Chapter 10 - The Marriage Was Never About the Debt
Victor stared at Dominic.
“You did.”
Dominic laughed.
“Try again.”
My father went pale.
I knew before he spoke.
Not because I was brilliant.
Because cowardice had a recognizable face.
“You,” I whispered.
Dad looked at me.
“June—”
“You tried to kill Mom.”
“I didn't know she would drive that night.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It was supposed to scare her.”
“You cut her brakes!”
“I paid someone to damage the car. Not completely.”
Laura had spent twelve years hiding because my father had wanted to frighten her into silence.
Dominic recorded the confession.
Then Rafael moved.
Fast.
His security team entered from the second door.
Guns hit the floor.
Serena ran to me.
Victor screamed.
Dominic tried to bargain.
Neither got far.
The federal investigators already had copies of Account 17.
Rafael had sent them hours earlier.
“Without asking me?”
“The account belongs to you. The evidence doesn't.”
I considered being angry.
Instead I realized he was right.
Evidence of crimes wasn't mine to protect.
Victor was arrested.
Dominic followed.
It should have ended there.
It didn't.
Because the next morning Elena Ward arrived with documents.
“There is a problem with your marriage.”
I looked at Rafael.
“What kind?”
“The original Callow-Moretti agreement was induced by fraudulent representations.”
“Meaning?”
“You can annul it immediately.”
Silence.
I had fought so hard for choice.
Now I had one.
Rafael didn't speak.
That mattered.
He didn't ask me to stay.
Didn't mention the debt.
Didn't remind me of our kiss.
“What happens to Rafael if I annul?”
“Nothing financially,” Elena said.
“And Callow Logistics?”
“Account 17 gives you controlling interest in several assets once the fraudulent transfers are reversed.”
“So I could own the company.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Rafael.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“And you still agreed to the clause letting me leave.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because a cage doesn't become less of a cage because it's comfortable.”
That nearly broke me.
I signed one document.
Not the annulment.
A petition freezing Victor's corporate authority.
Then I took the annulment papers upstairs.
I kept them.
For three days.
Rafael never asked.
On the fourth, I found him in the study.
The painting remained on the wall.
“I've made a decision.”
He stood.
I held up the papers.
Then tore them in half.
His eyes changed.
“June.”
“Don't get dramatic. I'm not promising forever today.”
“I wouldn't ask.”
“I know.”
“That helps.”
I walked toward him.
“I want to know you without contracts.”
“I want that too.”
“I want dates.”
He blinked.
“We're married.”
“I am aware.”
“You want me to take my wife on dates?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“Normal ones.”
“I don't know what normal people do.”
I smiled.
“That might be the most alarming thing you've ever said.”
He kissed me.
Later that afternoon, we drove to Callow Logistics.
Employees watched as I entered.
Some knew.
Some didn't.
I stood in my father's office.
My office now, perhaps.
There was one locked drawer.
Serena found the key taped beneath Victor's desk.
Inside was a second phone.
One saved voicemail.
Received the morning Serena disappeared.
I played it.
Victor's voice filled the room.
“If June becomes Moretti's wife, activate the contingency.”
A second man's voice answered.
“What contingency?”
Victor said three words.
“Take Rafael out.”
Then someone knocked on the locked office door.
May you like
Three slow knocks.
And Rafael's security chief whispered, “Don't open it. One of our own men is missing...”
