Chapter 4 - THE SECRET BENEATH HER HEART
Elena stopped sleeping in the bedroom.
She moved a chair beneath the front doorknob and kept a kitchen knife beside the couch. Every creak of the house pulled her awake.
The police increased patrols for three nights, then stopped.
No one returned.
That frightened her more.
A random intruder might have stolen something.
The person who entered Elena’s house had wanted only to send a message.
She considered calling Luke.
She dialed his number twice and disconnected before the call went through.
On the third attempt, a woman answered.
“Mr. Ashford’s office.”
Elena froze.
“I called his personal number.”
“All of Mr. Ashford’s calls are currently screened.”
“Who are you?”
“His executive assistant.”
Elena almost laughed.
Luke had never allowed an assistant to answer his personal phone.
“Tell him Elena called.”
There was a pause.
“May I ask the nature of the call?”
“No.”
“Mr. Ashford is traveling with his fiancée and may not be available.”
The word struck like glass.
“His what?”
“His fiancée.”
Elena ended the call.
She did not know that the woman was sitting inside Adrian’s office.
She did not know there was no fiancée.
Luke had not even dated since the divorce.
Adrian had redirected Elena’s calls through a private exchange and instructed an employee to keep her away.
Across the city, Luke worked until exhaustion became a form of anesthesia.
He acquired two companies, dismantled a smuggling network tied to one of his father’s former partners, and spent nearly every night sleeping on the couch in his office.
His private investigators reported that Elena was safe in Bellmere.
They sent photographs of her walking along the coast and entering a small office building.
They did not send photographs of the clinic.
Adrian controlled which reports reached Luke.
“She looks healthier,” Adrian said during one meeting.
Luke stared at a photograph of Elena standing near the beach.
Her coat concealed her changing body.
“She looks thin.”
“She went through a divorce.”
Luke’s jaw tightened.
Adrian leaned back.
“You cannot keep watching her forever.”
“Until the threat is gone.”
“We haven’t found evidence of another attack.”
“The bullet was evidence.”
“That was six months ago.”
Luke closed the file.
“Did the settlement transfer?”
Adrian did not blink.
“Yes.”
“The apartment?”
“In her name.”
“And the security detail?”
“Still active.”
Every answer was a lie.
Luke accepted them because believing Adrian was easier than facing the possibility that he had entrusted Elena’s safety to the wrong person.
In Bellmere, Elena began receiving unsigned letters.
The first contained a copy of her ultrasound appointment schedule.
The second contained a photograph of her asleep on the couch.
The third held no message at all.
Only a dead white rose.
Elena took everything to the police.
This time, Detective Sarah Bennett listened carefully.
“You believe this is connected to your former husband?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does he have enemies?”
“Many.”
“Does he know you’re pregnant?”
“No.”
Bennett studied her.
“Could the person threatening you know?”
“They know my appointments.”
“Then we need to assume they do.”
Bennett arranged for patrol officers to check the property twice a night. She advised Elena to relocate, but Elena had nowhere to go.
Her mother had died when she was nineteen.
Her father lived in another country with a new family and had not spoken to her in years.
The friends she once shared with Luke had disappeared after the divorce. Some believed she had taken millions from him. Others feared offending the Ashford family.
Elena was alone.
Exactly as Adrian intended.
One evening, she returned from work to find the electricity disconnected.
Her phone had no signal.
The house was freezing.
She reached for the flashlight near the door.
It was gone.
A sound came from upstairs.
Elena stopped breathing.
Another floorboard creaked.
She backed toward the front door.
A shadow moved at the top of the staircase.
Elena turned and ran.
She reached the road without shoes, clutching her coat closed over her stomach.
Behind her, the front door opened.
A man stepped onto the porch.
Elena ran toward the nearest house, but headlights appeared ahead.
A car accelerated toward her.
She jumped into the ditch seconds before it passed.
The vehicle did not stop.
By the time police arrived, the man inside her house was gone.
Detective Bennett found muddy footprints in the upstairs hall and a small electronic device attached beneath Elena’s desk.
“A transmitter,” Bennett said. “Someone has been listening to you.”
Elena placed both hands over her stomach.
“Can you trace it?”
“Possibly.”
“Someone in Luke’s family arranged this house.”
“Who?”
“His brother.”
Bennett’s eyes sharpened.
“Adrian Ashford?”
Elena nodded.
Before Bennett could ask another question, her phone rang.
She answered, listened, and looked toward the transmitter.
“The serial number was removed, but the internal components were purchased through a security supplier in the city.”
“By whom?”
“Ashford Protective Services.”
Elena’s face went cold.
Luke’s company.
She finally allowed herself to believe the most painful possibility.
May you like
Perhaps Luke had not divorced her to escape danger.
Perhaps Luke was the danger.
