaire!”
Security flooded the restaurant.
The intruder escaped through the kitchen.
David was detained.
Blaire refused to look at Luca.
In the SUV she finally spoke.
“Were you waiting for me at O’Hare?”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more because it came immediately.
“Did you move seats?”
“Yes.”
“Did Margaret tell you who I was?”
“Yes.”
Fiona slept in another vehicle with security.
Blaire had never felt more exposed.
“So the stranger on the plane was another lie.”
“No.”
“You planned everything.”
“I planned to sit beside you.”
“Why?”
“Because we found David searching Sterling archives forty-eight hours before you left Chicago.”
Luca explained.
His internal security system had flagged David.
Margaret recognized Blaire’s name.
They knew Eleanor’s daughter was traveling.
They suspected she might possess evidence.
“You could have introduced yourself.”
“And said what? Hello, I’m Luca Sterling. Your ex-husband may have married you because your supposedly dead mother possessed evidence connected to my father?”
“At least it would have been true.”
“Yes.”
That single word disarmed her anger.
Luca looked down.
“I should have told you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because Fiona dropped a rabbit, you looked like you hadn’t slept in days, and for twenty minutes you treated me like an ordinary man.”
His voice softened.
“I wanted twenty more.”
Blaire looked away.
That answer was worse.
Because she understood it.
Back at the tower, Margaret was waiting.
Blaire confronted her.
“You used him to watch me.”
“I asked Luca to confirm your identity.”
“Why?”
“Because Eleanor contacted me.”
Silence.
“When?”
“Yesterday morning.”
Blaire stepped closer.
“My mother contacted you?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop lying.”
“I’m not.”
Margaret handed her a letter.
Eleanor’s handwriting.
Blaire recognized it instantly.
Blaire,
If Luca finds you, trust what he does when nobody is watching, not what his surname makes you fear.
David was sent to find me. He was not sent by Sterling.
And if he tells you he married you only because of the trust, do not believe him.
That lie will destroy him too.
Blaire lowered the page.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
David requested to speak with Blaire.
She refused.
Then he sent one sentence through his attorney.
ASK FIONA WHAT SHE HEARD THE NIGHT I LEFT.
Blaire found Fiona playing with Luca.
She sat beside her.
“Sweetheart, do you remember the last night Daddy was home?”
Fiona nodded.
“What happened?”
“Daddy cried.”
Blaire froze.
David never cried.
“What did he say?”
“He was talking on the phone.”
“Do you remember the words?”
Fiona concentrated.
“He said, ‘You promised they’d never touch them.’”
Blaire’s chest tightened.
“Anything else?”
Fiona nodded.
“He said your name.”
“My name?”
“No.”
She pointed at Luca.
“His.”
Luca became still.
“What did Daddy say?”
Fiona looked at him.
“He said, ‘If Luca finds out who she really is, we’re all dead.’”
Nobody spoke.
Then the elevator chimed.
Margaret entered carrying an old envelope.
“I found the original marriage surveillance file.”
Blaire stared.
“Whose marriage?”
Margaret looked at her.
“Yours.”
She opened the envelope.
The first page contained David’s assignment.
The second contained Blaire’s photograph.
The third contained a handwritten instruction.
May you like
David Vance was not ordered to marry Blaire.
He had been ordered to kill her.
