“Delete My Number,” She Said—Then Six Men Stepped Aside for the Crime Lord She’d Been Secretly Writing To
Chapter 5
The next morning, Clara found a letter on her breakfast plate.
She recognized the handwriting.
Her father’s.
Come home immediately. Bring nothing. Tell no one.
She stared at it.
Matteo entered.
“Don’t go.”
She looked up.
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
“I know.”
“Then why say it?”
“Because if you go, you won’t return.”
Clara folded the letter.
“I need to know why my father did this.”
Matteo nodded.
“Then we go together.”
They traveled to the Bennett estate with four guards.
Clara’s father met them at the door.
William Bennett looked older than she remembered.
His face was pale.
His hands trembled.
When he saw Matteo, his expression collapsed.
“You shouldn’t have brought him.”
Clara stared.
“Father, did you order my death?”
William closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Clara felt something inside her break.
“Why?”
“Because Vale threatened your mother.”
“Mother is dead.”
William looked at her.
“She wasn’t.”
Clara stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Your mother is alive.”
The room went silent.
William explained that Eleanor Bennett had survived an illness years earlier but had been hidden away because Vale believed she possessed the original ledger.
Clara’s mind raced.
“Where is she?”
William looked at Matteo.
“Vale has her.”
Matteo’s expression became murderous.
“Where?”
“His coastal warehouse.”
William handed him a key.
“I was supposed to bring Clara to Vale tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“To exchange her for Eleanor.”
Clara’s eyes filled with tears.
“You were going to trade me?”
William broke down.
“I thought I could save you both.”
Matteo stepped toward him.
Clara grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Matteo looked at her.
“He betrayed you.”
“He’s still my father.”
Matteo nodded.
He stepped back.
That moment changed Clara’s opinion of him more than any letter ever had.
He could have killed William.
He didn’t.
Because she asked him not to.
