Hired To Protect Him, Falling For Him

Chapter 13: Same father

The police left. Jonah was in the ambulance. Clara was gone.

The penthouse was quiet. Glass everywhere. Blood on the marble. My knees were bleeding again under the bandage. I was sitting on the floor in my torn red dress, with his big black suit jacket around me.

Elias was on the floor with me. Same level. His neck was red where Marcus choked him. His shirt was torn. He was holding my hands.

For a long time he said nothing. Then he said in a hoarse voice, "We have the same father. Different mother."

"My father had an affair. When my mother was still alive. Another woman had a son. Marcus. My mother found out when Marcus was three. She wanted to leave. My father begged her. He said the other woman left. She did not want the baby. So my father said, we will bring the boy home. We will raise him as a Thorne. As family."

"Both mothers are late now. My mother died from cancer some years ago. His own mother also died in a car accident when he was young."

"So that's why he hates you?"

"Yes. My father always said, elder son will run Thorne empire. Always elder son. I am the elder. Marcus heard that since he was three. Everything will be mine. Not his. Even though we have the same blood. Same father."

He swallowed. His throat hurt.

"And Lena?"

"Marcus told everyone Lena died in a car accident. Burns. And that I was driving. That was his lie."

"So what is true?"

"There was no car. No body. My father told me Lena fell from the rooftop balcony. Right here. Marcus was the last person with her. He said she slipped. But we never saw the body. Never saw a grave. Marcus handled everything. Father just said she is gone."

"You think she is not dead?"

Elias didn't answer at first. His hands tightened around mine. He looked away, at the broken glass on the floor. His jaw was shaking.

"I have to believe she is not dead," he said finally, his voice low. "Because there was no body, Nova. No grave. And tonight... tonight when Marcus was choking me, he didn't say 'Lena was like that.' He said, 'You took everything, like Lena did.' Present tense. Like she is still here. Still taking something from him. Alive outside."

I was quiet. Then I remembered the fight.

"In the penthouse, when Marcus grabbed me, he looked at the jewelry in my hand. My bracelet."

I held up my bracelet. The one my mom gave me.

"Marcus knows about my mom because he did a background check on me when he found out I am a fake girlfriend. He knows my mom works for people. Rich people."

"My mom just works. She works for people. I don't know which people. She never told me the names. She just works. She gave me this bracelet as a gift."

I looked at Elias.

"But now I'm thinking... my mom works for rich people. Rich people know rich people. So tomorrow I will call her. I will ask her about Thorne business. I will ask her, 'Mom, you work for rich families, do you know Thorne family? Do you know anything about them? Do you know a girl named Lena?'"

"Maybe she knows something. Because she works outside. She works for people outside."