Chapter 6
Pierce Dawson was alive.
Claire did not know.
That mattered.
I watched her face as my security team confirmed it.
No performance.
No secret relief.
Just shock.
Her father had supposedly died overseas after years of working around Valenti businesses. She mourned him. I attended the memorial. I paid for half of it because Claire’s mother had already died.
Another beautiful family lie.
“Where is he?” she whispered.
My bodyguard looked at me.
“Upstate.”
Claire turned toward me.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Your father did.”
“Yes.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Apparently all our fathers knew things we didn’t.”
Fair.
We returned upstairs.
Gavin was still under guard.
He saw Claire’s face and knew immediately something had changed.
“What happened?”
She walked straight to him.
“My father is alive.”
Gavin froze.
There.
He knew.
Claire slapped him.
Hard.
No one stopped her.
“You knew.”
He touched his cheek.
“Claire—”
“You knew?”
He looked toward me.
Coward.
Always searching for the strongest person in the room before answering the weaker one.
“Yes.”
Claire stepped backward.
I watched twenty-two years of friendship battle six months of betrayal inside her.
It did not redeem her.
But betrayal often has layers.
Gavin had been sleeping with her while carrying a secret about her father that gave him absolute leverage.
“How long?” she asked.
“Three months.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Gavin’s face hardened.
“Because Marco said Pierce had conditions.”
I stepped forward.
“What conditions?”
No answer.
Claire shouted.
“Tell me.”
Finally:
“Your father wouldn’t see you while you were loyal to Serena.”
Silence.
That was the hook.
Marco did not recruit Claire with greed first.
He recruited her with a father.
A dead father returned on the condition she betray the woman who had become family after losing him.
Ugly.
Effective.
Still a choice.
Claire started crying.
“I thought…”
I waited.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“I thought after the transfer he’d let me see Dad.”
There.
Not the penthouse.
Not Gavin.
Not originally.
The affair came later.
Marco found the oldest wound in her and opened it.
I looked at Gavin.
“And what did he promise you?”
His eyes hardened.
Different weakness.
Power.
“He said Valenti needed a man who could stand beside the organization without being owned by it.”
I almost smiled.
“Meaning you.”
Silence.
May you like
Marco had promised everyone a different future.
That meant none of them were getting the one they imagined.
