Chapter 3

Elena POV

Consciousness returned not in light, but in a low, vibrating thrum.

The heavy roar of a turbine. The rhythmic, pressurized hum of high altitude.

I opened my eyes. The cabin swam in a haze of soft beige and brushed steel. I tried to sit up, but my body felt like it was made of lead, my veins filled with wet sand.

"Easy," a voice said, firm but controlled. "Don't move yet."

Hamilton Nixon stepped into my line of sight. The image of him jarred me. He looked nothing like the polished billionaire I remembered from the gala.

He wasn't wearing a tuxedo. He was in full tactical gear, a headset resting loosely around his neck, his face streaked with engine grease and sea spray.

"Hamilton?" My voice was a broken croak.

"You're safe, Elena," he said. His tone was clinical, yet unusually soft. He handed me a bottle of water. "Drink. We had to flush your system. Whatever she gave you, it was potent."

"Where... where am I?"

"We're over the Atlantic," he said. "On my private jet. We just transferred from the extraction boat twenty minutes ago."

Extraction?

The word floated in my mind, untethered.

"Jackson..." I started, the name tasting like ash.

Hamilton's expression shifted, the softness evaporating into something granite-hard. "Jackson thinks you're dead."

The words hung in the pressurized air of the cabin, heavier than the gravity pinning me to the seat.

"What?"

"My team staged a crash," Hamilton explained, sitting down opposite me with the fluid grace of a soldier. "Your car. A cliffside road. An explosion. The bodies were... unidentifiable. But we planted your personal effects. Your ring. That necklace he gave you."

"Dead," I whispered.

I waited for the horror. I waited for the scream.

But instead, I felt a strange sensation in my chest. It wasn't grief. It was oxygen.

It was a lightness. A terrifying, exhilarating lightness. The invisible noose around my neck had finally snapped.

"Why?" I asked, my eyes locking onto his. "Why did you do this?"

"Because Candida put a hit out on you," Hamilton said grimly. "The poison was just the first attempt. She had a cleaner coming to the estate tonight. If I hadn't pulled you out when I did, you wouldn't have seen the sunrise."

I shivered, a cold sweat pricking my skin. "She hates me that much?"

"It's not just hate, Elena. It's business. It's blood." Hamilton pulled a tablet from his bag and slid it across the table. "Look."

I stared at the screen. Dossiers. Photos. Financial records scrolling past in a blur of red ink.

"Candida isn't just a mistress," Hamilton said, leaning in. "She's a Camacho. Her family has been rivals with the Parks for decades. She infiltrated Jackson's life like a virus. The boy, Joey... he's the key. Through him, she plans to merge the families and then liquidate the Parks leadership. Starting with you. Ending with Jackson."

I felt sick, my stomach churning. "Does Jackson know?"

"He's too blind to see it," Hamilton said with a sneer. "He thinks he's the puppet master, but he's just a marionette."

He leaned forward, his eyes intense, burning with a truth I couldn't deny.

"But that's not your problem anymore. Elena Parks is dead. She died in a fiery crash on Route 1."

He pulled out a passport. It was blue. French. He set it on the table between us like a weapon.

"Meet Elara Vance," he said. "She owns a vineyard in Provence. She has a trust fund and a quiet life. She is free."

I took the passport. My hands were trembling. I opened it. The photo was me, but different. My hair was lighter, my expression unburdened. Serene.

"France?" I asked.

"It's safe there. I have a secure estate. You can heal. You can start over."

I looked out the window. Below us, the ocean was a vast, black expanse, swallowing the world I used to know. Somewhere back there, in the smoke and ruins of my old life, Jackson was mourning a ghost.

"He left me," I whispered to the glass, my reflection staring back at a stranger. "He chose the lie. Now he has to live with it."

I turned back to Hamilton, closing the passport with a definitive snap.

"Let's go."