Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Knew Too Much
By morning, security footage from the night of the gala was being reviewed frame by frame.
Elena leaving.
Walking alone down the front steps.
A taxi arriving three minutes later.
She entered it.
They traced the taxi.
The driver remembered her.
“She asked for the train station.”
“Did she say where she was going?”
“No.”
“Was anyone following?”
The driver hesitated.
“A dark SUV.”
Adrien’s face sharpened.
“What SUV?”
“I thought maybe security. It followed us for six or seven blocks. Then disappeared.”
License plate?
Unknown.
Make?
Black Cadillac Escalade.
Hundreds in Chicago.
Adrien returned home and ordered every camera on the route reviewed.
At 4:00 p.m., they found the Escalade.
At 4:22, they found its plate.
At 4:39, Marco walked into the study holding a tablet.
His face had gone pale.
That happened rarely enough to frighten Adrien before a word was spoken.
“Who owns it?”
Marco placed the tablet on the desk.
The vehicle belonged to Hail Protective Services.
Victoria’s family.
Adrien stared at the screen.
“No.”
Marco said nothing.
Adrien called Victoria.
She answered on the third ring.
“Adrien?”
“Come to the mansion.”
A pause.
“Tonight?”
“Now.”
She arrived forty minutes later.
Adrien waited in the library.
No guards inside.
No Marco.
Just the two of them.
Victoria entered in a gray coat.
“You sounded furious.”
“Your family followed Elena the night she left.”
Silence.
Not surprise.
Silence.
Adrien saw it.
His voice became dangerously calm.
“Why?”
Victoria took off her gloves.
“I can explain.”
“Then do it.”
“It wasn’t what you think.”
“You don’t know what I think.”
She walked toward the fireplace.
“My father has people monitor anything that could affect our businesses.”
“My wife leaving my house affected your business?”
“You were ending the marriage.”
“And?”
“And everyone knew what came next.”
Adrien stared at her.
“What came next?”
Victoria looked directly at him.
“Our families discussing us.”
Something dark and sick moved through him.
“You had Elena followed because you thought I was going to marry you?”
“I wanted to know whether she intended to create trouble.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“The car lost her at Union Station.”
Adrien stepped closer.
“She received medical treatment for six months.”
Victoria’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But again, enough.
Adrien saw everything.
“You knew.”
“Adrien—”
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“How?”
Victoria said nothing.
He moved so quickly she flinched.
He did not touch her.
He did not need to.
“How?”
Victoria’s voice dropped.
“I saw her leaving the hospital once.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“And you said nothing.”
“It wasn’t my responsibility.”
“She was my wife.”
“And you wanted out of the marriage.”
The sentence froze the room.
Victoria looked almost angry now.
“You told me she had become distant. That she no longer understood you. That everything between you had become obligation.”
Adrien remembered every word.
The shame of them burned.
“You knew she was seeing an oncologist.”
“I knew she was entering an oncology building.”
“And you still let me stand in that ballroom—”
“I didn’t make you do anything.”
The truth was immediate.
Cruel.
Undeniable.
Victoria had not placed the microphone in his hand.
Victoria had not chosen the guest list.
Victoria had not decided humiliation was cleaner than a private conversation.
Adrien had done those things.
He turned away.
Behind him, Victoria said quietly, “There’s something else.”
He looked back.
For the first time, she seemed frightened.
“Elena contacted me before the gala.”
Adrien went still.
“What?”
“Two days before.”
“What did she say?”
Victoria reached into her purse.
Pulled out an envelope.
“I didn’t plan to show you.”
Adrien took it.
The handwriting was Elena’s.
Victoria,
You have wanted him for a long time.
Soon you may have him.
Before you decide that means you have won, understand something I learned too late.
Adrien does not betray people because he feels nothing.
He betrays them because he believes being loved means he will always be forgiven.
If you love him, do not teach him that lesson twice.
E.
Adrien read the note again.
His hands had begun to shake.
Not visibly to most people.
But Victoria saw.
“She knew,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
He folded the letter.
“Get out.”
“Adrien—”
“Get out of my house.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“You’re blaming me because it’s easier than blaming yourself.”
He looked at her.
“I blame you for following her.”
“And yourself?”
Adrien said nothing.
Victoria nodded once.
Then left.
The next morning, a courier arrived.
No return address.
The envelope was addressed to Adrien by hand.
Inside were divorce papers.
Signed by Elena.
Along with a single sheet.
Adrien,
I am not asking for the house.
I am not asking for your businesses.
I am not asking for compensation.
Everything I entered this marriage with remains mine.
Everything that was yours remains yours.
The foundation has enough funding to continue for twelve years. After that, you may decide whether the people who served your family deserve to be remembered.
Do not look for me.
You made your choice publicly.
I am making mine privately.
Elena
Adrien read the last sentence until the words blurred.
May you like
Do not look for me.
He immediately ordered more men to look.
