Chapter 261 The Pregnant Wife
ADRIANA
Leo and I walked into Elijah’s office and stood in the middle of the room, where a device planted anywhere in the space would pick us up clearly. I didn’t know exactly where it was and I wasn’t going to look for it, because looking for it would tell him we knew it was there, and knowing we knew would close the only door I had left to work with.
“I still can’t believe Stella confessed to everything,” I said, keeping my voice conversational. “She really didn’t hold anything back. Every detail, everything he asked her to do, how long it went on.” I moved slowly toward the window like I was just thinking. “Which means we know everything now. Elias is obviously not his real name. I’m not naive enough to believe that. But what she gave us is more than enough to work with.”
Leo immediately caught on without being told. He leaned against the bookshelf with his arms folded, following my lead.
“The fact that he chose someone like Stella though,” I continued. “A maid. Someone desperate and scared and easy to manipulate.” I shook my head. “That tells you exactly what kind of man he is. No real intelligence behind any of it — just opportunism dressed up as strategy.”
The door opened and Hazel came in a rush, reading the room in a single second and stopping before she said whatever she’d come to say.
“Don’t you think it’s interesting,” I said, before she could speak, “that he thought Stella would be enough to keep this going indefinitely? She told us everything. We have her, we have her confession, we have everything she was given.” I looked at Hazel. She understood what I wanted from her without me needing to say it. “If he’s watching this closely, he knows she’s in custody. Which means he knows the walls are closing.”
Hazel caught it. She reset without blinking. “What do you want to do with her?”
“Keep her locked down. Make sure she doesn’t go anywhere.” I paused for just a beat. “And the pregnancy, I want confirmation on that. He’s the kind of man who uses people and walks away, and I don’t want anything of his walking out of this house.”
I said it clearly and without heat and then I moved toward the door. Leo fell into step behind me.
I let out a slow breath as the door was pulled shut and lowered my voice to barely above a whisper.
“The office is bugged,” I said. “Everything we’ve said in there, he’s heard all of it.”
Leo’s jaw tightened. “For how long?”
“Long enough.” I looked at Hazel. “What were you coming to tell me?”
“The phone trace,” she said quietly. “He’s in the pack. Right now. I have an address.”
“What are we waiting for? Let’s get going.” She didn’t need to be told twice.
We took three vehicles and moved without lights once we cleared the main road. Eight guards, Hazel, myself, driving through the back routes to a residential address that sat at the edge of the pack boundary. The house was ordinary, dark except for a light in one room.
We went in through the front door.
It was empty. Clean surfaces, minimal furniture, nothing personal. The fire in the back room was cold.
He’d been here, yes but he wasn’t anymore.
And then from a back room there was a woman’s voice, sharp with fear: “Who are you? Let me go! What is this?”
The guards brought her out and I looked at her and said immediately. “Let her go.”
She was very pregnant. Heavily, unmistakably pregnant, her hands pressed to her stomach as soon as she was released, her eyes moving between me and the guards with the terrified confusion.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, and I meant it. “We’re looking for someone and we came to the wrong part of this. What’s your name?”
“Rita.” She was still breathing fast. “What’s going on? What have I done?”
“Nothing,” I said. “You’ve done nothing. I need to ask you a few questions and I’d rather do that somewhere more comfortable. Will you come with us?”
She looked at the house around her, then at me. Then she nodded and picked up her coat and bag and came.
At the house, I took her to the sitting room and had tea brought and sat across from her and let the conversation settle into something that wasn’t an interrogation before I made it one. She was due in a few weeks. We talked about it briefly and I watched her relax by degrees.
I noticed the wedding band but didn’t say anything yet.
When the moment felt right, I took out Stella’s phone and showed her the contact number on the screen.
“Do you recognize this number?”
She looked at it. “Yes, that’s mine. Where did you find it?”
“Do you know a woman named Stella?”
Her face shifted into a warm, unguarded smile. “Of course, she’s my husband’s sister. Is she okay? Has something happened to her?”
So that was the story he’d told Rita. Sister. I looked at this woman who seemed genuinely kind and worried about someone when she had been lied to and deceived. I felt something cold and sad move through me simultaneously.
“Your husband,” I said carefully. “What does he do?”
“He’s a doctor.” She shook her head with a fond smile. “He’s actually quite private. He doesn’t like photos. I’ve never fully understood it. He said cameras make him uncomfortable, so we don’t have any, not even from the wedding.” She smiled apologetically. “I know that sounds strange.”
“What’s his name?”
“Thomas Gray.”
I kept my face completely still.
“Actually—” She was already reaching for her phone. “I took one once. While he was asleep. He doesn’t know.” she whispered like she was telling a secret.
“Here, I still have it.” She picked up her phone and started scrolling. She handed it to me after.
The image was dark and slightly blurred from the low light and the angle. But it was clear enough.
My breath stopped moving through my body for a full three seconds.
I knew that face.
I gave her the phone back and stood up. “Please excuse me for a moment. The staff will bring you anything you need. I’d like you to stay here tonight, it’s late and I don’t want you making that drive.”
“Is everything okay?” she sounders scared so i put on my best smile.
“Of course, you have nothing to worry about.” She looked uncertain but nodded, taking my word for it.
I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me and stood in the corridor and let the thing that was happening in my chest happen for a few seconds before I locked it back down and turned to Hazel.
“It’s the doctor.” The words escaped me in a rush. Half relieved and half livid at what I just found out.