Chapter 5 - Damian's Greatest Mistake
Adrian returned to Chicago alone.
He wanted me and Amelia to stay hidden.
I refused.
“We have to end this.”
He looked at me.
“You're not trained.”
“No.”
“You're frightened.”
“Yes.”
“So why?”
“Because I'm tired of hiding.”
He stared.
Then nodded.
“Then I'll teach you what you need to know.”
Not how to hurt someone.
How to survive.
How to recognize manipulation.
How to protect documents.
How to identify exits.
How to speak under pressure.
How to control panic.
He taught me everything.
Meanwhile, Adrian dismantled Damian's network piece by piece.
Bank accounts were frozen.
Business partners were warned.
Records were copied.
Employees who had been forced into silence were offered protection.
Then we found something bigger.
A hidden server.
Damian had used it to store evidence against hundreds of people.
Politicians.
Judges.
Businessmen.
He believed it made him untouchable.
But the server also contained messages proving he had planned my disappearance.
Not just financial fraud.
A staged accident.
If I had not escaped, I would have died.
My hands shook when I read the documents.
Adrian stood beside me.
“This is enough.”
“For what?”
“To destroy him.”
The problem was the server was protected by a biometric lock.
Only Damian could open it.
Unless we obtained a duplicate key.
The key was in his office.
I volunteered to retrieve it.
Adrian refused.
“No.”
“I lived in his house for three years.”
“I won't put you back in that building.”
“I know the security better than anyone.”
He stared.
Finally he agreed.
We returned to the mansion at night.
The place looked exactly as I remembered.
But I was different.
I knew every corridor.
Every camera.
Every locked room.
Adrian followed me.
We reached Damian's study.
My hands shook when I opened the hidden drawer.
There.
A metal key.
Then the door opened.
Damian stood behind us.
He looked at me.
For the first time since I had met him, I saw genuine fear in his eyes.
Then anger.
“You.”
I stepped back.
Adrian stood between us.
Damian laughed.
“You think Moretti will save you?”
Adrian didn't answer.
Damian looked at me.
“You belong to me.”
My voice shook.
“No.”
His face changed.
“You have my name.”
“I was trapped inside it.”
“My money.”
“I never wanted it.”
“My child.”
“She is not your possession.”
Damian's jaw tightened.
“She carries my blood.”
“She carries mine too.”
Adrian looked at Damian.
“You've spent your entire life confusing blood with ownership.”
Damian raised a weapon.
Adrian moved.
A security door slammed open.
Men entered.
But Damian didn't realize they weren't his anymore.
Several lowered their weapons.
One said,
“Mr. Moretti promised protection.”
Damian stared.
“You traitors.”
Adrian calmly took the weapon from Damian.
“You hired people who wanted money.”
“I offered them more.”
“They wanted a future.”
Damian looked at me.
“You did this.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“You destroyed everything.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You destroyed it the moment you decided I was property.”
His face went pale.
The server was opened.
Hundreds of files.
Evidence.
Everything.
Damian was arrested before midnight.
But Jonathan Pierce escaped.
He took one hard drive.
The drive containing the final evidence.
Adrian looked at the empty slot.
“He planned for this.”
“What now?”
“We find him.”
The next morning, the news exploded.
Damian Voss arrested.
Billions at risk.
Criminal conspiracy.
Fraud.
Coercion.
And one mysterious source had provided the evidence.
My name.
For the first time, the world saw me not as Damian's beautiful wife.
But as Isabella Trent.
Survivor.
Witness.
And the woman who had brought down one of the most powerful billionaires in America.
But Jonathan Pierce wasn't finished.
He sent me one message.
“Your husband was never the person you should have feared.”
Then an image arrived.
May you like
My mother.
Alive.
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