Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN LUKE CLAIMED AGAIN
Elena awoke the following afternoon.
Luke sat beside her bed.
He had not moved for eleven hours.
When her eyes opened, he stood so quickly the chair scraped against the floor.
“Elena?”
She looked around the room.
“The baby?”
“Alive.”
Her hand moved toward her stomach.
Luke placed his palm over hers.
“The doctors are monitoring everything.”
She turned her face toward him.
“How long have you been here?”
“Since they brought you out.”
“You should sleep.”
“I did enough of that while you were in danger.”
“That isn’t what sleep means.”
“I know.”
She studied him.
His shirt was wrinkled. His eyes were red. A cut marked his cheek from the warehouse.
This Luke looked nothing like the untouchable man who had ended their marriage.
He looked afraid.
Elena had once believed seeing him afraid of losing her would feel like justice.
Instead, it made her tired.
“Adrian?” she asked.
“Alive. In custody.”
“Catherine?”
“Gone.”
“Evelyn?”
“Missing.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“She helped me.”
“She also drugged you.”
“She said she was trying to keep me alive.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I don’t know.”
Luke sat again.
“I need to tell you everything.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Not because I don’t want the truth,” Elena said. “Because you always decide when I’m allowed to know things.”
Luke absorbed the accusation.
“You are right.”
“I asked you for the truth six months ago.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
“I thought if I made you hate me—”
“You would become less important to your enemies.”
“Yes.”
“You never asked whether I wanted that choice.”
“No.”
“You never trusted me to survive beside you.”
“I wanted you far from me.”
“And where did that put me?”
Luke looked down.
“In a house controlled by Adrian. Without money. Without protection.”
“Pregnant and alone.”
His voice broke.
“I know.”
“No, Luke. You know the facts. You do not know what it was like.”
He forced himself to meet her eyes.
“Tell me.”
Elena looked toward the window.
“I woke every morning thinking I had imagined our marriage. I watched strangers debate whether I deserved your money. I sold jewelry to pay for medical appointments because the settlement never came. I slept with a chair against the door. Every time the baby moved, I wanted to call you.”
Luke’s eyes filled.
She continued.
“But I remembered your face when you told me there was someone else.”
“There wasn’t.”
“That lie was real to me.”
“I understand.”
“No. You are beginning to.”
Luke nodded.
“I will spend the rest of my life understanding if you let me.”
Elena turned toward him.
“That sounds like a promise.”
“It is.”
“You made promises before.”
He had no answer.
A nurse entered and checked the monitors.
When she left, Luke removed Elena’s wedding ring from his pocket.
“The police found this near your car.”
Elena stared at it.
“I thought it was gone.”
Luke placed it on the table rather than trying to return it to her.
“I won’t ask you to wear it.”
“Good.”
“But I need you to know something.”
She waited.
“The divorce papers were finalized legally. I cannot erase what I did with a sentence. But you are still my family. You and the child.”
“That does not make me your wife again.”
“No.”
“And you do not own the right to protect us.”
“No.”
“If I leave when the doctors release me, you cannot stop me.”
Luke’s face tightened, but he answered.
“I won’t.”
Elena watched him carefully.
“Would you follow me?”
“Yes.”
Despite herself, she almost smiled.
“At least that answer is honest.”
Luke leaned forward.
“I will follow at a distance. I will give you every account, every property, and every document that was stolen. I will testify against Adrian and Catherine. I will destroy Ashford Holdings if that is what keeping you safe requires.”
Elena’s expression changed.
“Do not destroy it.”
“Why?”
“Because someone wants you distracted enough to destroy yourself.”
Luke remembered her letter.
“What do you know?”
“Before they took me, I found a name in the transmitter records.”
“What name?”
“Mercer.”
“Daniel Mercer?”
“You know him?”
“He was supposed to be dead.”
Elena gripped his hand.
“He came to the house once.”
“When?”
“Two weeks before the kidnapping. He pretended to be from the utility company.”
Luke stood.
“Did he touch anything?”
“The kitchen cabinet. The water filter.”
Luke’s blood went cold.
The poisoning had not come only from the vitamins.
It may have been in the water.
Elena watched his expression.
“What?”
He reached for his phone.
Before he could call Marco, the hospital lights flickered.
A nurse shouted in the corridor.
The heart monitor beside Elena’s bed changed rhythm.
Then the screen went black.
Luke moved toward the door.
Emergency power activated seconds later.
The monitors returned.
A figure in medical clothing stood at the far end of the hallway.
Evelyn Shaw.
May you like
She looked directly at Luke.
Then she raised one finger to her lips and disappeared through the stairwell door.
