Chapter 4 - The Husband Who Came Back From the DeadClaraara had imagined seeing Ethan again hundreds of times.
In some versions she slapped him.
In others she demanded answers.
Sometimes she simply walked away.
She had never imagined him pointing a gun at her.
“Ethan.”
His face looked older.
Thinner.
But the eyes were unchanged.
Those were the eyes she had trusted beside her in bed.
The eyes that had watched Maya take her first steps.
Gabriel shifted subtly in front of Claraara.
Ethan noticed.
“Don’t.”
Gabriel stopped.
“You shoot me,” Gabriel said, “you won’t leave this building.”
“I don’t need to.”
Ethan pointed toward the red box.
“I need that.”
Claraara found her voice.
“You left us.”
Ethan looked at her.
“I kept you alive.”
“You stole everything.”
“I needed money.”
“You put debt in my name!”
“To make it believable.”
Her disbelief became fury.
“Maya went hungry.”
Something flickered across Ethan’s face.
“I didn’t know it got that bad.”
“You never checked!”
“I couldn’t.”
“Three years, Ethan!”
Gabriel said quietly, “He checked.”
Claraara turned.
“What?”
Gabriel kept his eyes on Ethan.
“Anonymous payments. Pharmacy account. Four attempts over three years.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“You investigated me thoroughly.”
“It’s why I’m alive.”
Claraara struggled to process it.
“You sent money?”
“Whenever I could.”
“It wasn’t enough.”
“I know.”
For the first time, Ethan looked ashamed.
Then the moment vanished.
“Give me the drive.”
“What’s on it?”
“Insurance.”
Gabriel laughed without humor.
“You stole Velez’s ledger because you discovered he planned to kill you.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
“You know half the story.”
“Then tell the other half.”
Ethan looked at Claraara.
“I found records showing Velez paid city officials to condemn buildings he wanted. Families were forced out. Fires happened when they refused.”
Claraara remembered apartment fires on the news.
Whole blocks purchased afterward for redevelopment.
“You helped him.”
“At first.”
Ethan swallowed.
“I told myself I was moving numbers. Then I saw what the numbers meant.”
“So you stole evidence?”
“I copied everything.”
Gabriel lifted the ledger.
“And fourteen million dollars?”
Ethan hesitated.
“That wasn’t me.”
Gabriel became very still.
“Who?”
“Someone inside your organization.”
Silence.
Claraara looked between them.
Ethan continued.
“Velez thinks I stole the money because someone framed me. I ran because I knew nobody would believe an accountant over whoever was actually moving it.”
“Name.”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel did not believe him.
Claraara could tell.
A red laser dot suddenly appeared on Ethan’s chest.
Gabriel saw it first.
“Down!”
Glass exploded.
Gabriel slammed Claraara to the floor.
A rifle cracked from the building opposite.
Ethan collapsed.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Gabriel fired twice through the broken window.
Men shouted downstairs.
Claraara crawled toward Ethan.
“Don’t!”
Gabriel grabbed her.
“He’s bleeding!”
“He still has a gun.”
Ethan weakly pushed it away.
“Take it.”
Claraara stared at the man who had once been her husband.
Despite everything, she pressed her hands against his wound.
“Why come back now?”
“Because they found Maya.”
Claraara’s blood froze.
“What?”
“Velez knows about the red box.”
“How?”
Ethan coughed.
“Albert.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“The baker?”
“He launders small payments through catering invoices.”
Claraara remembered Albert’s cruelty.
His refusal.
His pale face when Gabriel stood.
“Did Albert know who I was?”
“Yes.”
The answer devastated her.
Her humiliation in the bakery had been entertainment for a man connected to the people hunting her.
Gabriel’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
A pause.
Then:
“Lock the building down.”
Claraara looked at him.
“Maya?”
Gabriel was already moving.
His voice became terrifyingly calm.
“They hit my residence.”
Claraara stopped breathing.
“No.”
“My people have her.”
“You said she was safe!”
“She is.”
“You don’t know that!”
Gabriel grabbed her shoulders.
His voice dropped.
“I will get her.”
Something in his eyes made her believe him.
They rushed downstairs.
Ethan, wounded, was taken by Gabriel’s men.
Claraara climbed into the armored sedan.
Halfway across the city, Gabriel’s phone rang again.
He listened.
Then closed his eyes.
“What?”
No answer.
“Gabriel!”
“They didn’t take Maya.”
Claraara nearly collapsed.
“Then what?”
“They took Mrs. Alvarez.”
The old woman had secretly followed them from the apartment, unwilling to let Maya stay among strangers.
Velez’s men had grabbed her during the attack.
Claraara covered her mouth.
Gabriel stared through the windshield.
“They want an exchange.”
“The drive?”
“Yes.”
“For Mrs. Alvarez?”
Gabriel’s expression told her it was not that simple.
“And Maya.”
“What about Maya?”
“They want her brought to the exchange.”
Claraara shook her head violently.
“No.”
“I agree.”
“Why would they want a six-year-old?”
Gabriel looked toward the rain.
“Because Velez doesn’t believe Ethan came back for the ledger.”
“What does he believe?”
May you like
Gabriel’s answer was quiet.
“He believes Ethan came back because Maya knows where the fourteen million dollars is.”
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