Chapter 9 - WHY ELENA HIRED MARIA
Elena did not deny it this time.
She asked Sophie to leave first.
Good.
Then she sat across from Maria.
“I knew who you were the day you applied.”
Maria felt betrayed all over again.
“You hired me because of my father?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because your mother made me promise.”
“My mother has been dead five years.”
“I know.”
“So?”
Elena’s voice broke.
“I was afraid.”
The family disease, apparently.
Fear.
Silence.
Protection that became deception.
Elena had met Lucia through a church outreach program.
Lucia was ill.
Cancer.
During one conversation, she revealed pieces of the Petrov history.
Not everything.
Enough.
Elena already worked for Alexei.
Lucia asked one thing:
“If Maria ever needs work, help her quietly.”
Two years later, Maria applied through an agency.
Elena recognized the name.
Then the face.
She hired her.
Maria stared.
“So I didn’t earn the job.”
Elena looked shocked.
“No. You were the most qualified housekeeper interviewed.”
“Then why—”
“I moved your application to the top.”
There was a difference.
Still uncomfortable.
Then Elena admitted knowing Carlos too.
He contacted her after learning Maria worked at the estate.
At first, he asked whether she was safe.
Later, money.
Later still, Viktor.
“Elena, why didn’t you tell Alexei Viktor was alive?”
She looked at the floor.
“Because I wasn’t sure Carlos was telling the truth.”
“After eleven calls?”
“I thought he was using his sister to manipulate me.”
Maybe.
Then Carlos sent a photograph of Viktor.
Elena recognized him from old company records.
Still, she hesitated.
Why?
Because she feared if Alexei investigated Maria’s family, Lucia’s secrets would surface.
Maria laughed bitterly.
“So everybody protected me so well that someone poisoned my boss using my name.”
Elena cried.
“Yes.”
Alexei said nothing.
He did not rescue Elena.
Good.
Then the audit found evidence explaining how Maria’s login was used.
Elena had shared an old staff password list with Carlos months earlier while troubleshooting his delivery access.
Carlos then stored it in his phone.
When police seized his phone after arrest, someone remotely accessed his cloud backup.
Viktor.
Likely through credentials Carlos had reused.
There was the path.
Not Maria.
Not Elena directly.
Carelessness, fear, and a predator.
Then investigators identified Viktor’s location through financial activity linked to one of his aliases.
A motel outside Kenosha.
By the time authorities arrived, he was gone.
But the room contained evidence.
Photographs.
Alexei entering restaurants.
Dmitri.
Sergei.
Maria.
Sophie.
Maria’s blood ran cold.
One photograph showed Sophie at a playground.
Taken three months earlier.
Viktor had been watching her child.
Then another photograph.
Sophie leaving an allergy clinic.
On the back, handwritten:
EPIPEN.
Maria nearly collapsed.
Viktor knew exactly why framing her would work.
He knew her daughter’s allergy history.
He knew Maria would recognize anaphylaxis quickly.
May you like
He had planned not only Alexei’s reaction—
but Maria’s response.
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