Chapter 7
I showed Andrew the photograph that night.
His face went white with rage.
"She's been watching you," he said. "This whole time."
"She knew who I was," I said. "Before we even confronted her. She just waited. She wanted to see what I would do."
Andrew paced the room.
"That changes things," he said. "If she knew, then she's had three months to prepare. To cover her tracks. To plan her next move."
The phone rang.
It was Carter.
Andrew answered.
I watched his face as he listened.
It went from angry to grim to something else entirely.
Devastation.
When he hung up, he sat down heavily on the couch.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Carter found something," he said. He looked at me, and his eyes were full of pain. "Elena, I'm so sorry."
"Just tell me."
Andrew took a deep breath.
"The fire," he said. "It wasn't just Vivian. She had help. From Marcus."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
Marcus.
Andrew's business partner.
His best friend since college.
The man who had been the best man at our wedding.
The man who had held me while I cried at my own father's funeral.
"No," I whispered.
"It's true," Andrew said. His voice broke. "Carter found financial records. Marcus and Vivian were having an affair. They took out three separate insurance policies on you, totaling five million dollars. Six weeks before the fire."
Five million dollars.
My life had been worth five million dollars to them.
"They needed me out of the way," I said, thinking out loud. "Vivian got my husband, my children, my life. Marcus got the money. And they probably thought Andrew would be so grief-stricken he wouldn't notice when they started siphoning money from the business too."
Andrew put his head in his hands.
"I trusted him," he whispered. "God help me, I trusted him with everything. With my business. With my family. With you."
I sat down beside him.
I put my arm around him.
"They're predators, Andrew," I said softly. "They find people who are good, who are trusting, and they take advantage. This isn't your fault."
He looked at me.
Tears were streaming down his face.
"I let her into our home," he said. "I let her raise our children. I married her. While you were out there, hurt and alone, thinking I was dead—"
"You were hurt and alone too," I said. "She manipulated both of us. But we're together now. And we're going to make them pay."
The next few days were a blur.
Carter worked around the clock.
He found more.
So much more.
Forged documents.
Fake death records.
Bank transfers from Marcus to Vivian.
Emails between them, planning the fire, planning the lie, planning how they would take everything.
Andrew confronted Marcus at the office.
It didn't go well.
Marcus denied everything at first.
Then, when Andrew showed him the emails, he threatened him.
Said he would destroy the business.
Said he would ruin Andrew's reputation.
Andrew fired him on the spot.
He called the police.
Marcus was arrested the next day.
Vivian, though, was still free.
She had disappeared again.
"She's running," Carter told us over the phone. "My people are tracking her. She won't get far."
But I was afraid.
Afraid of what Vivian would do when she realized she was trapped.
Afraid she would take the boys.
That night, I slept with Noah in my arms.
Liam was on the other side of me.
Andrew was in the chair by the door, watching over us like a sentinel.
I woke up at three in the morning.
Andrew was still awake.
"Go to sleep," I whispered.
"I can't," he whispered back. "Every time I close my eyes, I see her taking them. I see the fire. I see you burning."
I reached out my hand to him.
He came and sat on the edge of the bed.
He took my hand.
"We're going to be okay," I said.
"I know," he said. "But I'm so tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop."
The next morning, it did.
The police called.
They had found Vivian.
At the airport.
May you like
With two one-way tickets to a country with no extradition treaty.
And a plan to kidnap the boys.
