Chapter 4 - THE SECRET ADRIEN KEPT FIRST
I called Adrien.
He answered before the first ring finished.
“Elena.”
I had heard that voice angry.
Cold.
Commanding.
I had never heard it afraid.
“Did you know?”
Silence.
That was enough.
“You knew I was pregnant.”
“Elena—”
“How?”
“I need you to tell me where you are.”
“No.”
“Please.”
Adrien Moretti did not say please often.
It nearly weakened me.
Nearly.
“How did you know?”
He exhaled.
“Your doctor called my office by mistake.”
“That is not possible.”
“It wasn’t your doctor directly. A billing authorization for genetic screening hit our family insurance office. My assistant flagged it because of the security issue.”
My anger returned.
“You had my medical records monitored.”
“No. I had alerts placed on anything involving your identity because someone accessed your files two months ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I was trying to identify who did it.”
“You were trying to control the situation.”
“Yes.”
The honesty stopped me.
Adrien continued.
“I found out about the pregnancy yesterday afternoon.”
Before our anniversary dinner.
Before the photograph.
Before I left.
“You came home knowing.”
“Yes.”
“And you walked past me.”
Another pause.
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
I closed my eyes.
“By ignoring me?”
“I was meeting Vanessa because she had proof Luca had accessed your medical history. I came home planning to tell you everything. Then security called.”
“What happened?”
“Someone entered the parking garage using a cloned access card registered to you.”
My pulse quickened.
“I was home.”
“I know.”
“So who was it?”
“We never saw their face.”
I remembered the months of distance.
Cancelled dinners.
Locked study doors.
Trips Adrien refused to explain.
“Was all of it Luca?”
“No.”
“Then what was?”
His voice softened.
“My father.”
I frowned.
“Your father has been dead six years.”
“Yes.”
Adrien sounded exhausted.
“And I’ve spent the last eight months discovering the life he left me wasn’t the life I thought he did.”
He told me about a private archive hidden inside Moretti Global.
Offshore accounts.
Secret agreements.
Payments to politicians and executives.
And one sealed document Adrien had been unable to open without a biometric key supposedly destroyed after his father’s death.
Three weeks earlier, Luca found the key.
“What’s in the document?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why not?”
“Because Luca disappeared with it.”
A sound came from Vanessa.
A cup hitting the table.
Adrien heard it.
“Elena, who is with you?”
I looked at Vanessa.
She shook her head sharply.
Too late.
Adrien’s voice changed.
“Vanessa?”
She whispered, “Don’t tell him.”
But something had frightened her.
I put the call on speaker.
Adrien said, “Vanessa, what aren’t you telling me?”
She closed her eyes.
“The biometric key wasn’t destroyed.”
Adrien went silent.
Vanessa reached into her handbag.
From a hidden seam, she removed a thin silver drive.
“I stole it from Luca last night.”
May you like
Adrien’s next words came quietly.
“Then Luca knows exactly where Elena is.”
