Chapter 5 - THE FIANCÉE'S SECRET
Damian brought Elena to a private apartment owned by his attorney. For the first time since the bruises appeared, she slept without locking herself inside a bathroom.
He did not question her that night.
He sat outside the guest room with a cup of untouched coffee and listened to the quiet sounds of the building.
At dawn, Elena found him still awake.
"You don't have to protect me every second," she said.
"Someone has been threatening your life. I disagree."
She almost smiled.
Then her expression changed.
"Mr. Reyes, why did you hire me?"
"I didn't. Rosalind did."
"No. I mean, why did you let me stay after you noticed the bruises?"
Damian considered the question.
"Because you were frightened, and everyone around you seemed more interested in keeping you quiet than finding out why."
Elena looked down at her hands.
"My father died when I was young. My mother raised Mateo and me alone. She told us to stay away from powerful people because power always came with a price."
"Yet she worked for my father."
"She believed he could help her expose something dangerous."
"Did she love him?"
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
"I don't know. She never told me."
Damian sat forward.
"Elena, I need the truth about your family. Not because I own your story, but because someone is using it against you."
She nodded slowly.
"My mother disappeared when I was twelve. The police said she died in an apartment fire. There was never a body. After that, a woman from a private foundation paid for our schooling and medical expenses."
"Isabella."
"Yes."
The answer settled between them.
"Why would she help you?"
"Because she promised my mother she would keep us safe."
Damian felt his stomach tighten.
"Or because she wanted to keep you close."
That afternoon, Damian confronted Isabella at the Vale Foundation's headquarters.
She greeted him in a glass-walled office overlooking the river.
"You look tired," she said. "Have you been sleeping at all?"
"Did you pay for Elena's brother's treatment?"
Isabella didn't blink.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because the boy needed help."
"Did you know Elena was being threatened?"
Her silence lasted a fraction too long.
"Damian, you have no idea what she's involved in."
"Then explain it."
Isabella walked to the window.
"Your father was a dangerous man. He made promises to people he couldn't control. When he disappeared, those people started hunting anyone who knew where he'd gone."
"And you decided to keep Elena close?"
"I decided to keep her alive."
"By allowing someone to bruise her?"
Isabella turned sharply.
"I never touched her."
"Did you order anyone else to?"
"No."
For the first time, Damian believed her.
But believing she hadn't hurt Elena was not the same as believing she was innocent.
He placed the photograph of Isabella and his father on her desk.
"Why were you with him six months ago?"
Isabella stared at the image.
Then she sat down.
"Because he asked me to help him come home."
Damian felt the room go silent around him.
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect you to understand that your father was hiding from people who could destroy every person he loved."
"Who?"
Isabella opened a locked drawer and removed a sealed envelope.
Inside were bank transfers, private correspondence, and a list of names.
One belonged to a sitting senator.
Another belonged to the police commissioner.
The final name was Damian's own.
"What is this?" he demanded.
"A record of payments made to protect your inheritance."
"I never received these payments."
"No. Your father did."
Damian scanned the documents.
Every transaction had been approved using a signature that looked like his.
Someone had forged his name for years.
Isabella leaned forward.
"Your father didn't just disappear, Damian. He was building a case against the people who controlled his empire."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because the last person who tried to tell you the truth ended up dead."
"Who?"
She looked at him with exhausted eyes.
"Your mother."
Damian stood so abruptly that the chair struck the wall.
"My mother died in a car accident."
"That's what your father told you."
"You're lying."
Isabella shook her head.
"Ask Rafael why the brakes failed. Ask him why your father never allowed an autopsy. Ask him what your mother was carrying the night she died."
Damian walked out without another word.
His phone rang before he reached the elevator.
Rosalind's voice came through, trembling.
"Mr. Reyes, you need to come home immediately."
"What's happened?"
"They found someone in the east wing."
"Who?"
Rosalind began to cry.
"Your father."
A pause.
"He's alive, Damian."
Then she whispered the words that made him stop breathing.
May you like
"But he isn't alone."
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