Chapter 4
An Unlikely Alliance
Elena slowly lowered the rolling pin and unlocked the door. Standing in the dim, narrow hallway was Beatrice, wearing a simple trench coat and dark sunglasses, a far cry from the diamond-encrusted bride of three days ago.
Elena stepped back, allowing her inside. Beatrice’s eyes immediately adjusted to the small apartment, taking in the peeling wallpaper, the stacked cardboard boxes, and finally, little Leo sitting on the floor with his oxygen line.
Beatrice’s expression softened instantly. The anger that had fueled her for days seemed to melt into profound empathy. "He’s beautiful," Beatrice murmured, walking over and kneeling on the floor beside the little boy. "Hi, Leo. I'm a friend of your mommy's."
"Do you know my daddy?" Leo asked, tilts his head.
Beatrice looked up at Elena, a silent understanding passing between them. "Your daddy is a very complicated man, Leo. But your mommy is a superhero."
Elena walked into the kitchen area, pouring a glass of water for Beatrice. "Why are you here, Miss Montgomery? If your family is looking to pay me off to keep this out of the press, the damage is already done."
"I'm not here to pay you off, Elena," Beatrice said, standing up and taking the glass. "I'm here because Julian stole two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from my family's corporate foundation. And according to my father's investigators, he just purchased a one-way ticket to Zurich under a forged passport using his mother's maiden name."
Elena gasped, dropping the sponge she was holding. "He's leaving the country? He... he completely abandoned Leo's surgery schedule. The hospital in Boston won't even put him on the transplant list without a fifty-thousand-dollar deposit!"
"He’s leaving tonight at midnight," Beatrice said, pulling out a small tablet from her bag. "My father's security team tracked his burner phone signal to a motel near JFK airport. But if my father involves the police now, the red tape will take days, and Julian will slide through international customs before the warrant is processed."
"What do you want to do?" Elena asked, her hands shaking.
"I want to catch him myself," Beatrice said, her eyes flashing with a cold, aristocratic fire. "But I need you with me. If the airport security sees the high-society ex-fiancée causing a scene, they'll call it a domestic dispute. But if his legal wife arrives with a child and proof of abandonment and financial theft, they will detain him on the spot."
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Elena looked at Leo, then at the packing boxes. She had spent three years hiding, surviving, and waiting for a man who didn't exist. It was time to stop running.
"Let's go get your money back, Beatrice," Elena said firmly. "And my son's future."
