Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Had Been Protecting His Daughter Alone
Adrien moved Elena and Mia into the most secure part of the estate.
Elena protested.
He ignored her.
“This isn't a negotiation.”
“You can't lock us up.”
“I'm not locking you up.”
“It feels like it.”
“You were shot at.”
“I wasn't.”
“The bullet was aimed at your daughter.”
That ended the argument.
Adrien had never been so frightened.
Not for himself.
For Mia.
Security doubled.
Every staff member was investigated.
Every camera was replaced.
Every vehicle was checked.
Elena watched him carefully.
She began to see a side of him the rest of the world never saw.
The man everyone feared was terrified of a one-year-old getting hurt.
He learned how to change diapers.
Badly.
The first attempt ended with Mia laughing so hard she nearly rolled off the changing table.
Adrien looked horrified.
“What did I do?”
“You put it on backward.”
He stared.
“There's a wrong way?”
Elena laughed.
“Yes.”
“I have managed three hundred employees.”
“And none of them wear diapers.”
She smiled.
He looked at her.
It was the first time she had laughed around him without immediately apologizing.
Something warmed his chest.
“Do you always take care of everyone?”
“What do you mean?”
“You.”
Elena shrugged.
“Someone has to.”
“You don't have anyone taking care of you?”
She looked away.
“I have Mia.”
“That's not what I asked.”
She didn't answer.
The truth was simpler.
Her mother had died.
Her friends had married and moved away.
Her child's father had disappeared.
She had learned not to expect rescue.
Adrien recognized something in that.
A person who had stopped asking for help.
They grew closer through Mia.
He began attending her meals.
He read bedtime stories.
He took her to the garden.
He learned which toy she liked.
And Mia adored him.
But Elena still kept distance.
Every time Adrien stepped too close, she remembered Isabel.
One evening, she finally told him the whole story.
Isabel had discovered financial records connecting Adrien's father to illegal transactions.
She believed someone inside the Cross family was using legitimate companies to hide criminal funds.
She wanted to expose them.
Then she became pregnant.
She panicked.
Someone sent her photographs of Elena.
Photographs of Mia.
Warnings.
Leave Adrien.
Disappear.
Or the baby dies.
“She thought your family would kill her.”
Adrien's fists tightened.
“Who sent the photographs?”
“She never knew.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because someone showed her messages from you.”
“What messages?”
“They had been edited.”
Adrien understood.
His father had manipulated him too.
He had received messages that made it appear Isabel was cheating.
Bank transfers.
Hotel records.
Everything carefully fabricated.
Adrien had believed it because he was angry.
Because he was proud.
Because he had never considered that someone could manipulate him.
Elena looked at him.
“That was her biggest regret.”
“What?”
“Leaving without telling you.”
Adrien looked down.
“She died thinking I hated her.”
Elena nodded.
“She didn't stop loving you.”
The words destroyed him.
That night, Adrien went to his father's old study.
He opened drawers.
He searched records.
He found an encrypted file.
Inside were Isabel's photographs.
And one document.
CONFIRM PREGNANCY. MONITOR ELENA RIOS.
Adrien felt sick.
His father had known.
Worse, the file had been updated after Isabel disappeared.
Someone had continued monitoring Elena.
That meant they knew Mia was alive.
Adrien called his lawyer.
“Find who authorized this.”
Within hours, they had a name.
Gideon Cross.
Adrien's uncle.
His father's younger brother.
The man who had disappeared from the company six years earlier.
Gideon had supposedly died abroad.
The evidence suggested otherwise.
He was alive.
And he had access to the family records.
Adrien told Elena.
“Your uncle?”
“My father's brother.”
“What does he want?”
“Control.”
“And Mia?”
“Leverage.”
Elena's face paled.
“You won't let him have her.”
“No.”
“What will you do?”
Adrien looked at her.
“Whatever it takes.”
For the first time, Elena understood why people feared him.
He was not violent because he enjoyed it.
He was violent when he believed someone had crossed a line.
And someone had crossed the ultimate one.
Mia was his daughter.
Elena was the woman protecting her.
Nothing mattered more.
Two days later, Elena was kidnapped.
The event happened in broad daylight.
A car blocked the driveway.
Two men approached.
Security reacted.
But Elena was taken before anyone could stop them.
Adrien received a video.
Elena sat tied to a chair.
Mia was not with her.
That had been the first condition.
Gideon appeared on screen.
“You want Elena?”
Adrien stared.
“No.”
Gideon smiled.
“You want her alive.”
“Yes.”
“Then bring my niece.”
Adrien's face went cold.
“You will never touch my daughter.”
“Then Elena dies.”
The video ended.
Adrien stood motionless.
His security chief waited.
“What do you want to do?”
Adrien looked at Mia.
Then at the screen.
“I'll go.”
His chief frowned.
“Sir—”
“Alone.”
“You'll be killed.”
“Maybe.”
He picked up his coat.
“But I'm not letting them use my daughter to force me into becoming my father.”
He walked away.
Behind him, the chief quietly called another person.
Elena's best friend from years ago.
A woman who had been waiting for this moment.
Because Elena wasn't helpless.
She had hidden one last secret from Adrien.
Before Isabel died, she had left a recording.
And in it, she named the person who started everything.
Adrien's own father.
May you like
And the recording had one final instruction.
Never trust the man who comes asking for the child.
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