Chapter 5 A Paper Ring

Lila's POV

My throat tightened each breath.

I was not blinking. I was unable to.

Richard was still grinning crookedly as he stood at the elevator. He had darker, shorter hair. I had forgotten how crisp his outfit had been. He also had my real wedding ring in his right hand. With him, they said, was the one cremated.

"Sweetheart, are you surprised to see me?" he asked.

I exhaled the air.

Even though Ethan didn't drop the gun, I could feel his body stiffen next to me. "This isn't feasible," he muttered to himself. "I buried you."

Richard took a slow, assured step forward. "You buried a lie."

He gave me a direct look. "Do you miss me, Lila?"

I wanted to cry out, but I couldn't. My feet stuck to the ground.

He had passed away. The death certificate *was* visible to me. His ashes were *held* by me. But suddenly he appeared in front of me, alive, arrogant, and very much unburied.

"I saw you weep over me," he continued. "Even wore black for a week. Cute."

Ethan stood between us. "Don't move. One more step and I swear-"

Richard grinned. "You won't shoot me. Not in her presence.

He was correct.

Even as Ethan's hands shook, the pistol remained in place. "Why, Richard? Why pretend to be dead? Why should we allow her to suffer?

"Because I had to vanish," Richard said. Black stream was on fire. I made the wise decision.

"Are you abandoning your wife?" Ethan snarled.

Richard's mouth moved. "That was not anything I planned."

He glanced back at me. "But I suppose you didn't weep for nothing."

My naked left hand caught his attention. Then Ethan. I had left the contract on the counter.

"You wed her."

Now his voice was ice.

With a heaving chest, Ethan took a step forward. "You took advantage of her. You ruined her. Don't pretend to care.

Richard's mouth became thinner.

I was able to find my voice at last. "Why now?" I suffocated. "Why return now?"

Richard said, "Because Dorian discovered me." Additionally, he wants his money back. However, he wants *her* first.

A chilly feeling seeped into my bones.

In a quiet voice, Richard said, "He knows I'm alive." However, he is unaware of *you two*.

He squinted his eyes.

"Not quite yet."

Ethan took hold of my arm. "We're heading out."

Richard held out a hand. "All OK. However, be aware that Dorian will completely destroy this city if he discovers that you are married to both Ethan and me.

Within an hour, we were out of the apartment.

Tucked away among woods and guarded by his own personal guards, Ethan's second property was a stone and glass castle perched atop a private cliff on the outskirts of the city.

I folded my hands in my lap and sat numbly in the rear of the black SUV.

I now had a paper ring on my finger. Like a memento of the agreement I had made earlier that evening, Ethan had discreetly placed it there. It was silky on my flesh, twisted, and folded from the last page of the agreement.

Not actual gold.

But all of a sudden, there was actual danger.

"What prevented you from informing me about the safe house?" I inquired.

Ethan said, "I only bring individuals I trust." "That wasn't anybody till last night."

I gave him a glance. "And now?"

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "You're my wife now."

My heart stumbled as I heard the word. spouse.

married to an active guy.

loved by the one who shouldn't have.

They were both caught in a conflict from which they had not really fled.

The new home was chilly, silent, and exquisitely antiseptic.

We were given admission codes by a guard called Vince, who also informed us that another would be stationed around the perimeter until further notice.

I hardly heard him.

I was only able to focus on Richard's face.

His tone. His falsehoods.

the fact that seeing him still made me feel anything.

Anger, pain, betrayal, sure.

But yearning, too.

Not for *him*.

For the person I *believed* he was.

Even if his body wasn't dead, that Richard was.

Ethan handed me warm clothing and a new towel. Silently, I undressed and looked at my reflection once again.

The same girl. new residence. new spouse.

The same mess.

Ethan was sitting by the fireplace, gazing into the fire, as I came back into the living room. On his lap, the contract was open.

"Do you still have questions?" I inquired.

He raised his head. "Not about you."

I took a seat next to him.

He extended his arm to touch my finger's paper ring.

He said, "This is transitory."

I gave a nod. "I understand."

He gave a little grin. "But it's incredibly important."

We were silent for a while.

There was a gentle snap of flames.

He wrapped his fingers around my waist. I closed my eyes and leaned onto his chest.

He gave my head a side kiss.

I let him to grasp me.

This moment belonged to me, even while the outer world was crumbling.

till someone called.

Ethan responded via speaker.

He said, "Hello?"

A pause. Then a voice that was familiar.

"Hello, hubby."

My blood turned to ice.

Maya was the one.

You've improved, I see," she replied gently. "How is married life going?"

Ethan remained silent.

She went on, "I'm phoning to congratulate you." "And to let you know, Richard wasn't solely responsible for his abduction."

"What on earth are you discussing?" Ethan snarled.

She questioned, "You didn't suppose he found out how to disappear on his own, did you?"

Ethan got up slowly. "You made him vanish?"

"Not helped," she said. "I planned it."

I put my hand to my chest.

Maya said, "He hired me to stage the death." However, since that he has betrayed our agreement by returning... Someone else will be the source of my collection.

"I swear, you touch Lila-" Ethan started.

