“Most of the stolen funds will be returned.”
“Most?”
Adrien sat opposite her.
“Here is where things become complicated.”
He slid one final document forward.
Elena read it.
Then read it again.
“I don’t understand.”
“My father’s trust agreement included an ownership clause.”
“What ownership?”
Adrien smiled.
“Vale Holdings.”
Elena looked up.
“No.”
“Twenty-five percent.”
Her mouth fell open.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I own a quarter of your company?”
“Technically, you have since your twenty-fifth birthday.”
“I didn’t know it existed.”
“Neither did I.”
“How can you not know somebody owns a quarter of your company?”
“My father was creative.”
“That is not the word I would use.”
Adrien laughed.
And suddenly Elena understood something even stranger.
“Daniel spent three years trying to get close to you.”
“Yes.”
“He kept saying you were the most powerful man in the city.”
“I’ve heard the rumor.”
“And all that time…”
Adrien’s smile widened.
Elena covered her mouth.
All that time, Daniel had been sleeping beside someone who legally owned a quarter of the empire he desperately wanted access to.
He had humiliated her because he believed she was unimportant.
He had forged her identity because he believed her name was worthless.
He had used her trust to hide stolen money because he believed nobody powerful would ever look at her.
And by using that trust—
Elena looked at Adrien.
“He activated it.”
Adrien nodded.
“Under the terms, yes.”
She started laughing.
She couldn’t help it.
Not polite laughter.
Not delicate laughter.
She laughed until tears ran down her face.
Adrien joined her.
Daniel Carter had spent years sacrificing his wife to enter Adrien Vale’s world.
He had never realized his wife was already part of it.
Chapter Eight: One Final Betrayal
But Adrien wasn’t finished.
“There is one more thing.”
Elena groaned.
“I have discovered enough secret relatives, murder plans, forged accounts, and organized crime for one month.”
“This one matters.”
He pushed a small recorder toward her.
“Marcus made a statement after his arrest.”
Elena pressed play.
Marcus’s voice filled the room.
Daniel Carter wasn’t supposed to bring Elena that night.
Elena looked at Adrien.
The recording continued.
I told him specifically to come alone.
Her heart slowed.
Daniel said bringing his wife would make him look respectable.
Elena remembered preparing for the party.
Daniel choosing her dress.
Daniel telling her how important tonight was.
Marcus continued.
Then Daniel saw Adrien’s father’s portrait through the entrance windows.
Elena froze.
He recognized the face.
Adrien paused the recording.
Elena stared.
“No.”
“He knew,” Adrien said.
Her mouth went dry.
“How?”
“Your mother kept one photograph of Elias.”
Elena remembered it.
A photograph hidden in an old family album.
Her mother had always said the man was “an old friend.”
Daniel had seen it years earlier.
Adrien continued.
“At the entrance, he saw my father’s portrait and understood the connection.”
Elena felt sick.
“That’s why he left me outside.”
“Yes.”
Not embarrassment.
Not Vanessa.
Not merely the accounts.
Daniel had brought Elena to the mansion without realizing who owned it.
Then he saw Elias Vale’s face.
And recognized the man from Sofia’s photograph.
Suddenly Daniel had understood that Elena might have a connection to the Vale family.
If Adrien saw her—
If they spoke—
If anyone investigated—
Daniel’s entire scheme could collapse.
He had ordered his wife back to the car because he was terrified the house itself might recognize her.
Elena sat absolutely still.
“How long did Daniel know my biological father was Elias Vale?”
“We don’t know.”
She thought of the locked office.
The old family albums Daniel once insisted on scanning “for safekeeping.”
The questions he asked about her mother.
The financial searches.
A terrible possibility formed.
“He didn’t find the trust accidentally.”
Adrien’s expression changed.
