Her Father Called Him a Killer. Seven Years Later, She Discovered He Went to Prison for Her.
CHAPTER 3
The fight lasted less than a minute.
Adrian moved like the seven years in prison had never happened.
One attacker went down against the ring.
Another reached for Eleanor.
She grabbed a metal stool and swung.
Adrian almost smiled.
“You’ve changed.”
“I learned from the best.”
They escaped through the back door.
But Eleanor had one question.
“What happened that night?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
So she demanded it again.
“Tell me what happened in the ring.”
He finally stopped.
“Marcus Hale wasn’t supposed to fight me.”
“What?”
“The match was changed.”
“By who?”
“Your father.”
Eleanor stared at him.
Adrian continued.
“Marcus had discovered something about Richard.”
“What?”
“Money transfers. Offshore accounts. Fake companies. People who disappeared after trying to expose him.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“My father runs a legitimate business.”
“So did every criminal I ever met.”
She didn’t like the answer.
But she couldn’t dismiss it.
Adrian told her what happened seven years ago.
Marcus had entered the ring carrying evidence.
He planned to give it to a federal investigator after the fight.
Instead, the arena lights went out for eleven seconds.
When they came back, Marcus was on the floor.
Dead.
Adrian was standing beside him.
His hands were covered in blood.
Security footage disappeared.
Witnesses changed their stories.
And Adrian was arrested.
“Why didn’t you tell the police?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“My lawyer disappeared.”
Eleanor froze.
“What?”
“The next morning, I was told if I kept talking, people close to me would die.”
“Who?”
Adrian looked at her.
“You.”
Silence.
Eleanor felt her anger weakening.
“Why did you take the blame?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
“No.”
His voice was harder now.
“Not when someone puts the photograph of a child on the table and tells you that child’s life depends on your silence.”
Eleanor remembered the photograph.
Noah.
“What did your father know about him?”
“Everything.”
“And where is Noah?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve been looking for seven years?”
“Every day.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked toward the old ring.
“Because Marcus died believing I could protect his son.”
Eleanor stepped closer.
“And you never stopped.”
“No.”
She whispered:
“Even after you lost seven years?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Those years were already gone.”
A tear appeared in her eyes.
“You could have told me.”
“I wanted to.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
He answered with painful honesty.
“Because every time I imagined telling you, I imagined your grave.”
Her breath caught.
For seven years, she had believed Adrian abandoned her.
Now she realized something far worse.
He had left because someone had convinced him that loving her would get her killed.
But there was still one question.
Who was Noah?
And why was a dead man’s child important enough to destroy an entire family?
The answer was hidden in the Vale empire.
And Eleanor was about to discover that her father’s fortune had been built on a secret worth killing for.
