Chapter 11 - THE MAN INSIDE THE HOUSE
Derek vanished.
But before leaving, he had planted something behind.
A listening device.
Brian found it inside the east wing sitting room.
My sitting room.
Someone had been listening to my conversations for months.
Lily.
My father.
Charity calls.
Everything.
I felt violated.
Ethan felt murderous.
“Burn every device in the house if you have to,” he told Brian.
Then he looked at me.
“Pack.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
“We’re leaving.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere secure.”
“I’m not running.”
“This isn’t a negotiation.”
I laughed.
“There’s the husband I know.”
His jaw tightened.
“Jane.”
“You can order your men. Not me.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“And I’m trying to stop living like cargo.”
That landed.
He said nothing for several seconds.
Then his voice changed.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“You choose.”
“What?”
“Where we go.”
The concession surprised me.
I chose the one place neither family controlled.
Lily’s family property outside Madison.
Private.
Quiet.
Mostly unknown.
We left after midnight.
For the first time since our wedding, Ethan and I traveled without an entourage large enough to start a war.
Brian drove separately behind us.
Snow began falling outside Chicago.
Inside the car, silence grew unbearable.
Finally, Ethan said:
“I know you heard me before the wedding.”
I looked at him.
He kept his eyes on the road.
“I realized it after you mentioned Brian.”
“Yes.”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“I lied.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“In the study.”
I stared at him.
“You said you never wanted me.”
“I know.”
“You said I meant nothing.”
“I know.”
“Then what part was the lie?”
“All of it.”
I almost laughed.
“Why?”
His face hardened with shame.
“Because Derek was there.”
I went still.
“He had been pushing for the marriage.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t know then.”
Now we did.
Derek knew enough about the trust to want it activated.
Ethan had suspected Derek was feeding information outside the family.
“So you made him believe you only cared about territory.”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
His voice lowered.
“I had met you before.”
“What?”
“Two years before the wedding.”
I searched my memory.
Then I remembered.
A hospital fundraiser.
A man across the room watching me.
Gray eyes.
Black suit.
I had spoken to him for maybe five minutes.
“You knew who I was?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
He glanced at me.
“You laughed at me.”
I actually smiled.
“I did?”
“You told me I looked like someone who had forgotten how to enjoy himself.”
I remembered.
The mysterious man who never gave his name.
“That was you?”
“Yes.”
The car felt suddenly smaller.
“Did you want to marry me?”
“No.”
Pain returned instantly.
Then he added:
“Because I thought marrying me would ruin your life.”
I couldn’t speak.
He kept driving.
“I agreed only after your father told me Victor was moving against your family.”
“So you married me to protect me?”
“Partly.”
“What was the other part?”
His eyes met mine for one second.
“You.”
Before I could answer, headlights appeared behind us.
Too fast.
Brian’s car flashed twice.
Warning.
May you like
Then another vehicle came from the opposite direction.
We were being boxed in.
