Chapter 4 - VANESSA HALE’S REAL ENGAGEMENT
They found Mason bleeding in the parking garage.
Alive.
Barely conscious.
Elena stopped several feet away.
Mason looked at her.
“I'm sorry.”
“Save your strength.”
“I loved you.”
“That makes what you did worse.”
Roman called emergency services.
Mason grabbed Elena's sleeve.
“Vanessa didn't choose me.”
Elena almost laughed.
“I noticed.”
“She chose you.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Hale wanted you married.”
“To you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Spousal access.”
Her stomach turned.
Marriage would give Mason opportunities.
Shared property.
Emergency decisions.
Potential access to inherited possessions.
Storage.
Documents.
Everything.
The engagement had been the final stage.
Vanessa kissed Mason because she believed the mission was almost complete.
Then Mason confessed something worse.
He had delayed the wedding twice because he couldn't finish betraying Elena.
“Don't make yourself heroic.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
“I was supposed to marry you, find whatever Daniel left behind, then divorce you.”
Elena stared.
“Five years.”
“I didn't expect to love you.”
Roman turned away, giving them privacy without leaving them unprotected.
Mason cried.
“I tried to get out.”
“By sleeping with Vanessa?”
“She threatened you.”
“So you protected me by returning to her bed?”
Mason had no answer.
Elena stood.
The ambulance arrived.
Before they loaded him inside, Mason whispered:
“Don't trust Roman either.”
Elena froze.
“Why?”
“Ask him what his father did to your mother.”
Then the doors closed.
Elena turned.
Roman was watching.
“What did your father do to my mother?”
May you like
For the first time since meeting him, Roman Valenti looked afraid to answer.
And Elena knew Mason had finally told the truth about something.
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