Chapter Nineteen. No More Patience

The call came at five in the morning.

Ethan's security team. Just those three words and Ethan was already moving.

"Your father's office," he said to me, pulling on his jacket. "Someone broke in an hour ago. They didn't take anything. They left something instead."

"What did they leave?" I asked.

He looked at me.

"A photograph, " he said. "Of everyone in this building. Taken from outside. Tonight."

Our safe house wasn't safe anymore.

We moved within twenty minutes. My parents got into one car.. Victoria got into another.. Two security guards are in a third. Ethan and I got into his car at the front.

Nobody spoke much. The city was still dark and quiet outside. We drove through it fast and quietly.

I sat in the passenger seat staring at the road ahead thinking about the photograph. Someone had been standing outside that building watching us all night. Counting us. Recording us. Sending a message that said, I know where you are and I'm not afraid of any of you.

"He's escalating, " I said.

"Yes ", Ethan said.

"Because we found the founding documents " I said. "Because he knows I know about the shares. He was counting on me not finding out until it was too late."

". Now that you know " Ethan said, "he can't afford to wait anymore. The longer we have the documents the stronger our position gets. He needs to move before we do."

I turned to look at him.

"Then we need to move, " I said.

He glanced at me sideways. Something in his expression shifted. Not a surprise, exactly. More like recognition.

"You sound different, " he said quietly.

"I feel different, " I said.

Something had changed overnight. I couldn't point to a moment but somewhere between reading my grandfather's grandfather sitting beside Ethan in the quiet hearing him say both of us. Something that had been broken inside me for a very long time had started to set itself back into place.

Not healed. Not fixed. Just deciding to stand up again.

Ethan took us to another property. A house this time not an apartment. Outside the city. Private road. High walls. The kind of place that didn't appear on any public record.

By the time we arrived, the sun was beginning to come up.

My mother went to bed. My father sat at the kitchen table with Grace. They discussed legal options and timelines in hushed voices. Victoria made tea. Said nothing but watched everything.

Ethan. Stood beside me.

Not behind me. Beside me. Shoulder to shoulder. Looking at the garden.

"When this is over " I said, "what happens to you? Your company. Your reputation. If your dark secret comes out -"

"Let me worry about that, " he said.

"I am worrying about it, " I said. "Whether you want me to or not."

He turned to look at me, and we stared at each other for a few minutes.

Then he reached out. Did something completely unexpected.

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. One small quiet gesture. His fingers barely grazed my cheek. Like it was the natural thing in the world.

Then he dropped his hand. Looked back at the garden as if it had not happened.

My heart was beating fast.

I was still trying to say something when Ethan's security guard appeared in the doorway.

"Mr Voss. There is someone at the gate. She says her name is Elena Marsh. She says she is alone. She is asking for Sofia."

The warmth of the moment evaporated instantly.

I turned from the window.

Ethan looked at me.

"She found us, " I said.

"Or someone sent her, " Ethan said.

I thought about Elena. The earrings in the bedroom. The smug look on her face. Eight months. After the wedding.

Then I thought about what Ethan had said about the uncle.

He stops being patient when people get too close to the truth.

Elena had been his tool.

Tools that outlived their usefulness had a way of becoming problems.

"Let her in, " I said.

Ethan looked at me for a moment.

Then he nodded to the guard.

I straightened my shoulders. Waited.

The person who walked through that door sixty seconds later was not the Elena I remembered.

She looked like someone who had not slept in days. Her eyes were red. Her hands were shaking slightly at her sides.. When she saw me she stopped walking and just stood there like she had used up everything she had just got here.

"Sofia, " she said. Her voice was completely stripped of everything. No warmth. No performance. Just. Exhausted and afraid. "He is going to kill me."