Chapter 11
Leverage, Not Suspect
Adrian remembered the photograph at 3:18 a.m.
He woke Elena by saying her name once through the bedroom door.
Not loudly. Not urgently. That was what made her move fast.
She found him in the sitting room with a laptop open and one hand pressed against his temple. The screen showed a file tree from a private drive Mara had recovered from the yacht backup.
"You should be asleep," Elena said.
"I remembered your face."
That stopped her at the edge of the rug.
Adrian turned the laptop toward her.
The file was a threat assessment dated two weeks before the explosion. Victor Vale. Investor fraud exposure. Dependent daughter. Younger son.
Elena's photograph appeared in the middle of the page.
Not as suspect.
As leverage.
Her throat tightened so sharply she had to look away from her own face.
"You were investigating my father."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because someone inside my company was moving money through his accounts."
"Celeste."
"I did not know then."
Elena read the paragraph under her name. Former analyst. Estranged from father's business. Protective of brother. Likely pressure point.
She hated the clinical accuracy. She hated more that Adrian had not softened it before showing her.
"Did you plan to use me?"
He did not answer fast enough.
There were answers men gave when they wanted forgiveness and answers they gave when they wanted the truth to survive.
"I planned to speak with you," he said. "I had not decided what I would do after."
"That's not better."
"No."
The honesty landed between them, heavy and oddly intimate.
Elena stepped closer and pointed to a line at the bottom of the file. "This note. 'Contact before gala.' What gala?"
Adrian's face changed.
"The Marlowe Foundation gala."
"When?"
"The night before the explosion."
Elena looked at the file again.
The note had been added in Adrian's private shorthand.
He had planned to find her before the yacht ever left dock.