Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO COULD STAND
Elias waited until two in the morning before leaving the bedroom.
Maeve was asleep.
Or at least he believed she was.
He crossed the corridor on foot and entered his private study.
Salvatore was already there.
“You are becoming careless,” his uncle said.
Elias shut the door.
“She is asleep.”
“That is what men say immediately before being discovered.”
Elias poured water.
“I want another background check.”
“On Sienna?”
“Yes.”
Salvatore raised an eyebrow.
“You already have one.”
“I want everything from the past ten years.”
“What are you looking for?”
Elias turned.
“I don’t know.”
That was the problem.
The woman sleeping upstairs had Sienna’s face at a glance.
Similar hair.
Similar build.
Same clothes.
Same jewelry.
Yet every instinct Elias possessed told him something fundamental had changed.
Sienna used to complain when staff entered a room too slowly.
This woman thanked them.
Sienna hated old books.
This woman read them.
Sienna never remembered security guards’ names.
This woman knew all six night officers by the end of the first week.
And Sienna had once told Elias she could not imagine living anywhere without a spa.
Yesterday, he had found his wife in the kitchen teaching a dishwasher how to make soda bread.
Salvatore watched him.
“You like her.”
Elias’s expression hardened.
“That is irrelevant.”
“It is the only reason you’re confused.”
“I am not confused.”
“You are married to a woman you were testing.”
Elias said nothing.
Salvatore continued.
“You expected her to fail.”
“Yes.”
“And instead?”
Elias looked at the closed door.
“Instead she became someone I would have chosen.”
Salvatore leaned back.
“Dangerous.”
Elias’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“Wanting something.”
The following morning, Maeve woke before him.
She walked into the sitting room and found Elias asleep in the wheelchair.
A blanket had fallen to the floor.
She bent to pick it up.
Elias opened his eyes instantly and caught her wrist.
Maeve gasped.
His grip released at once.
“Sorry.”
She rubbed her wrist.
“You sleep like a man expecting to be attacked.”
“I usually am.”
Maeve looked at him.
He said it without humor.
Without drama.
Only fact.
She placed the blanket across his legs.
Elias watched her hands.
“Why are you still here?”
Maeve froze.
“You asked me that already.”
“I am asking again.”
She stepped back.
“Because I married you.”
“That happened after you came back.”
Maeve searched for an answer.
Elias’s voice softened.
“If you wanted to leave, I would let you.”
She looked at him quickly.
“Would you?”
“Yes.”
“You wouldn’t punish my family?”
“No.”
Maeve thought about Margaret’s warnings.
About destruction.
Revenge.
Fear.
“Why?”
“Because forcing someone to stay is not loyalty.”
The answer shattered something inside her.
Margaret had lied about him.
Or perhaps Margaret had only described the version of Elias she believed existed.
Maeve sat in the chair opposite him.
“If I told you something terrible about myself, what would you do?”
His gaze sharpened.
“That depends on what it is.”
“What if I lied to you?”
“About what?”
Maeve opened her mouth.
Then her phone rang.
Margaret.
The sound broke her courage.
She stood.
“I need to take this.”
Elias watched her leave.
Twenty minutes later, Gabriel entered with a folder.
“The additional report.”
Elias opened it.
He turned two pages.
Then stopped.
A photograph had been clipped inside.
Sienna Ashford at a charity event eight months earlier.
Elias stared at the image.
Then he looked toward the doorway Maeve had just passed through.
Gabriel said nothing.
Elias placed the two faces side by side in his memory.
The differences were small.
The nose.
The distance between the eyes.
A faint scar near the chin.
Different enough once he knew to look.
May you like
Elias slowly removed his onyx ring.
“Who,” he asked, “did I marry?”
