Chapter 1 - THE MAN WHO ANSWERED HER STEPMOTHER’S CALL
Elena Vargas did not know whose car she had entered.
She knew only that flashlights were cutting through the woods behind her, her stepmother was shouting her name through the storm, and the men searching the estate had been ordered not to let her reach the road.
“Has anyone seen her?”
“No, ma’am. She may have crossed the creek.”
“Elena!” Isabel Vargas’s voice rose above the rain. “Come back before you make this worse!”
Elena ran harder.
Her bare feet slipped through mud and wet leaves. The silver dress Isabel had chosen for her clung to her skin, torn from shoulder to waist where it had caught on the bathroom window. Blood marked both ankles. A bruise burned across her cheek where Isabel’s ring had struck her.
An hour earlier, the Vargas estate outside Middleburg, Virginia, had glittered beneath crystal chandeliers.
Investors, state officials, bankers, and corporate attorneys filled the ballroom. A string quartet played near the staircase while servers carried champagne between tables.
Isabel had positioned Elena beside her like part of the décor.
“Smile,” she whispered whenever a guest approached.
Vargas Medical Logistics was drowning beneath debt no one at the party was supposed to see. The company distributed surgical equipment across five states. Elena’s father, Rafael, had built it from a rented warehouse. After his death two years earlier, Isabel became chief executive and trustee of the shares he had left for Elena.
Ambrose Vale had the money to keep the company alive.
He was seventy-one, politically connected, and accustomed to receiving more than financial returns from people who needed his help.
Throughout dinner, his eyes followed Elena.
When she asked to leave, Isabel tightened her fingers around her wrist.
“You will stay until our guest is satisfied.”
Later, Isabel guided her upstairs.
To the people below, the hand on Elena’s back probably looked maternal.
In the empty corridor, Isabel’s nails pressed through the fabric of the dress.
“What are you doing?” Elena asked.
“Saving what your father built.”
They stopped outside a bedroom.
Movement sounded beyond the door.
Elena stepped back.
“Who’s inside?”
“Mr. Vale has offered us a solution.”
“No.”
“You have lived in my house, attended school with my money, and benefited from the Vargas name.”
“My father left money for my education.”
“Gratitude would sound better in silence.”
Isabel opened the door.
Ambrose stood beside a table with his jacket removed and a glass of wine in his hand.
Elena turned.
Isabel shoved her inside and locked the door from the hallway.
When Elena refused to approach Ambrose, he moved between her and the exit.
She pushed him into a chair.
Wine splashed across the carpet.
Isabel rushed back inside and struck Elena before asking what had happened.
“He tried to touch me.”
“You should be honored that a man like him noticed you.”
That was the moment Elena understood.
Isabel was not protecting the company.
She was protecting the power the company gave her.
Ambrose reached for the wine bottle. His attention shifted for a second.
Elena ran into the bathroom and locked the door.
The window above the tub was narrow. The latch had rusted, but she forced it open while Isabel pounded against the wood.
The drop was nearly fifteen feet.
The bathroom lock began to split.
Elena jumped.
She landed in wet soil, twisting her ankle so sharply that she nearly screamed.
Then she ran.
Now she broke through the final line of trees and stumbled onto a dark service road.
Headlights appeared around the bend.
Elena stepped into the road and lifted both arms.
“Please!”
The black sedan braked so close that heat from the hood touched her knees.
A flashlight emerged from the woods behind her.
Elena struck the rear passenger window.
“Help me!”
Inside, a man in a blue suit lifted his eyes from his phone.
He was perhaps forty-eight, with dark hair graying at the temples and an expression that revealed nothing.
“Open the door,” he told the driver.
“Mr. Carranza—”
“Now.”
The lock clicked.
Elena climbed inside.
Warm leather and the scent of cedar surrounded her. She pressed herself into the corner, trying to cover the torn dress with both hands.
The stranger removed his coat and placed it beside her rather than touching her.
“Put that around your shoulders.”
The sedan accelerated.
Only when the estate lights disappeared did Elena release the breath trapped inside her chest.
“They can’t take me back.”
The man studied the bruise on her cheek.
“Who?”
“My stepmother.”
“What happened?”
“She locked me in a room with one of her business partners.”
The driver’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.
The man remained calm.
“Did he assault you?”
“I escaped before he could.”
“How?”
“I jumped from the bathroom window.”
Lightning exposed the road behind them.
A dark SUV emerged from the estate entrance and accelerated.
Elena shrank against the seat.
“That’s them.”
The man leaned toward the driver.
“Take the industrial route. Call the security desk at St. Catherine’s Hospital.”
The SUV followed.
Then the stranger’s phone began vibrating.
Elena glanced down.
ISABEL VARGAS appeared across the screen.
Her fingers moved toward the door handle.
“Don’t,” the man said.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Matthew Carranza.”
“Why is she calling you?”
He let the phone ring.
The SUV drew closer.
Elena’s voice broke.
“Are you taking me back?”
“No.”
“How do I know that?”
“You don’t.”
The honesty stopped her.
Matthew turned the phone so she could see a message Isabel had sent before the call.
RETURN ELENA. THIS IS A PRIVATE FAMILY MATTER.
Beneath it was an earlier message from Matthew.
I will not conceal forged guarantees or participate in another closed-door arrangement with Vale.
Elena stared at him.
“What forged guarantees?”
Matthew opened the leather case beside his feet and removed a file bearing her father’s name.
“Your father hired me before he died.”
“For what?”
“To protect the shares he left you.”
Elena looked through the rear window at the pursuing SUV.
Matthew’s next words frightened her more than Isabel’s call.
“Rafael believed someone would eventually try to use you to save the company.”
The sedan turned beneath the illuminated entrance of St. Catherine’s Hospital.
Uniformed security officers were already waiting.
The SUV behind them slowed, then passed without entering.
Matthew looked at Elena.
“What happened tonight may not have been the bargain.”
May you like
He placed the file between them.
“It may have been the leverage they planned to use against you afterward.”
