Chapter 12 - What Eliza Never Told Her Husband
Ethan stopped halfway down the stairs.
Lucian's men aimed weapons.
“Easy.”
Eliza stared at him.
“You're supposed to be recovering.”
“I've had worse.”
“You were shot two days ago.”
“Grazed.”
“Ethan.”
“I found something.”
He held up his phone.
Eliza's anger shifted into attention.
“What?”
“Daniel contacted me.”
Lucian stepped closer.
“Why?”
“Because he wants Adrian gone.”
Daniel Cross had spent his entire life being raised as Adrian's successor.
Then he discovered Adrian planned to eliminate him after obtaining Eliza's shares.
Daniel wanted immunity.
In exchange, he would give them Isabel's location.
“Can we trust him?” Eliza asked.
“No,” Ethan said. “But we can trust self-preservation.”
Daniel had also sent coordinates.
Halcyon Grand.
Sublevel three.
There was no official sublevel three.
Lucian understood.
“Old service tunnels.”
Ethan nodded.
They prepared.
Before leaving, Ethan asked Eliza for one minute.
Lucian walked away.
Ethan looked at her.
“I've signed everything.”
“I saw.”
“I won't contest the divorce.”
“Thank you.”
“I also amended the company records.”
“For what?”
“To identify you as co-founder.”
“You don't get to rewrite history.”
“No.”
He nodded.
“But I can correct the record.”
That mattered more than she wanted it to.
Ethan smiled sadly.
“There's something I always wondered.”
“What?”
“Why did you stay?”
Eliza thought carefully.
“Because I loved you.”
His eyes lowered.
“And because I forgot that loving someone isn't supposed to require disappearing.”
He nodded.
“I hope you never disappear again.”
“I won't.”
They hugged.
Not romantically.
Not as husband and wife.
As two people grieving something that had once been real.
Then Eliza joined Lucian.
The tunnels beneath Halcyon were narrow and damp.
Daniel waited at the first junction.
He raised both hands.
“No weapons.”
Lucian searched him anyway.
“Where's Isabel?”
“Adrian moved her.”
“You said—”
“He realized I contacted Ethan.”
Daniel handed Eliza a keycard.
“He's in the original vault.”
“Why Eliza?” Lucian asked.
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Because Adrian has spent twelve years making the same mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“Thinking she's leverage.”
Eliza looked at him.
Daniel nodded toward the corridor.
“He never understood she's the person everyone should have been afraid of.”
They reached the vault.
The door stood partly open.
Inside, Isabel sat alone.
Lucian rushed to her.
Eliza stopped.
Something was wrong.
“Lucian.”
Too late.
The vault door slammed behind them.
Daniel had remained outside.
Then Adrian's voice came through a speaker.
“Thank you, son.”
Daniel shouted something.
A gunshot followed.
Eliza spun toward the door.
Silence.
Adrian continued.
“Now, Eliza. Let's discuss the seventeen percent.”
A panel opened in the wall.
Behind thick glass stood Adrian.
May you like
And beside him was Ethan.
A gun pressed against his head.
