Chapter 2 - The Letter From the Dead Clinic
Katelyn slipped the envelope beneath her coat.
Damian noticed.
“What is that?”
“None of your business.”
Natalia stepped between them.
“That seems to be her favorite answer.”
Katelyn looked at her.
“I don’t know you.”
Natalia smiled, but her eyes were cold.
“You know enough.”
Damian’s voice sharpened.
“Natalia.”
She ignored him.
“I know exactly who she is. The woman who disappeared after taking your money.”
Katelyn went still.
“What money?”
Natalia’s smile faltered.
Damian looked at her.
“You told her?”
“She deserved to know what kind of woman was standing in front of us.”
Katelyn’s pulse climbed.
“I never took anything from Damian.”
Natalia gave a soft laugh.
“Five million dollars disappeared from one of his accounts the week you vanished.”
Katelyn turned toward Damian.
“You believed I stole from you?”
His silence answered.
The boutique seemed to close around her.
For three years, Katelyn had believed Damian abandoned her because he discovered the truth about his family’s enemies.
She had believed he chose power over love.
Now she realized he had been told a different story.
“You never called me,” she said.
“I did.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Every number was disconnected.”
“My apartment was emptied.”
“I went there.”
Katelyn’s eyes burned.
“Two men came before you.”
Damian’s expression changed.
“What men?”
“They said you sent them.”
The lead bodyguard, Marcus, looked toward Damian.
That was the first sign that something was wrong.
Damian never sent unidentified men.
Never.
Katelyn remembered the night clearly.
Two men in dark coats had entered her apartment using a key.
They placed photographs on her table.
Damian meeting with federal investigators.
Damian standing beside a body covered with a sheet.
Damian shaking hands with men whose names Katelyn recognized from the news.
They told her Damian’s enemies knew her name.
They told her leaving was the only way to keep everyone alive.
Then they gave her a plane ticket and said Damian had ordered it.
She had been six weeks pregnant.
Terrified.
Alone.
And certain Damian wanted her gone.
Damian stepped closer.
The lead bodyguard raised his arm again.
Damian stopped.
“Who were they?”
“I never knew.”
“Describe them.”
Natalia grabbed his sleeve.
“Why are you interrogating her? She vanished with your money.”
Katelyn pulled out the clinic envelope.
“Maybe this explains who was really paid.”
She broke the seal.
Inside was a single page.
A chain-of-custody notice.
The fertility clinic had reopened an archived file after discovering that Katelyn’s medical records were accessed under a false authorization.
The name attached to that authorization was printed at the bottom.
May you like
Natalia Vale.
👉 The woman clinging to Damian’s arm had accessed Katelyn’s pregnancy records months before Damian even knew she was pregnant.
