. CHAPTER 8 — Marissa’s Bargain
Marissa Lane waited in a side lounge under the watch of a woman from corporate security who looked immune to charm. Without Adrian beside her, the burgundy dress seemed less like glamour and more like evidence of poor judgment.
When Elena entered, Marissa stood too quickly.
“I didn’t steal anything,” she said.
Elena closed the door. “That was not my question.”
“You think because he paid for things, I knew where the money came from?”
“I think you knew enough to ask no questions.”
Marissa’s eyes flashed. “That isn’t illegal.”
“No,” Elena said. “But it is expensive.”
Marissa sank back into the chair. Her confidence had always depended on mirrors, cameras, men watching. In a quiet room with one woman who could not be impressed, she looked very young.
“He told me you were bitter,” Marissa said. “That you couldn’t let go. That you hated seeing someone younger take over.”
Elena sat across from her. “And that explanation satisfied you?”
Marissa looked away.
On the low table between them lay a phone sealed in an evidence pouch. Daniel had found it in Adrian’s coat after security collected his belongings. There were messages from Marissa, but not enough to prove conspiracy. Not yet.
Elena knew pressure could reveal what threats could not.
“Adrian will blame you,” she said.
Marissa’s head snapped up.
“He has already begun. His lawyers will say you handled the apartment, the travel, the gifts. They will call you greedy. They will call you manipulative. They will say he was distracted by you.”
“He wouldn’t.”
Elena said nothing.
That silence did the work.
Marissa pressed trembling fingers to her lips. “I have messages. Voice notes. He told me which accounts were safe. I thought—I thought it was just how rich people move money.”
“There it is,” Elena said softly. “The sentence everyone uses right before the truth.”
Marissa began to cry then, not beautifully. Real fear ruined her mascara. “If I cooperate, can you protect me?”
“I can tell the investigators you came forward before they dragged you.”
“That’s all?”
“That is more than Adrian will give you.”
For a long moment, Marissa stared at the evidence pouch.
Then she nodded.
Elena rose. At the door, Marissa asked, “Why didn’t you humiliate me like he humiliated you?”
May you like
Elena looked back.
“Because I am not trying to become him.”
