Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO WANTED HER DEAD
Valyrian had trusted Caleum Mercer with his empire.
He had trusted him with bank accounts, legal documents, family secrets, and the names of men who would never forgive a betrayal.
Now he was looking at a twenty-million-dollar insurance policy that gave Caleum a financial interest in Alicia's death.
Valyrian reached for his phone.
Alicia caught his hand.
"Don't call him."
"He needs to explain this."
"He already has an explanation prepared."
Valyrian turned.
"How do you know?"
"Because I confronted him in March."
The room fell silent.
Matias looked away.
Alicia continued.
"I asked why my name appeared on a policy I never approved. He told me it was part of a family security arrangement."
"And you believed him?"
"No."
Her expression hardened.
"Then he showed me photographs of you entering a hotel with another woman."
Valyrian blinked.
"What?"
"He said you were preparing to leave me. He said the divorce was already being arranged."
"Alicia, I've never been unfaithful to you."
She looked at him with exhausted eyes.
"I wanted to believe that."
"Who was the woman?"
Alicia opened her phone.
The photograph showed Valyrian walking beside a blonde woman outside a Manhattan hotel.
He recognized her immediately.
"That's federal prosecutor Rebecca Shaw."
Matias looked up.
"Why were you meeting a federal prosecutor?"
"Because I was trying to get out of my father's old business arrangements."
Valyrian's voice grew colder.
"For almost two years, I've been cooperating with attorneys to separate my legitimate companies from the criminal networks I inherited."
Alicia stared at him.
"You never told me."
"I thought keeping you away from those negotiations would protect you."
She gave a bitter smile.
"We were both trying to protect each other by keeping secrets."
Neither spoke.
Then Valyrian crouched before her.
"I swear to you, Alicia, there has never been another woman."
Her eyes filled.
"I spent months believing you didn't want me anymore."
He took her trembling hands.
"And I spent months believing you had stopped loving me."
For a moment, the entire room seemed to hold its breath.
Then Alicia whispered, "I never stopped."
Valyrian closed his eyes.
Those three words nearly broke him.
Matias discreetly turned away.
Alicia squeezed her husband's fingers.
"But there's something else."
Valyrian opened his eyes.
"What?"
"The insurance policy wasn't the first document Caleum forged."
Matias placed a medical report on the table.
It had been issued by a private laboratory.
Alicia's name appeared at the top.
Valyrian scanned the page.
Then he froze.
The report claimed that Alicia had requested the cancellation of an important diagnostic consultation months earlier.
But another record showed she had attended the appointment.
Someone had altered her medical file.
"Why?" Valyrian whispered.
Alicia looked at him.
"Because my specialist noticed that the original samples didn't match the later results."
Valyrian stared at her.
"What does that mean?"
"It means the doctors are investigating whether some of my records were deliberately manipulated."
Matias leaned forward.
"And the person who authorized the release of those records was Caleum."
Valyrian's hand tightened around the paper.
Alicia's condition was real.
Her lymphoma was real.
But the delay, confusion, and missed opportunities surrounding her early treatment might not have been accidental.
Then Alicia revealed the final discovery.
"The hospital contacted me yesterday. They found another patient's identification number attached to one of my original test results."
"Whose?"
She swallowed.
"Your mother's."
Valyrian looked at her in disbelief.
May you like
The two women he loved most had been connected inside the same medical conspiracy.
And someone had spent eleven years making sure he never knew.
