Chapter 19
I could tellsomething was going down when Claire snuck out of bed and got dressed. That was why I had a limo pick me up. I thought we”d chat once I knew where she was headed.
The last thing I expected was having to drive for almost an hour to Waukegan and watch her disappear into a lawyer’s office. When I realized where she was going, it took every ounce of restraint I had not to march in there and drag her out. We just got married, and there was only one reason a married woman needs to see a lawyer. Divorce. I thought she knew that was off the table, but clearly we haven’t been on the same page.
Her knee began to bounce.
Maybe that made me a real bastard, but I didn’t care. Let her sweat.
“I know it’s you, Franklin.”
What? Franklin? Why would she think it was her father? Well, I’d deliberately left off my typical cologne, but I doubted if it was Franklin nabbing her, he would have thought of that.
Her lips pinched together. Her knee bounced even harder. “I guess you figured out that I broke into your office.”
Well, that was a revelation I wasn’t expecting.
“I bet you never thought I’d do that. That’s why you were so careless with the paperwork. My trust? You just left it right out in the open. So cocky and arrogant. But that worked in my favor.” She laughed.
Oh, now I was doubly curious and even more inclined to keep my mouth shut.
“I thought maybe I read it wrong, but I didn’t. That trust was mine the moment I said I do. Not when I’m twenty-one. I bet Lucas doesn’t know that. Let me guess, the plan was to double-cross him? Let him think that he had to wait another week while you and Marco plot to take him out?”
I knew they were working together, but how did she know that? Unless she was working with them, too. Before I could get too angry, she continued.
“Bet you didn’t expect me to find your little treasure of information hidden in your desk either. I have to admit, you and Marco were careful. Killing Emil? What did he find out? That you were selling little girls, and he wasn’t too keen on that? Or Marco pretending to make a move to take me so that it looks like you tried to double-cross him? You even made me think that when you said you’d kill Lucas and give me to Moretti.”
I was speechless. I was looking at this whole thing wrong.
“I saw your payroll. The lure. She goes out, finds girls, and they audition for movies. I saw Gianna’s picture. His dad’s.” She was quiet for a second. “I took pictures, and before you search me, my phone is safely at the condo under my pillow. The one I have on me is a burner.”
And she hadn’t said word one to me.
“He doesn’t know yet. I was afraid he’d get too angry and call off the wedding or confront you, and you’d kill him. Then you’d find someone else to take his place, and I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let you hurt him.”
That sucked the wind out of me. I hadn’t even looked at things from her perspective. I would have been furious. There was a good chance I would have called off the wedding. Then what would have happened to Claire? Most of her fear revolved around me, though. She didn’t want me hurt.
A tear crept down her cheek. “I was going to return to Chicago, find him, and tell him everything. He’ll find my phone. He’ll know. So…”
Her chin dropped to her chest, and when she spoke again, it was barely above a whisper. “You can torture me if you want to or try to dissolve the marriage, but I signed it over to him today. All of it is his. You’ll never get your hands on a single dime. I made sure of that. Once the bank calls him, all he has to do is si?—”
Before I could stop myself, I ripped the blindfold off. “You did what?”
“Lucas? How?”
“Really? You’ve tossed and turned the last two nights. I was awake when you left. I was behind you the entire way to Waukegan.” I reached across the car and untied her hands. “I thought you’d gone to that lawyer to divorce me.”
“No. I wanted to make sure I was reading the terms of the trust correctly. I knew I’d need a lawyer to advise me. Which he did.”
I leaned forward with my elbows on my knees. “Did you say you signed it over to me?”
“Most of it. I took some and created an annuity for the soup kitchen. Helen has always been worried about donations, and now she doesn’t have to be. I guaranteed she wouldn’t know where it was coming from, but it made me happy to do it. The profits will go to a crisis pregnancy center to honor my mom.”
I was trying to wrap my brain around everything she was saying, but it was a lot to take in. “Why?”
“Restitution. Mostly. It doesn’t outright say he was responsible for Gianna’s death or your dad’s, but it doesn’t take a genius to put it together that he had a hand in it. Based on the last name, I suspect she had no idea that your family was the mafia. You were protecting her.”
Claire quickly changed sides in the limo. “Lucas, you need to know that Marco is working with Franklin. They’ve been working together for decades. I think they know you’re the vigilantes.” She rolled her lips in like she wasn’t planning on saying the last part.
“What did you say?” I narrowed my eyes and put my face in hers. She couldn’t possibly know it was us.
“I wasn’t positive until this moment. I suspected when I saw Dimitris standing in the crowd the other day and the reporter was there covering the children being rescued. It was really fuzzy, but I was almost certain it was him.”
“I guess Franklin knows this?”
Claire recoiled like I’d slapped her. “What? After all this, you think…”
It came out like an accusation, but I was being bombarded with information and emotions. “I didn’t?—”
“Don’t.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Just don’t. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”
“Claire.”
She slid across the seat, crossed her arms over her chest, and refused to even acknowledge I existed. She remained like that the entire way to Chicago, and she was even icier by the time we got to the condo.
We both needed a second. I’d give her a chance to cool down, and then we’d talk.
I had no idea how to fix this, but we were not going anywhere until we’d talked it through.