All Chapters of IN LOVE WITH HIS ENEMY: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Eliza's POVThe silence was the strangest part.After years of running, fighting, hiding—after the trials and the threats and the constant, gnawing fear—the quiet of our home felt almost unbearable. Like the moment after a bomb goes off, when your ears are still ringing and you're waiting for the next explosion.But no explosion came.Six months had passed since Darius Crane's capture. Six months of peace. Six months of ordinary life. Breakfast with Clara. Dinner with Adam. Board meetings that didn't involve conspiracies. Bedtimes that didn't involve checking the locks three times.I should have been happy.I was trying to be happy.But something was wrong. Something I couldn't name.Adam found me on the balcony that evening, staring at the city."You're doing it again.""Doing what?""Waiting." He leaned against the railing beside me. "For the other shoe to drop."I didn

Eliza's POVSunday arrived faster than I wanted.Three days of pretending everything was normal. Three days of breakfast with Clara, dinner with Adam, board meetings that meant nothing. Three days of watching the clock and feeling the weight of the unknown pressing against my chest.Adam had kept his promise. We'd planned. Reyes had a team on standby. Mira was tracking the number, trying to trace it. Chloe—still trying, still somewhere out there—had sent word through channels I didn't ask about: Be careful. Some threads were never cut. Some people never left.I didn't know what that meant. But it settled in my bones like a warning.---The cemetery was quiet when I arrived.Old graves, new graves, stones worn smooth by time. My mother's plot was at the top of the hill, overlooking the city she'd loved. I'd come here a hundred times since the trial. A hundred times to talk to her, to tell her about Clara, to let her

Eliza's POVThe photograph sat on my desk for three days.My mother and my aunt. Young. Laughing. Innocent. A world away from the women they'd become. One dead. One carrying the weight of forty years.I picked it up every morning. Looked at it. Tried to reconcile the girl in the image with the woman who'd sat in my kitchen, holding my daughter's hand, asking for nothing.She would have forgiven you.I'd said that. Believed it. But forgiveness wasn't mine to give.The phone rang. I almost ignored it. But something in the sound made me pick up."Eliza Sterling.""Ms. Sterling." A voice I didn't recognize. Professional. Careful. "My name is Margaret Vane. I'm Silas Vane's daughter."The world stopped."I'm calling because my father is dying. He's asked to see you."---Adam's POVI found Eliza in the study, staring at the wall.She'd been there for an hour.

Eliza's POVThe man arrived on a Thursday.I was in my office at Clara's House, reviewing budgets, planning expansions, building the future my mother had dreamed. Adam was with Clara at the park. My aunt was in the garden, teaching a new resident how to prune roses.Normal. Peaceful. Everything I'd fought for.Then the receptionist knocked."There's a man here to see you. He says it's urgent."I looked at the clock. "I don't have appointments until—""He says he has information about your mother's accounts. Accounts no one knows about."My pen stopped moving."Send him in."---He was older than I expected. Sixty, maybe. Gray suit, gray hair, gray eyes. The kind of man who spent his life in the background, watching numbers, keeping secrets."Ms. Sterling. Thank you for seeing me.""Who are you?""My name is Harold Vance. I was your mother's accountant. F

Eliza's POVHe was staying at the Biltmore.Old money. Old secrets. The kind of hotel where people went to disappear. Adam had the car idling at the curb. Reyes had a team covering every exit. I sat in the passenger seat, my mother's photograph in my hands, and tried to remember how to breathe."You don't have to do this alone," Adam said."I'm not alone. You're here.""That's not what I mean."I knew what he meant. He meant I could let Reyes handle it. Let the police handle it. Let someone else walk into the lion's den for once.But this was my mother's brother. My blood. The man who'd betrayed her and spent forty years hiding from what he'd done."I need to see his face," I said. "I need to hear him say it."Adam was quiet for a moment. Then he took the photograph from my hands, placed it on the dashboard, and kissed my forehead."Then let's go."---The elevator smelled lik