Chapter 2 - The Lie Her Father Needed
Elena’s lips parted, but no sound came out.
Victor’s eyes hardened. “Tell your husband what happened.”
Adrian moved between them.
“Look at me when you speak,” Adrian said.
Victor gave a cold laugh. “You think a wedding ring means you know my daughter?”
“No. I think terror does.”
“Elena bruises easily.”
“She flinches when you say her name.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
Elena found her voice. “Adrian, please. Let him leave.”
He looked at her. “Do you want him to leave because you feel safe with him, or because you’re afraid of what happens if he stays?”
Her silence answered again.
Victor took a step. Dante immediately blocked him.
“This is family business,” Victor snapped.
Adrian’s gaze stayed on Elena. “She is my family now. More important, she is an adult standing in my house. She decides who gets near her.”
Something moved behind Elena’s expression. Not trust. Not yet. But surprise.
Victor’s jaw tightened. “You married her because I owed you twelve million dollars.”
“I married her because you refused every financial settlement I offered and insisted on the marriage.”
Elena turned sharply toward her father.
Adrian noticed.
“You told me he demanded me,” she said.
Victor’s face went blank.
The room changed.
Adrian had thought Elena understood the arrangement. He had believed Victor told her the truth: the Moretti shipping company was collapsing, a debt to Vale Holdings had come due, and Victor proposed a marriage that would fold the debt into a long-term partnership.
Now he understood that Elena had been told something else.
“What exactly did your father say I demanded?” Adrian asked.
Her voice shook. “He said you wanted a Moretti in your house. He said if I refused, you would take the company, our home, and my brother’s future.”
Victor cut in. “I was simplifying.”
“You were lying,” Adrian said.
Victor’s attorney, waiting outside, knocked once. Dante ignored him.
Elena pressed a hand to her forehead. “Then why did you agree to marry me?”
Adrian answered without hesitation. “Because your father offered it as the only deal that would stop him from laying off three hundred workers while he moved assets overseas.”
Victor’s face twitched.
Elena stared at him. “What assets?”
Adrian looked at Victor.
“That,” he said, “is what I’ve been trying to learn.”
Victor suddenly lunged toward the door.
Dante caught him before he reached the handle.
A phone slipped from Victor’s inside pocket and hit the carpet.
The screen lit up.
May you like
One message was visible.
MOVE THE GIRL BEFORE VALE FINDS THE SECOND PHONE.
