Chapter 5 - The Price of Betrayal
Adrian wanted Grant dead.
For the first time, Elena wanted him afraid.
There was a difference.
“Don't hunt him,” she said.
They stood in the coastal house's library after Grant's call.
“He threatened our child.”
“And that's why he expects you to react.”
“He's correct.”
“No. He expects the old you.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What are you suggesting?”
“We let him think we're breaking.”
Elena had spent six years watching powerful men underestimate her because she spoke softly.
Grant had made the same mistake.
So they created a lie.
By afternoon, whispers began moving through the Vale organization.
Elena had left Adrian permanently.
Adrian blamed her for the investigation.
The marriage was finished.
Then Elena did something Adrian hated.
She publicly filed for legal separation.
When the documents arrived, he stared at them for nearly a minute.
“You said we needed to make it convincing,” she reminded him.
“You enjoyed this.”
“A little.”
His mouth almost curved.
It was the first hint of their old rhythm.
Neither acknowledged it.
Their trap worked.
Grant contacted Elena through an encrypted account that evening.
You finally understand him.
Elena replied:
I understand more than you think.
Grant offered money.
Protection.
A new identity.
All she had to do was provide evidence that Adrian had ordered illegal financial transfers through Vale Maritime.
Grant believed a frightened wife would betray the husband who had abandoned her.
He still did not understand Elena.
She agreed to meet him.
Adrian said no.
“No?”
“No.”
Elena folded her arms.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Apparently we're still in the stage where you give orders.”
“Apparently we're in the stage where my pregnant wife proposes meeting a man who tried to murder her.”
“Your pregnant estranged wife.”
Adrian winced.
She noticed.
Good.
“Grant won't trust anyone else,” she said.
“He'll kill you.”
“He needs the drive.”
“He'll take it from your body.”
“Then make sure he can't.”
Adrian stared at her.
Finally he nodded.
“Your rules.”
That surprised her.
“My rules?”
“Every one.”
Elena laid them out.
No armed men visible.
No surveillance device Grant could easily detect.
No Adrian inside the meeting location.
And if anything changed unexpectedly, she walked.
Adrian accepted all of them.
The meeting took place at an abandoned yacht club outside Stamford.
Elena wore a wire hidden inside the clasp of her bra.
Adrian waited six hundred yards away in a surveillance van.
He hated every second.
Grant arrived alone.
Or appeared to.
He looked almost exactly as he always had.
Expensive coat.
Controlled smile.
Friendly eyes.
That was what disturbed Elena most.
Monsters should look different.
Grant pulled out a chair.
“You look well.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“I tried to solve a problem.”
“My baby too?”
Grant's smile disappeared.
“That complicates things.”
Inside the van, Adrian's hand curled into a fist.
Lucas watched him.
“Stay seated.”
Adrian glared.
“I'm serious.”
Back inside, Elena placed a flash drive on the table.
Grant's eyes dropped toward it.
“The records?”
“Enough to destroy Adrian.”
Grant reached for it.
Elena covered it with her hand.
“First I want the truth.”
“About?”
“The ambush.”
Grant leaned back.
“I gave the route to Bellamy's contractors.”
“And the evidence against me?”
“Roland.”
“The handwriting?”
“Remarkably easy. You write thank-you notes to everyone.”
Elena felt sick.
“And Adrian?”
Grant smiled.
“He did exactly what I knew he'd do.”
Adrian heard every word.
Grant continued.
“Your husband has one fatal flaw. He thinks suspicion is intelligence.”
Elena's eyes remained steady.
“You counted on him not loving me.”
“No. I counted on him loving power more.”
That sentence landed inside the surveillance van like a grenade.
Adrian said nothing.
Because six days earlier, it had been true.
Grant reached for the drive.
Elena withdrew it.
“One more question. Why?”
Grant's expression changed.
“For fourteen years, I stood beside Adrian while everyone called him brilliant. I built routes. I bought loyalty. I cleaned his disasters. He got the empire.”
“So this is jealousy?”
“This is correction.”
“No.”
Grant frowned.
“This is entitlement.”
For the first time, anger cracked his composure.
He grabbed her wrist.
Adrian stood.
Lucas blocked him.
“Wait.”
Then Grant said, “You know what Adrian never understood? You were always his weakness.”
Elena looked directly into his eyes.
“No. I was the person who could have made him stronger.”
Grant reached inside his coat.
Adrian moved.
The yacht club windows exploded inward as Vale security entered.
Grant fired once.
Elena dropped.
Adrian reached her before anyone else.
“Elena!”
She lay motionless.
Blood spread across the front of her coat.
Adrian's face collapsed.
“No. No, no, no.”
He pressed his hands against the wound.
“Elena, look at me.”
Her eyes opened.
“Adrian.”
“Stay with me.”
Then Elena looked down.
Adrian followed her gaze.
The blood was not coming from her abdomen.
It came from her upper arm.
Relief nearly knocked him unconscious.
Then she whispered:
“Something's wrong.”
May you like
Her hand moved to her stomach.
A second later, pain folded her body in half.
