Chapter 3 - The Name Buried in the Past
I couldn't hear anything except the blood rushing through my ears.
“My son's father is dead,” I said.
Garrett shook his head.
“We don't know that.”
“You're telling me you know something about him, but you've kept quiet for five years?”
“I didn't know about Noah.”
Kieran moved between us.
“Garrett, enough.”
“No. She's already involved. She deserves the truth.”
I turned toward Kieran.
“You knew?”
His silence was worse than an admission.
“How long?”
“I had suspicions.”
“Since when?”
“Since before I asked you to dinner.”
I stepped backward.
“So the flowers, the dinners, meeting Noah... Was any of it real?”
His expression tightened.
“All of it.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't have proof.”
“That's convenient.”
Kieran reached for my hand, but I pulled away.
Garrett placed the document on the table.
It was a photograph of a younger man standing beside Kieran's father, Vincent Voss. The man wore a dark suit and had one hand resting on Vincent's shoulder.
I recognized him immediately.
Not because of the photograph.
Because of the face.
Daniel.
The man who had once promised to marry me, then vanished when I told him I was pregnant.
My knees weakened.
“Where did you get this?”
“From my father's private archive,” Garrett answered. “His name was Adrian Cole. He worked for Vincent.”
I shook my head.
“That's impossible. Daniel told me he was a mechanic.”
“He was using an alias.”
Kieran finally spoke.
“Adrian handled private financial transactions for my father. He disappeared shortly before Vincent died.”
“And you think he disappeared because of me?”
“I think he disappeared because he stole something.”
Garrett opened another folder.
Inside were photocopies of bank transfers, shipping records, and a photograph of a warehouse near the Chicago River.
“Vincent maintained an illegal operation beneath the legitimate business,” Garrett said. “Adrian helped him move money. Then he discovered that Vincent was planning to eliminate anyone who could expose the operation.”
“Why would he come near me?”
“Because he may have been trying to get away from it.”
I stared at the photograph.
A memory surfaced.
Daniel standing in our tiny kitchen, holding a cup of coffee.
His voice had been unusually gentle that morning.
If anything happens to me, don't trust anyone who comes looking for you.
At the time, I'd thought it was paranoia.
Now I wasn't so sure.
Kieran ordered his security team to take us home.
I refused.
“I want answers, not another locked room.”
He looked at me for a long moment.
“Then we'll get them.”
That night, I put Noah to bed and sat beside him until he fell asleep. I watched his little chest rise and fall, wondering whether the world had been dangerous long before I understood it.
At 2:13 a.m., my phone buzzed.
An unknown number.
Ask Kieran what happened to his first fiancée.
A second message followed.
And ask him why she disappeared.
I stared at the screen.
The following morning, I confronted him.
He was in his kitchen, reading documents while drinking black coffee.
“Who was your first fiancée?”
His hand stopped.
“Where did you hear that?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Then answer me.”
Kieran put down the cup.
“Her name was Elise. We were engaged seven years ago.”
“What happened?”
“She died.”
“How?”
“A car accident.”
“Was it an accident?”
He looked directly at me.
“That's what the police concluded.”
“Did you love her?”
His silence lasted too long.
“I cared about her.”
I swallowed.
“That's not what I asked.”
Kieran moved closer.
“Mila, Elise's death has nothing to do with you.”
“Someone thinks it does.”
His expression changed.
“Who contacted you?”
I showed him the messages.
For the first time since I'd known him, Kieran looked genuinely afraid.
He immediately called his head of security.
Then he took my phone and examined the number.
“Pack a bag,” he said.
“I'm not leaving my apartment.”
“You're not safe there.”
“Then tell me why!”
He looked toward the window.
“Because Elise was the last person who tried to expose the truth about my father.”
Before I could respond, his phone rang.
It was Garrett.
Kieran answered on speaker.
His brother sounded breathless.
“Someone just sent me a video.”
“What video?”
“Of Elise.”
May you like
A pause.
“She's alive, Kieran.”
