CHAPTER9
1447 Words
Elena stared at the paused video clip on Lucas’s laptop—the shadowy alley, the shaky camera, the unmistakable sound of her scream.
“That was the night I left New York,” she whispered. “I thought I imagined it. I wanted to believe I imagined it.”
Lucas slowly closed the screen. “You never told me.”
“I didn’t know what it meant,” she said, her voice trembling. “It was raining, and I was walking home from your apartment. I cut through an alley like I always did. I thought someone was following me, but when I looked back there was no one. Just shadows. I ran. That night, I decided to leave for good.”
Lucas looked haunted. “Why didn’t you tell me then?”
“Because I already felt crazy,” she admitted. “Vivian had just told me you were going to marry her. She said you’d proposed. She showed me pictures of you two together, emails with your name. I was broken, Lucas. And then that… that night in the alley. It felt like the world was closing in.”
Lucas stood, rubbing his hands through his hair. “I never proposed to Vivian. I barely dated her. She cornered me at events, flirted endlessly, but I never God, she planned this.”
Elena looked up, startled. “You think she was behind the alley?”
“I think she wanted you gone. She had access to media, tech contacts, maybe even someone with a criminal background. And if she didn’t do it herself, she paid someone who did.”
The pieces were finally connecting and it made Elena’s skin crawl.
Lucas sat back beside her. “You were never wrong, Elena. Someone really was following you.”
Her breath caught. “For five years, Lucas. If this person was behind the camera, they’ve had eyes on me this whole time.”
“And now they’re making it personal,” Lucas said. “They’re not just trying to hurt us they’re trying to erase us.”
Later that morning, Marcus returned with a new update.
“The video was uploaded through a proxy server in Estonia, routed through five different locations. But we traced the original camera data. The timestamp is authentic. It was recorded five years ago on the exact night Elena left.”
Lucas’s face darkened. “So they’ve been holding onto this. Waiting.”
Marcus nodded. “And they’re escalating now because she’s back in your life.”
Elena’s mind was spinning. “If they followed me then, maybe… maybe they know things I didn’t even realize.”
“Like what?” Lucas asked.
She paused. “Like how I left New York. Who I stayed with. What I changed to stay hidden.”
Marcus looked intrigued. “You disappeared cleanly, Elena. No paper trail. No credit activity. That’s not easy to do without help.”
“I had help,” she admitted softly. “Someone I trusted. Someone from my past.”
Lucas’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”
She hesitated. “His name was Damien Holt.”
Lucas stiffened. “Holt? As in”
“Yes. Damien is Vivian’s half-brother.”
The silence was deafening.
Elena avoided Lucas’s gaze. “I didn’t know at first. We met through a journalism assignment a year before I left. He was a source on a political corruption story. We kept in touch, then became friends.”
Lucas’s voice was low. “Did you… trust him?”
“I had no one else,” she said. “When things started unraveling Vivian’s lies, the fear in the alley I went to Damien. He offered to get me out of the city. Said he knew how to erase trails, find safe places to land.”
Lucas paced. “And he never told you he was related to Vivian?”
“Not until a year later. By then, I’d already rebuilt somewhere new. And I cut him off.”
Marcus pulled out his phone. “I’ll dig into him. If he’s her brother, there’s a good chance he’s involved.”
Lucas turned to Elena. “Why didn’t you tell me about him before?”
“Because I didn’t know how,” she said honestly. “Back then, I didn’t trust anyone. Not even myself.”
Lucas stepped forward, cupping her face. “You can trust me now. With all of it.”
She nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek. “I do.”
That night, Lucas and Marcus reviewed files on Damien Holt. His name appeared in investigative journalism circles, and he had a known history of digital infiltration—untraceable aliases, temporary devices, disposable identities.
“He’s smart,” Marcus said. “Too smart. If he’s behind this, we won’t catch him through normal channels.”
Lucas was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “What if we don’t catch him? What if we bait him?”
Marcus raised an eyebrow. “You want to draw him out?”
Lucas nodded. “If he’s watching Elena—and he’s angry she came back—we use that. We make him believe she’s leaving again.”
The next day, a rumor was “leaked” to a small, reliable gossip outlet: Elena Rivera departs NYC after scandal with Lucas Thorne. A fake airport sighting was arranged. Elena’s digital footprint was scrubbed clean.
All while she remained at the penthouse, hiding in plain sight.
Three days passed.
Nothing.
On the fourth morning, Marcus burst into the living room.
“We got him.”
Lucas looked up. “Where?”
“He showed up outside the bookstore last night. Disguised as a delivery man—same hat, same glasses. Security team tracked him to a motel in Long Island.”
Lucas stood. “Let’s go.”
The motel was cheap, crumbling, tucked between a liquor store and a chain pizza place. Marcus and his team had already surrounded it.
Inside Room 17, they found Damien Holt hunched over a laptop, headphones on, three burner phones beside him. He looked up too late.
Lucas entered alone, his eyes dark.
“Surprised?”
Damien smirked. “Not really. I figured she’d tell you eventually.”
Lucas glanced at the table. “What’s your game?”
Damien leaned back, unbothered. “No game. Just… old debts.”
“To who? Vivian?”
Damien shrugged. “We share blood, not loyalty. This was personal.”
Lucas’s voice dropped. “You stalked Elena. You recorded her. Threatened her father. That’s not personal. That’s sick.”
Damien’s smile vanished. “She ruined something I was building. When she ran, she took my clean exit with her. I helped her disappear, and she left me behind.”
“You helped her disappear after scaring her in that alley.”
Damien didn’t deny it.
“She was going to expose someone I was protecting. A client. Dangerous people. I needed her to leave quietly.”
Lucas stepped closer. “So you stalked her? For years?”
“No. I just… watched.” He glanced at the laptop. “Until she came back. And you Thorne, the perfect prince gave her everything. I wanted to take something back.”
Lucas’s fists clenched. “Congratulations. You just took back your freedom. Or whatever’s left of it.”
As security entered the room, Damien gave him one last look.
“She won’t forgive you for this. You used her. Just like me.”
Lucas didn’t answer.
Because somewhere deep down… he feared Damien might be right.
Back at the penthouse, Elena waited.
When Lucas returned, she stood quickly. “Did you find him?”
He nodded. “We got everything. Footage. Audio. Confession.”
Her shoulders sagged. “It’s over?”
Lucas hesitated. “Yes. But there’s something you should know.”
She frowned. “What?”
“He said you ruined his exit plan. That helping you cost him everything.”
Elena looked away. “I was naive. I thought he cared.”
Lucas stepped closer. “He did. Just not in a way that’s human.”
She gave a tired laugh. “So what happens now?”
Lucas took her hand. “Now… we finally have a choice.”
“For what?”
He smiled gently. “To stop running. From the past. From each other.”
She leaned in, resting her head on his chest. “I want that.”
Lucas held her tightly, the weight of the last five years lifting between them.
But in the back of his mind, one question remained unanswered:
If Damien was only watching…
Then who else was helping him?
- Writer
