Chapter 3 - The Woman He ChoseAdrian found Serena at the Hotel Laurent forty-one minutes after leaving me.
Not the front door.
Adrian had taught me enough about surveillance to know the difference between escaping dramatically and escaping successfully.
The main elevator required a security code tracked by his private system. The garage was monitored. The lobby guards reported everything.
The service corridor, however, connected the kitchen to a freight elevator used by catering staff.
I wore a long black coat over my beige dress, pulled my hair under a baseball cap, and carried only one suitcase.
I left everything else behind.
Jewelry.
Shoes.
Photographs.
Wedding gifts.
Six years of marriage reduced to whatever fit inside a suitcase and whatever courage I could carry inside my body.
The freight elevator took forever.
Every floor felt like an accusation.
Thirty-eight.
Thirty-seven.
Thirty-six.
My heart hammered.
I kept expecting the doors to open and find one of Adrian’s men waiting.
Instead, I reached the underground loading dock.
A black sedan was parked near the exit.
Rebecca Sloan sat behind the wheel.
I had met Rebecca three times.
She was forty-four, sharp-eyed, expensive without being flashy, and one of the few attorneys in Chicago who had successfully represented businessmen Adrian considered enemies.
He despised her.
Which suddenly made her appealing.
I climbed inside.
“Drive.”
She did.
No questions until we were three blocks away.
Then she glanced at me.
“Did you bring the documents?”
I turned toward her.
“How did you know about them?”
“Because I helped create Northstar Holdings.”
The air seemed to leave the car.
“What?”
“Six years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because Adrian asked me to.”
I stared at her.
“You worked for him?”
“I worked for you.”
“I didn’t hire you.”
“Technically, you did.”
She reached into the center console and handed me a photocopy.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
I recognized it.
“I signed this after our honeymoon.”
“Yes.”
“Adrian told me it was an insurance document.”
“He lied.”
Anger rose so quickly I felt dizzy.
“What is Northstar?”
Rebecca’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
“A firewall.”
“For what?”
“For everything Adrian wanted kept separate from the Vale organization.”
I looked again at the paper.
“Three hundred twelve million dollars?”
“That was last quarter.”
I swallowed.
“What is it now?”
“Closer to four hundred million.”
I stopped breathing.
Rebecca continued before I could speak.
“It owns warehouses, shipping companies, medical logistics firms, commercial real estate, and a controlling interest in Vale Meridian Transport.”
“I don’t know what any of those are.”
“I know.”
“Then why am I the majority owner?”
“Because six years ago Adrian had a problem.”
“What kind?”
“His father was still alive.”
I knew Adrian rarely spoke about Carlo Vale.
The old man had built an empire through extortion, gambling, smuggling, construction contracts, and enough legitimate businesses to make accountants wealthy.
Adrian had hated him.
Or claimed to.
Rebecca turned onto Lake Shore Drive.
“Adrian wanted part of the family fortune moved into clean companies his father couldn’t seize.”
“So he put them in my name.”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me.”
“Yes.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Romantic.”
“There’s more.”
Of course there was.
“There always is.”
“The operating agreement gives you final authority over any sale, merger, liquidation, or transfer.”
I looked at her.
“Why would Adrian do that?”
Rebecca was silent.
“That’s the question,” she said.
We drove twenty minutes before reaching a townhouse in Lincoln Park.
No name on the mailbox.
No security visible.
Rebecca parked inside the garage.
“You can stay here tonight.”
“Whose house is this?”
“Mine.”
I followed her inside.
The house was surprisingly ordinary.
Bookshelves.
Coffee mugs.
A half-dead plant near the kitchen window.
No armed guards.
No marble floors.
No cameras following me from room to room.
I had forgotten homes could feel like that.
Rebecca made tea.
I didn’t drink it.
Instead, I placed the documents on her kitchen table.
“Someone texted me.”
Her expression changed.
I showed her the message.
If you want your baby to survive, leave before Adrian comes home.
Rebecca read it twice.
“Who knows you’re pregnant?”
“Only Adrian.”
“And your doctor?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
She handed back the phone.
“Turn it off.”
I did.
Rebecca walked toward a cabinet and removed a small signal-blocking pouch.
She dropped my phone inside.
