“She’s My Wife on Paper, Nothing More” — The Crime Lord Laughed… Not Knowing She Heard Every Word
Chapter 7
After the warehouse attack, Clara stopped sleeping in the eastern wing.
She moved into Lucian’s room.
Not because they were husband and wife in the ordinary sense.
Because someone was trying to kill her.
But the arrangement slowly became something else.
They talked.
At first about practical matters.
The estate.
The warehouses.
The investigation.
Then about childhood.
Dreams.
Regrets.
Lucian told her he had once wanted to become a scholar.
Clara laughed.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“My father died.”
She stopped laughing.
“I am sorry.”
“I became what I needed to become.”
“And now?”
Lucian looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
She touched his hand.
“You could become something else.”
He looked down at their hands.
“No one has ever said that to me.”
“Then perhaps people have been too afraid.”
One evening, Lucian found Clara crying beside the window.
“What happened?”
She held up a letter.
“Thomas sent this.”
Lucian took it.
It contained one sentence.
Come to the old chapel alone, or Lucian dies.
Lucian immediately shook his head.
“You are not going.”
“He will kill you.”
“He wants you to believe that.”
“What if he isn’t bluffing?”
Lucian stepped closer.
“He won’t touch me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Thomas.”
Clara looked at him.
“I know my brother.”
They stared at each other.
Then Lucian said:
“That’s why I’m afraid.”
They went to the chapel together.
Thomas was waiting.
He had taken Elias hostage.
“Give me the deed.”
Clara held it.
“No.”
Thomas smiled.
“You always were your father’s favorite.”
Lucian moved forward.
Thomas raised his pistol.
“Stay back.”
Then Clara noticed something.
Thomas was not looking at the deed.
He was looking at Lucian’s coat.
A hidden pocket.
The ledger.
Thomas knew they had found it.
The deed was a distraction.
He wanted the evidence.
Clara suddenly understood.
“Lucian.”
He looked at her.
“Run.”
The chapel doors slammed shut.
Fire began spreading across the floor.
Thomas had planned to burn all three of them alive.
