Two cracked ribs.
A concussion.
Six stitches above his eyebrow.
Nothing life-threatening.
I sat beside his bed wearing borrowed sweatpants and a hospital sweatshirt because my wedding dress had finally surrendered to mud, rain, blood, and one attempted funeral.
At 2:13 a.m., Daniel woke.
“You’re still here.”
“Unfortunately.”
He smiled.
Then stopped when I didn’t.
“Claire.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He looked away.
“That my father was alive?”
“Pick one.”
He sighed.
“I found out eight months ago.”
“Eight months?”
“Marcus discovered a shell company paying someone named Thomas Reed.
We traced it to Vancouver.
Then Panama.
Then Zurich.”
“And you decided the appropriate response was to keep dating me like everything was normal?”
“I was trying to keep you away from it.”
“You married me.”
“Yes.”
“While legally dead.”
“Technically—”
“Daniel.”
“Sorry.”
I folded my arms.
“Why marry me Thursday?”
His face changed.
He reached toward the bedside drawer.
“My jacket.”
I pulled it out.
“Inside pocket.”
There was a sealed envelope.
My name was written across it.
I opened it.
Inside were corporate documents.
My eyes moved over the first page.
Then stopped.
“Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“What is this?”
“A transfer agreement.”
“For fifty-one percent of Reeves-Hale Development.”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“To me?”
“Yes.”
“When did you sign it?”
“Thursday.”
My hands started shaking.
“Why?”
“Because my father’s plan depended on me being declared dead before I married.”
I sat down.
Daniel continued.
“The company was worth nearly six hundred million dollars.
My father believed that if he created a legal death record for me while I was unmarried, Natalie could petition as substitute trustee.
Then Thomas would control her.”
“But you were alive.”
“Being alive and being legally alive aren’t always the same thing.”
I stared at him.
“So you married me because you needed someone to hold your company.”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
“I married you because I love you.”
“Then why the transfer?”
“Because I love you enough to trust you with the thing everyone else was willing to kill me for.”
My anger cracked.
Just slightly.
Daniel reached for my hand.
“Thursday night, once our marriage certificate was electronically registered, the transfer became irrevocable.”
My throat tightened.
“Thomas didn’t know?”
“No.”
“Neither did Natalie?”
“No.”
“What about Marcus?”
“He witnessed it.”
I laughed once.
Of course he had.
Daniel squeezed my fingers.
“That’s what I meant when I said tomorrow everything changes.”
I looked at him.
“You could have said, ‘By the way, you own half a real-estate empire now.’”
“I was going for romance.”
“You’re terrible at romance.”
“You married me.”
“Under suspicious circumstances.”
His eyes softened.
Then I remembered something.
“The message.”
“What message?”
“After the phone call.
Someone texted me, ‘Don’t open the coffin.
Marcus is watching.’”
Daniel frowned.
“I didn’t send that.”
Cold moved through me.
“What?”
“My phone was taken when they grabbed me.”
“Then who called?”
Daniel stared at me.
“I don’t know.”
I stood.
“Claire—”
“The caller breathed.
Three knocks.
Two.
Three.”
Daniel went very still.
“What?”
“Three.
Two.
Three.”
