Chapter 11
Elena’s death had been staged before it became real.
Rachel explained slowly.
Vincent arranged the first lie.
He told the Parker family Elena died overseas after an illness. No body returned. No funeral with an open casket. Only a sealed urn and an instruction that nobody dishonor her memory by asking questions.
William had obeyed.
He hated himself for that now.
“What actually happened?”
“Elena went underground.”
“With Emma?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel?”
Rachel’s face changed.
“No.”
William noticed.
“What happened to Daniel?”
Rachel looked away.
“Thomas found him first.”
Silence.
William already knew he would hate the answer.
“Dead?”
Rachel nodded.
“When?”
“Before Elena disappeared.”
William’s jaw tightened.
“Did Elena know?”
“Yes.”
“What did Thomas tell people?”
“That Daniel ran.”
Same pattern.
Remove the man.
Blame him for leaving.
Break the woman with abandonment.
Then call her unstable when she reacts.
Vincent’s methods.
Thomas’s execution.
“What killed Elena for real?”
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“She was sick.”
William waited.
“From what?”
“I don’t know. She kept getting weaker after Thomas’s men found one of our safe houses.”
William went still.
“They reached her?”
“Not long. She got away.”
“Was she hurt?”
Rachel nodded.
“Badly.”
William closed his eyes.
Then he asked the question he had been avoiding.
“Was Emma there?”
“Yes.”
Five-year-old Emma had spent her earliest years running between hiding places while adults fought over whether she had the right blood to exist openly.
William looked down at the brass key.
“Why Laurent’s?”
Rachel smiled weakly.
“Elena chose it.”
“Why?”
“Because it was yours before it was Parker property.”
William remembered.
He bought the restaurant privately before becoming head of the organization.
Elena knew.
“She believed Victor worked for Thomas,” Rachel said. “But she also believed William Parker still existed underneath William Parker the boss.”
That line hurt.
Because Elena had known the difference.
And William was not sure he did anymore.
Rachel reached for his wrist.
“If Emma came to Laurent’s, Elena believed you would have to see her as a hungry child before anyone could teach you to see her as a succession problem.”
William looked away.
His sister had built the moment perfectly.
May you like
She had trusted his heart more than his title.
And she had been right.
