Chapter 7
Vanessa removed her sunglasses.
Without them, she looked younger.
Not innocent.
Just less certain of the role she had been playing.
She turned to Elena.
“Did you freeze my cards too?”
Elena looked at her calmly.
“I don’t control your personal accounts.”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Then why are they frozen?”
Adrian said sharply, “Stop talking.”
Vanessa did not.
That was the first thing she did all day that Elena respected.
She looked at him.
“Why?”
Adrian’s face tightened.
The investigator stepped half a pace closer, still calm.
“Ms. Cole, you are not required to answer questions here. But you should avoid attempting to board until the matter is clarified.”
Vanessa’s eyes widened.
“Am I in trouble?”
No one answered fully.
That uncertainty frightened her more than accusation.
Elena understood.
She had lived inside uncertainty for months.
Now it belonged to someone else.
Adrian turned toward the investigator.
“She has nothing to do with this.”
Elena’s gaze sharpened.
Interesting.
Not because he was protecting Vanessa.
Because he was protecting whatever Vanessa might say.
The investigator looked at him.
“Then you will have an opportunity to clarify that through counsel.”
Counsel.
The word hit Adrian like a door closing.
He looked back at Elena.
“You went too far.”
She set the coffee down.
“No. I stopped too late.”
For the first time, pain entered her voice.
Not weakness.
Truth.
Adrian heard it and seemed almost annoyed by it.
Emotional pain complicated the clean villain version he needed.
He leaned toward her.
“I loved you.”
Elena’s eyes glistened.
“You loved being trusted.”
Silence.
Even Vanessa looked down.
The aircraft outside the window sat waiting in bright light, indifferent to the people who would not board it.
Adrian looked toward the gate.
Then toward the officers.
Then at the folder.
His options were shrinking.
Elena saw the exact moment he realized running would make him look guilty.
Staying would make him answer.
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Either way, the airport had become smaller than his lie.
Read Chapter 8 👉 Because Adrian could no longer flee without proving Elena right, and he could no longer stay without facing the folder.
