Chapter 6
I broke three traffic laws getting to the Martinez estate.
Dad rode beside me.
George sat in the back calling security repeatedly.
Nobody answered.
That terrified him.
The estate gates were closed when we arrived.
George entered the override code.
Nothing.
“Beverly changed it.”
Dad stared.
“You gave her full security control?”
George looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
I called Fiona again.
No answer.
Michael answered instead.
“I’m five minutes away.”
“Call police.”
“Already did.”
Dad pointed toward a side service gate.
“Can we get through there?”
George nodded.
“Manual release.”
We ran.
I stopped only once.
Not because I was tired.
Because I realized how insane my life had become.
Twenty-four hours earlier I was supposed to be married.
Now I was breaking into my former in-laws’ estate with my father and the billionaire whose company he might control.
Dad shoved the service gate open.
“Move.”
We crossed the garden.
Inside, voices echoed.
Fiona.
Beverly.
We reached the terrace door.
Locked.
George grabbed a stone planter.
Dad stopped him.
“That window costs more than my truck.”
George stared.
Dad shrugged.
“Just saying.”
Then Dad smashed it himself.
Even now.
I almost laughed.
We entered.
“Fiona!”
I heard her upstairs.
“Blake!”
I ran.
She stood at the end of the hallway near Beverly’s office.
Beverly was between us.
Not physically restraining her.
Something worse.
Holding a stack of documents.
“Stop.”
I slowed.
Fiona’s face was soaked with tears.
Beverly looked perfectly composed.
“Blake.”
I hated the way she said my name.
Like I still needed permission to exist in her house.
“Move.”
“No.”
George came upstairs behind me.
“Beverly.”
Her eyes shifted.
“You.”
He stopped.
Thirty years of marriage inside one word.
“Let Fiona leave.”
“She can leave whenever she wants.”
Fiona shook her head.
“She threatened Michael.”
Beverly’s expression hardened.
George whispered:
“With what?”
“Tax records.”
Michael arrived below.
“I’m here.”
Beverly looked irritated.
Fiona continued.
“She has files on everyone.”
George looked at his wife.
“Why?”
She laughed.
“Because one of us had to protect this family.”
Dad entered the hallway.
Beverly’s eyes changed.
There.
Fear.
Not disgust.
Fear.
Dad saw it.
“You knew.”
She smiled tightly.
“Of course I knew.”
“How long?”
“Long enough.”
George looked devastated.
“You planned the wedding insult.”
Beverly didn’t answer.
Fiona did.
“There are notes.”
She held up pages.
“Talking points.”
My stomach turned.
Talking points.
My father’s humiliation had been scripted.
Beverly shrugged.
“I needed Thomas angry.”
Dad’s jaw tightened.
“To discredit me.”
“To protect George.”
George looked at her.
“No.”
She turned.
“What?”
“You weren’t protecting me.”
His voice cracked.
“You were protecting yourself.”
Beverly’s face changed.
He continued.
“You knew the founder challenge would expose the old transactions.”
Silence.
“You knew Leonard was involved.”
She said nothing.
George whispered:
“How long have you been sleeping with him?”
Fiona covered her mouth.
Michael stopped on the stairs.
Beverly’s face became ice.
“That is irrelevant.”
George laughed.
Thirty years breaking in one sound.
“Irrelevant.”
Dad looked away.
Even he seemed uncomfortable witnessing it.
George stepped closer.
“Was Fiona mine?”
The hallway froze.
Fiona stared.
“What?”
Beverly’s face changed.
Just slightly.
Too much.
George saw it.
“Oh God.”
Fiona stepped backward.
“Mom?”
Beverly snapped:
“Do not be ridiculous.”
But she wouldn’t look at Fiona.
My chest tightened.
George whispered:
“Answer me.”
Beverly said nothing.
Fiona’s knees weakened.
I moved toward her.
Beverly raised the files.
“Stay where you are.”
I stopped.
Not because the papers were dangerous.
Because Fiona looked seconds from collapsing.
“What are you saying?” she whispered.
George looked destroyed.
“Fiona…”
“No.”
She turned toward Beverly.
“Is Leonard my father?”
Silence.
Beverly’s lips trembled.
Then:
“Yes.”
Fiona made a sound I will never forget.
Not a scream.
Something smaller.
Broken.
I moved immediately.
Beverly tried to block me.
Dad stepped between us.
“Enough.”
One word.
She stopped.
I reached Fiona.
She collapsed against me.
“I’m sorry.”
I held her.
“It’s okay.”
“No.”
She sobbed.
“Nothing is okay.”
She was right.
George leaned against the wall.
Michael looked sick.
“My father?”
Beverly finally looked at him.
“No.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Great.”
The cruelty of that moment shocked even her.
George looked at Michael.
“I am your father.”
Michael stared at him.
“You know what I mean.”
Dad quietly moved toward the desk.
He saw an open laptop.
“George.”
George looked.
A banking screen.
International transfer.
Pending.
Beverly noticed.
She lunged.
Dad closed the laptop.
“What are you doing?”
“Protecting George?”
Dad almost smiled.
She froze.
George came closer.
“How much?”
Dad opened the screen again.
Twenty-two million dollars.
Transfer destination.
Swiss account.
George stared at Beverly.
“You were leaving.”
She said nothing.
“With Leonard?”
“No.”
“Then where is he?”
Her face changed.
Dad noticed.
“Beverly?”
She looked toward the window.
For the first time, real panic.
Police sirens sounded outside.
Then her phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Leonard.
George reached for it.
She pulled away.
Dad said calmly:
“Answer.”
“No.”
“Answer.”
She stared at him.
Then accepted.
“Leonard.”
His voice was loud enough for us to hear.
“You idiot.”
Beverly’s face tightened.
“What?”
“The accounts are frozen.”
George looked at Dad.
Leonard continued:
“They know everything.”
Beverly whispered:
“Where are you?”
“Leaving.”
“You said we were going together.”
George closed his eyes.
Fiona stared at her mother.
Leonard laughed.
“You really thought that?”
Beverly went pale.
“You used me.”
Even after everything, hearing the shock in her voice was strange.
People who manipulate others are always stunned when someone does it back.
Leonard continued:
“You wanted George’s money.”
“You wanted Thomas’s shares.”
“You wanted a new life.”
“None of that matters now.”
Beverly’s hand shook.
“Leonard.”
“I’m done.”
The call ended.
She stared at the phone.
Dad sighed.
“You destroyed your family for a man who hung up on you in thirty seconds.”
She looked at him with hatred.
“You ruined everything.”
Dad’s face hardened.
“No.”
He pointed toward the documents.
“You did.”
Police entered moments later.
Beverly was taken for questioning again.
This time, investigators had attempted flight, pending transfers, financial records, and evidence of witness manipulation.
Fiona sat on the stairs after they left.
I stayed beside her.
She stared at nothing.
“I laughed.”
I knew what she meant.
At Dad.
“I laughed because she wanted me to.”
I said nothing.
“She spent my whole life making me afraid to disagree.”
Her voice shook.
“But I still laughed.”
“Yes.”
She looked at me.
“I hurt you.”
“Yes.”
“I hurt your father.”
“Yes.”
Tears fell.
“Do you hate me?”
My chest tightened.
“No.”
“Do you forgive me?”
That was harder.
“Not yet.”
May you like
She nodded.
And for the first time since I met her, Fiona did not argue with an answer she didn’t like.
