Chapter 10 - ELENA'S SECOND LIFE
I wanted Elena to deny it.
She didn’t.
“That’s why you wanted me at the wedding?”
“Yes.”
My chest hurt.
“You used me.”
“I had no choice.”
Victor laughed softly.
“Everyone has choices.”
Elena’s face hardened.
Victor had approached her two years earlier.
Debt.
Threats.
Photos of Sophie’s clinic records.
He offered one deal.
Get Rachel to Chicago when instructed.
In exchange, he would leave Sophie alone.
“You believed him?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because I was feeding information to Michael.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
I stared.
“You were helping him?”
Elena nodded.
The betrayal shifted shape.
Not gone.
But changed.
She had played both sides.
The wedding was bait.
She wanted Victor physically in Chicago where federal investigators could finally connect him to the conspiracy.
“But then Michael disappeared,” she said.
“And you kept going alone?”
“Yes.”
Victor’s expression turned ugly.
“You always talked too much.”
He reached inside his coat.
Ethan moved.
So did Gabriel.
But Elena was faster.
She stepped sideways and drove her heel into Victor’s knee.
His gun fell.
Chaos exploded.
Ethan’s men crashed through the rear of the property.
Victor was restrained.
Elena collapsed into my arms.
For the first time in years, I held my sister without resentment.
Then Gabriel opened one final safe.
Inside was a cassette tape labeled PATRICK CALLAHAN — FINAL.
Ethan stared at it.
We played it.
Patrick’s voice filled the room.
If Ethan hears this, Victor has probably made his move.
Ethan went still.
Patrick explained everything.
The stolen samples.
Gabriel’s innocence.
Victor’s plan.
Then Patrick said something none of us expected.
Ethan, if a child is ever created from what they stole from you, do not punish the mother or the child for what was done to you.
Ethan looked at me.
My throat tightened.
Patrick continued:
Protect them if they let you. Walk away if they ask. But never confuse blood with ownership.
Ethan closed his eyes.
His father had somehow written instructions for a daughter he would never meet.
Then Gabriel turned over the cassette case.
Another note was taped beneath it.
One sentence.
VICTOR IS NOT THE LAST MAN INVOLVED.
Underneath was a name.
Dr. Samuel Harlow.
May you like
Ethan’s private physician.
The doctor who had treated him since childhood.