“That dramatic?”
“That necessary.”
I sank into a chair.
“What have I married into?”
Rebecca looked at me for a long time.
“Elena, the dangerous question isn’t what you married into.”
“What is?”
“What happens now that you’re carrying Adrian Vale’s heir.”
The word made my skin crawl.
“Don’t call my baby that.”
“I’m not trying to frighten you.”
“You’re doing a great job.”
Rebecca sat opposite me.
“There are people inside Adrian’s world who believe blood determines power. His father believed it. His uncle believes it. Some of the older men still believe it.”
“Adrian doesn’t.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I thought of him leaving.
Serena calling.
Adrian choosing her.
“Right now I don’t know what he believes.”
Rebecca opened a laptop.
“There’s another reason you need to understand Northstar.”
She entered several passwords.
A corporate chart appeared.
Companies connected through branches and lines.
At the center was my name.
“Three months ago, somebody tried to force a transfer of Northstar’s assets.”
“To whom?”
“A shell company registered in Panama.”
“Who signed?”
“Nobody. The transfer failed because your approval was required.”
“Did Adrian know?”
“Yes.”
“Did he tell me?”
“No.”
The betrayal kept multiplying.
“Why not?”
Rebecca closed the laptop halfway.
“That’s something you’ll have to ask him.”
I looked toward the dark window.
“He chose another woman tonight.”
“Serena?”
My head snapped toward her.
“You know her?”
Rebecca’s mouth tightened.
“Everyone around Adrian knows Serena Keller.”
Something about her tone bothered me.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Serena has spent years making herself indispensable.”
“To Adrian?”
“To the Vale family.”
I remembered birthdays where Serena arrived before me.
Funerals where she stood beside Adrian.
Business dinners where she whispered things into his ear and he immediately changed plans.
“She loves him.”
Rebecca didn’t answer.
“She does.”
“Yes.”
“And does he love her?”
“I don’t know.”
That hurt more than I expected.
I stood.
“I need air.”
Rebecca caught my wrist gently.
“You cannot go outside.”
“I’m not a prisoner.”
“No. You’re a woman someone just threatened.”
I pulled away.
“I spent six years being protected by men who never asked what I wanted. I’m not trading one cage for another.”
Rebecca held my gaze.
Then nodded.
“Back courtyard. Ten minutes.”
It was absurdly specific.
But I accepted.
Outside, the night was cold.
Chicago traffic hummed beyond the walls.
I placed both hands over my stomach.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I whispered.
For the first time, the baby felt real.
Not as an ultrasound.
Not as news I had hoped would save a damaged marriage.
As a person I was responsible for protecting.
I had spent six years making excuses for Adrian.
The missed anniversaries.
The unexplained disappearances.
The blood on his cuff one Christmas Eve.
The women who lowered their voices when he entered rooms.
The way people feared him.
I told myself there was another Adrian underneath all that.
The man who made coffee when I had migraines.
The man who once drove three hours because I mentioned missing a bakery from my childhood.
The man who slept with one hand wrapped around my waist as though he feared waking up alone.
Maybe that man existed.
But tonight, he had still left.
The courtyard door opened.
Rebecca stepped outside.
“You need to see something.”
Her face had gone pale.
We hurried inside.
She turned the laptop toward me.
A security alert had appeared.
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS ATTEMPT — NORTHSTAR HOLDINGS MASTER ACCOUNT
Timestamp:
10:56 p.m.
“Someone is trying again,” she said.
I stared at the screen.
“Can they take the company?”
“Not without you.”
Another alert appeared.
Then another.
Rebecca’s phone rang.
She answered.
“Talk.”
I watched the color drain from her face.
“When?”
She looked at me.
“Are you certain?”
A pause.
“Understood.”
She disconnected.
“What happened?”
Rebecca closed the laptop.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“Adrian returned to the penthouse.”
My heart betrayed me by jumping.
“And?”
“You were gone.”
I waited.
Rebecca took a breath.
“He locked down the entire building.”
That sounded like Adrian.
“He’s searching for me?”
“Yes.”
I hated the relief I felt.
Then Rebecca added, “And he gave one order.”
“What order?”
May you like
Her expression was unreadable.
“Find my wife before Serena does.”
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