Chapter 9
Nadine’s nails dug into her palms as she paced the length of Leandro’s office. Papers were scattered across the desk, untouched. The blinds were drawn, casting the room in half–light. The air reeked of whiskey and despair.
For days now–weeks, even–Leandro had done nothing but obsess over Emerald and Gwen. He ordered DNA testing again and again, refusing to believe the truth. Nadine had stood by silently the first few times, but now, after the sixth test confirmed what everyone already knew, she couldn’t hold back the fury boiling inside her.
“Leandro!” she snapped, her voice cutting through the silence. “This is insane. Six times, and six times it came back the same. It’s real. She’s gone. Both of them are gone. Do you hear me?”
But Leandro didn’t answer. He sat slumped behind the desk, clutching the latest report in his trembling hands. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair unkempt. He looked more ghost
than man.
When he didn’t move, Nadine marched forward, grabbed the papers, and slammed them down on the desk. “Wake up!” she shouted, her palm cracking across his cheek. “You’re wasting away over ashes, over a body so ruined it can’t even be recognized without DNA. You still demand more? More tests? For what? To prove science wrong?”
Leandro’s head turned slowly, his jaw tightening. The mark of her hand flamed on his skin. His voice came low, dangerous. “Don’t you ever touch me again.”
“I had to!” Nadine screamed back, her chest heaving. “Because you’re blind. You’re throwing your life away for a woman who left you, who divorced you. For a child that isn’t here anymore. But me-” she pressed a hand against her stomach, eyes wild-“we have a baby. A future. Why can’t you see that?”
The words struck something inside him, but not what Nadine wanted. His body stiffened, then he stood abruptly, towering over her. His hand came down hard against her cheek, sending her stumbling back.
“You,” Leandro hissed, pointing at her with shaking fury, “you are the reason she left me. You ruined us. You poisoned everything. And because of you, she’s gone.”
Nadine’s mouth opened in disbelief, her cheek throbbing from his blow. “Me? You’re blaming me for Emerald’s choices?”
“She divorced me!” Leandro roared, his voice cracking under the weight of grief. “She’s dead now, and I can never make it right. And it’s because of you. Always you!”
Her knees felt weak. She gripped the edge of the desk, trying to steady herself. “So what am I to you then?” she whispered hoarsely. “All these years… what was I? Tell me!”
Leandro’s laugh was hollow, broken. His eyes glistened with tears as he whispered the words that shattered her: “A mistake. I’ve always loved her. Only her. You-” his lips curled
with disdain-“you were a mistake I should never have made.”
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with disdain-“you were a mistake I should never have made.”
The words slammed into Nadine like a blade. She froze, her breath caught in her throat. A
mistake.
Leandro brushed past her, his shoulders shaking, and stumbled to the small cot in the corner of his office where the ruined remains of Emerald’s body had been laid temporarily. He fell to his knees beside it, clutching the cold table as if holding on to Emerald herself. His sobs tore through the room, raw and unrestrained.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to the remains, his voice breaking. “I’m so sorry. I should have protected you. I should have protected her. Forgive me, Emerald…”
Nadine’s fists clenched so tightly her nails cut into her skin. She pressed a trembling hand to her belly, fury and resolve twisting inside her. “No,” she whispered under her breath, eyes dark with determination. “This won’t happen to us. Not to me, not to our baby. I won’t let him throw us away for a dead woman.”
She stormed out of the office, her heels clicking sharply against the marble. By the time she reached her car, her phone was already in her hand. She dialed a number she had hoped never to call again.
The line clicked. A man’s voice rasped through the speaker. “What is it?”
Her chest rose and fell rapidly. “Did you kill Gwen? Did you kill his daughter?”
A pause, then a chuckle. “Yes. We killed her. No money came, so the girl’s gone. You told us to handle it.”
Nadine’s hand shook violently, her knuckles white around the phone. “Damn you,” she spat, her voice trembling with rage. “I told you to keep her alive. Alive! I never said to kill her!” “Orders are orders,” the man replied lazily. “You said no money, we end it. That’s how it
works.”
Her teeth sank into her lower lip until she tasted blood. Her head pounded, her chest tight with panic. She hadn’t wanted Gwen dead. That wasn’t the plan. The plan was ransom- enough money to cripple Leandro, to make him need her, to make her the savior. Not this. Never this.
Forcing her voice steady, she hissed, “Listen to me. You will never contact me again. Never. This conversation didn’t happen. If you breathe a word, I’ll make sure you rot. Do you understand?”
Silence, then a grunt of assent. The line went dead.
Nadine sagged back into the seat of her car, her body trembling. Her breaths came shallow, uneven. She dragged her hands through her hair, gripping the strands until her scalp ached.
She had lost control. The situation had slipped through her fingers like sand. But she couldn’t break now. No–she had to turn it around. She had to keep her place.
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Her eyes hardened as she stared out the windshield. Leandro was grieving, drowning himself in Emerald’s memory, but grief would pass. Money, power, stability–those were things she could give him. Things Emerald no longer could.
Slowly, Nadine wiped her tears, smoothing her face into calm. “I’ll handle the company,” she murmured to herself, determination lacing every word. “I’ll prove I’m the one he needs. The one who’s useful. He’ll see. He has no choice but to see.”
Her hand drifted protectively to her belly once more. A smile, thin and sharp, tugged at her lips.
“No one,” she whispered, venom dripping from her voice, “no one will take this away from me. Not even a dead woman.”
