Chapter 5
The hospital room smelled like antiseptic, rain, and Daniel’s fear.
He sat beside Elena’s bed with both hands clasped, still wearing the open-collar white shirt from the engagement dinner. The cuffs were stained from holding the cloth against her cheek.
Elena’s face was bandaged.
Her voice was weak.
Her mind was not.
“Did they bag the cloth?”
“Yes.”
“The lace?”
“Yes.”
“The fragment?”
“Yes.”
“Witness names?”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Elena, rest.”
“Witness names?”
He exhaled.
“Caroline is already gathering them.”
Caroline Shaw had been Elena’s litigation attorney for two years, though no one in the Ortega family knew that. Elena hired her after discovering old inconsistencies in family trust records Victor refused to explain.
Small things at first.
Missing pages.
Unsigned amendments.
A property sale her grandmother once mentioned but Victor denied existed.
Then the phrase buried testament appeared in an index from an old probate file.
Caroline told Elena not to confront Victor until they had more.
Elena had listened.
Tonight, Victor had confronted himself in front of eight cameras.
Daniel touched her hand gently.
“Caroline says the evidence chain is clean so far.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Good.
Pain moved through her face in waves, but beneath it was a colder ache.
Her family had laughed.
Her mother had laughed.
Her sister had laughed.
Not after a harsh word.
After blood.
Daniel’s thumb brushed her knuckles.
“I still want you,” he said quietly.
Elena opened her eyes.
“I know.”
That was not the fear.
The fear was that her father had hurt her because Daniel had chosen her.
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The deeper fear was that he had done it because the sealed testament was close to surfacing.
Read the full story 👉 In the hospital, Elena realized the attack might be tied to more than Vanessa’s rejection.
