Chapter 2 - The Divorce Was a Trap
I spent that night in the guest room.
Not because Adrian told me to.
Because I could no longer sleep beside a man who had asked another woman to wait while he erased me from his life.
At two in the morning, I heard voices downstairs.
Male voices.
Quiet.
Controlled.
Then Adrian’s voice.
“Find out who sent that message.”
I sat up.
Another voice answered.
“We’re already checking.”
“Check hospitals. Airports. Every Laurent property.”
“I thought Vanessa was under surveillance.”
“So did I.”
I froze.
Surveillance?
I walked downstairs.
Three men stood in the living room.
I recognized one.
Gabriel Cole had been Adrian’s security chief since before we married.
He looked at me and immediately fell silent.
Adrian turned.
“You should be in bed.”
“I heard you.”
He said nothing.
“You were having Vanessa watched?”
Adrian dismissed the men with a look.
The room emptied.
I folded my arms.
“Tell me the truth.”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“I’m already divorced on paper. I can handle the truth.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“I never intended to marry Vanessa.”
That shocked me.
“You filed for divorce because she asked.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
He walked toward the bar and poured himself water.
“Because she came back carrying information that could destroy my company.”
“And you think divorcing me fixes that?”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“I thought removing you from my life would make you harder to use against me.”
I stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if you know the people I grew up around.”
I did know.
Or at least I thought I did.
Adrian’s father, Marcus Mercer, had owned the first Mercer shipping operation. Half legitimate, half criminal. When Marcus died, Adrian inherited the legal empire and fought for years to keep the rest from swallowing him.
His half brother, Julian, had died in what authorities called a boating accident.
Adrian never discussed it.
“Vanessa knows something about Julian,” he said.
My anger faltered.
“What?”
“She says Julian was murdered.”
I stared at him.
“By whom?”
“She won’t say.”
“And you believe her?”
“I believe someone is trying to use her.”
He placed his glass down.
“Three months ago, one of my private accounts was accessed.”
“What kind of account?”
“One nobody should know exists.”
I waited.
“It contains records from my father’s old organization.”
I felt cold.
“And Vanessa has access?”
“She claims she does.”
“Why?”
“Because she says my father gave her a copy before he died.”
The room became silent.
“Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know.”
He looked toward the windows.
“But if she’s telling the truth, those files contain names. Judges. Port officials. Police commanders. Politicians. Businesses. People who thought their secrets disappeared when my father did.”
I stared at him.
“And you divorced me because of that?”
“I divorced you because I believed your safety would improve if your name stopped appearing beside mine.”
I let out a bitter laugh.
“You should have asked me.”
“Yes.”
“Instead you decided.”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me.”
“Yes.”
I shook my head.
For once, Adrian had no defense.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
“Mercer.”
His expression changed.
Gabriel’s voice came from the speaker.
“We found the Mercedes.”
“Where?”
“Three blocks from the old Laurent house.”
“And Vanessa?”
Silence.
“Gone.”
Adrian hung up.
I whispered, “She disappeared?”
“Yes.”
He walked to the kitchen.
I followed.
“Then why was she across the street?”
“I don’t know.”
A sudden crashing sound came from the hallway.
Adrian pushed me behind him.
Gabriel’s men rushed in.
A bullet struck the window.
I screamed.
Adrian dragged me to the floor.
Another shot.
Then silence.
He looked at me.
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
His eyes moved to my stomach.
I placed a hand over it.
“I’m okay.”
He exhaled.
Then Gabriel found a small black device attached beneath the window frame.
“A transmitter.”
Adrian’s face went cold.
“She’s been listening.”
“Vanessa?”
“Or someone who wants us to think it was her.”
That night, I moved into the townhouse’s secured wing.
Adrian did not ask me to stay.
He simply had my things moved.
By morning, the world knew.
MERGER CEO ADRIAN MERCER FILES FOR DIVORCE FROM PREGNANT WIFE.
The photographs were everywhere.
Me entering the prenatal clinic.
Adrian beside me.
Vanessa outside the SUV.
The internet turned my marriage into entertainment.
Some articles called Vanessa his true love.
Others called me the abandoned wife.
One headline suggested I had trapped Adrian with a pregnancy.
I threw the phone across the sofa.
Adrian found me crying.
Not because of the articles.
Because I was beginning to realize how little control I had over my own life.
He sat beside me.
“I can have them removed.”
“No.”
“I can.”
“I don’t want money to erase everything.”
He looked at me.
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
He was quiet for a long moment.
Then he said, “I was never going to divorce you because I stopped loving you.”
My breath caught.
“Then why?”
“Because I love you enough to know what my enemies would do if they discovered I had something worth protecting.”
I stared at him.
“You don’t get to use love as an excuse for cruelty.”
“I know.”
He reached for my hand.
I pulled away.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
That night, I woke to voices outside my door.
A man whispered.
“She knows too much.”
Another answered.
“Then make sure she doesn’t leave this house alive.”
I sat up.
Before I could scream, the door opened.
Adrian stood there.
Gun in hand.
His face was terrifying.
“Who said that?”
The men ran.
Security caught them before they reached the stairs.
Adrian rushed to me.
“Evelyn.”
I was shaking.
“I heard them.”
“I know.”
His hand hovered near my face.
Then he asked softly, “Are you afraid of me?”
I looked at the gun.
Then at him.
“Yes.”
His face fell.
Not with anger.
With pain.
He lowered the weapon.
“I would never hurt you.”
“I believe you.”
He looked confused.
“But I’m still afraid.”
He nodded.
“That’s fair.”
He sat on the floor beside my bed instead of touching me.
For an hour, he stayed there.
Neither of us spoke.
At dawn, Gabriel arrived with a file.
“We found a recording.”
Adrian opened it.
Vanessa’s voice filled the room.
“If anything happens to me, give this to Evelyn Mercer. She needs to know what Adrian’s father did.”
I looked at my husband.
Adrian pressed play.
Vanessa continued.
“Adrian thinks I came back for him.”
A pause.
“I didn’t.”
May you like
Another pause.
“I came back because someone in his family wants his unborn daughter dead.”
