Chapter 5 - THE BETRAYAL BESIDE HIM
Caleb never got the gun out.
Noah hit him from the side, driving him against the wall.
Dorian crossed the room and ripped the weapon from Caleb’s hand.
Julian swore.
I stumbled backward, both hands covering my stomach.
“Don’t move,” Dorian said.
Caleb stopped fighting.
His face showed something worse than fear.
Relief.
Dorian stared at him.
“Eleven years.”
Caleb said nothing.
“You stood beside me for eleven years.”
“Yes.”
“You ate in my house.”
“Yes.”
“You protected my wife.”
Caleb’s eyes moved toward me.
“I did.”
“Then why?”
His expression tightened.
“Because Victor had my daughter.”
The room went silent.
Dorian’s anger faltered.
Caleb lowered his head.
“She disappeared seven months ago. College parking garage. They sent me photographs.”
I remembered Caleb mentioning his daughter, Sophie.
Twenty years old.
Studying architecture in Boston.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Dorian asked.
“Because you would’ve tried to rescue her.”
“Yes.”
“And Victor said if you did, she died.”
Caleb laughed bitterly.
“You think Julian was the only one he controlled?”
Dorian lowered the gun slightly.
“Did you cut Alina’s brakes?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“Who did?”
“A man named Eric Voss. Contract security.”
Noah frowned.
“He worked here?”
“Briefly.”
I remembered him.
Quiet.
Brown hair.
One of many faces I never learned properly.
“Where is he now?”
Caleb looked at Dorian.
“Probably dead.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor cleans his loose ends.”
Dorian stepped closer.
“The photograph from inside my house.”
Caleb’s face crumpled.
“I took it.”
Pain moved across Dorian’s expression.
“Why?”
“To convince you Alina was vulnerable. Victor wanted you scared enough to push her away.”
My stomach twisted.
“So Victor engineered our divorce.”
Caleb looked at me.
“Not entirely.”
“What does that mean?”
“He gave Dorian a choice.”
I turned toward my husband.
“What choice?”
Dorian’s eyes closed.
Caleb answered.
“Cooperate with Victor again or remove you from his life.”
The truth clicked into place.
Victor didn’t simply want me gone.
He wanted Dorian isolated.
Easier to control.
“What about the pregnancy?” I asked.
Caleb shook his head.
“Victor didn’t know until yesterday.”
“Then the note?”
“I planted it.”
Dorian turned.
“What?”
“Victor ordered me to frighten you after the hospital.”
“You knew before we returned?”
Caleb nodded.
“I have access to security communication.”
My stomach turned.
“How did Victor know?”
“I told him.”
Dorian’s expression went hard again.
Caleb looked ashamed.
“I thought if I kept giving him information, Sophie stayed alive.”
I understood desperation.
That made it no less dangerous.
“Where is she?” Dorian asked.
“I don’t know.”
Caleb reached slowly inside his shirt.
Noah tensed.
“It’s not a weapon.”
He pulled out a necklace.
Inside the pendant was a tiny memory card.
“I’ve been collecting everything Victor sent me.”
Dorian stared.
“Why?”
“Because I knew eventually one of us would need enough evidence to bury him.”
That changed everything.
For the next four hours, federal investigators worked through the files.
The lead agent was Naomi Reed, a forty-four-year-old woman with the exhausted patience of someone who had spent years around men who believed laws were optional.
She looked at Dorian like she didn’t like him.
I appreciated that immediately.
“Mr. Cross,” she said, “this evidence helps. It does not erase your own exposure.”
“I know.”
“You could still face charges.”
“I know.”
She glanced toward me.
Then back at him.
“But if Victor is holding two people, this becomes a kidnapping investigation.”
“Three,” Caleb said.
Everyone looked at him.
He swallowed.
“There’s another person.”
“Who?” Agent Reed asked.
Caleb hesitated.
“Dr. Mercer.”
I stood so quickly the chair scraped behind me.
“The doctor?”
“She disappeared thirty minutes after we left the hospital.”
My blood went cold.
Dorian’s face changed.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Hospital security thought she left voluntarily.”
Caleb shook his head.
“She didn’t.”
Agent Reed immediately began making calls.
The reason became obvious within the hour.
Victor needed a doctor.
Not for Evelyn.
Not Sophie.
For me.
“He’s preparing for the possibility he can’t control the trust legally,” Reed said.
I covered my stomach.
“If the child is born—”
“The trust transfers.”
Dorian looked sick.
Reed continued carefully.
“If Victor believes possession of the child gives him leverage over Dorian, he may be planning long-term.”
I couldn’t hear anything after that.
Possession of the child.
My baby.
Dorian crouched in front of me.
“He will never touch you.”
I looked at him.
“You can’t promise that.”
Something changed in his expression.
“You’re right.”
It was perhaps the first time Dorian Cross had admitted that control had limits.
He took my hand carefully.
“But I can promise I won’t hide the truth from you again.”
I wanted to believe him.
Later that evening, security moved Caleb into federal custody.
Before leaving, he stopped beside me.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at him.
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
His eyes filled.
“I liked you, Mrs. Cross.”
“Apparently not enough.”
He flinched.
Then nodded.
“That’s fair.”
As agents led him away, my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
Dorian reached for it.
I stopped him.
“My phone.”
“Alina.”
“My decision.”
He nodded reluctantly.
I opened the message.
A video appeared.
Evelyn was seated in a dark room.
Beside her sat a frightened young woman.
Sophie.
And behind them stood Dr. Mercer.
Victor walked into frame.
He was older than I expected.
Silver hair.
Tailored suit.
Nothing monstrous about him.
That made him worse.
“Hello, Alina.”
His voice was calm.
“You and I haven’t been properly introduced.”
Dorian moved closer.
Victor smiled into the camera.
“I apologize for the inconvenience surrounding your divorce.”
Then he held up a document.
“I need your husband to sign something.”
Dorian muttered a curse.
“But,” Victor continued, “I’ve realized Dorian is emotionally compromised.”
His smile became colder.
“So perhaps I’ve been negotiating with the wrong Cross.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“I would like to negotiate with you.”
The video ended.
Ten seconds later, a location appeared on my phone.
Followed by instructions.
COME ALONE.
TELL DORIAN AND ONE HOSTAGE DIES.
I stared at the screen.
Then at my husband.
May you like
“What does it say?” he asked.
And for the first time in my marriage, I had to decide whether protecting someone I loved required lying to him.