Maya interrupted him, however.

Well, I'm not going to touch her. Allow Dorian to do that. However, I appreciate you signing that agreement. Now that you are lawfully wed... I am well aware of how to harm you.

The line died.

Ethan shut the phone abruptly.

"Luck it!" He let out a bark.

"What is she trying to say?" With my pulse pounding, I inquired.

"You're the weapon, and she's giving Dorian an excuse to come after *me*."

I got to my feet. "After that, we flee."

"No," he firmly stated. "We battle."

"However, we have no idea what she has planned."

Slowly, he turned to face me.

"We'll."

I woke up to an alarm on the home system three hours later. I was alone myself, and Ethan had gone outside to call.

On the hall's screen, the warning flashed red:

UNKNOWN IS THE SOURCE OF THE NEW FILE **SUBJECT: The Paper Bride**

I made a click.

It was a video.

Of Ethan lying in bed with me.

from the home *inside*.

The lens focused on my face.

A garbled voice then murmured:

**"A single ring does not confer ownership." However, one gunshot may kill you. ** I froze in place.

My sleeping face kept flickering on the screen. I gently separated my lips. Curling against my face were my lashes. Ethan had put his arm around my waist.

And it was all on camera someplace.

The room was *inside the camera*.

inside the secure building.

Ethan stated it was a location where no one could go inside.

A shiver ran up my back.

I became acutely conscious of every shadow as I glanced around the corridor. Each vent. all of the wall groans.

I took the closest chair and moved away from the screen. Above my head, I climbed up and smashed against the smoke detector.

It was there.

Blinking back at me is a small black dot.

a covert camera.

My fingers were trembling as I tore it out.

The bedroom wasn't the only one. It was a wired home.

I had the broken gadget in my hand and was waiting at the front entrance when Ethan came back.

When he saw it, his face turned stiff.

"Where was that found?"

"Over the corridor," I murmured. And it's not just that. I received some video. of us. last evening. in bed.

I let Ethan take the camera, which he then shattered in his hand.

"How?" he whispered. "These systems are safe."

"Obviously not."

Running to the control panel beside the stairs, he turned. The monitor came to life, but it showed a dark screen with a single flashing cursor in place of his personalized security interface.

"Damn it," he muttered to himself. "They've destroyed everything."

"Who could possibly do that?" I inquired.

He clenched his jaw. "Just one individual. The same person who assisted in fabricating Richard's demise.

"Maya."

He gave a nod. She has experience in cyber security. She oversaw Blacks tream's financial operations' backend. She is able to enter without a door.

"So we're also not secure here?"

When he turned to face me, I saw something in Ethan's eyes that I had never seen before.

I doubt it.

Then he moved fast.

After packing our things and locking up what little we had left, we went back in the vehicle. He didn't drive to a different house or motel this time.

He took a car to a location below the city.

A bunker.

Layers of alarms, concrete, and steel. Such a location, designed for war. or to avoid it.

"Before I became Ethan Cole, this was mine," he muttered. Earlier than the billions. Prior before the suits and glass towers. This was off the grid. No one has ever touched it.

Through a secret service tunnel, we got in.

Only after entering three passcodes and scanning his fingerprint did the hefty vault door softly hiss open.

It was chilly, dark, and completely windowless inside.

However, I felt as if no one was looking for the first time in days.

Ethan spread the contract out on the metal table once again an hour later.

He put a box next to it.

He said, "The flash drive you discovered in the red box." "Let's examine what Richard wanted to conceal."

After inhaling, I inserted the gadget into his encrypted laptop.

The screen flickered.

A single folder showed up.

**FINAL AGREEMENT FOR PROJECT SANGLASS**

Ethan pulled it open.

Numerous papers splattered all over the screen. Contracts were among them. Transfer orders were another. However, one has the label *CONFIDENTIAL – EYES ONLY.

He pressed the button.

I gasped.

A scanned copy of a handwritten letter was included. The handwriting of Richard.

**"I'm most likely dead if you're reading this. or acting as if they are. In any case, you should know that I never intended to include Lila. However, as soon as she signed the lease for the bakery, she became collateral. There is an account associated with the lease. Dorian launders his money via the account. **

I took a deep breath.

** "And they'll delete her-just as they erased Jonah-if she attempts to go." **

I turned to face Ethan. "Who is Jonah?"

His face became white as he gazed at the television. Richard's elder brother was named Jonah.

"In college, I believed he passed away."

"He didn't," Ethan said softly. He learned of Richard and Dorian's plans. He attempted to halt it. Thus, they presented it as an accident.

I felt sick to my stomach.

"What kept you from telling me?"

He said, "I assumed it was a hearsay." "But this... this proves it."

He selected the subsequent file.

It was a video, this time.

Richard spoke into the camera while sitting by himself in a pitch-black room.

**"Don't trust Ethan if something happens to Lila. Additionally, advise her not to open the red packet if she marries him. **

I blinked. "A red envelope?"

Ethan slowly turned to face me. "Did you come across anything similar?"

I gave a headshake. "No, hold on. The bullet was inside a crimson bag. Was that his intention?

"No," Ethan said. "There's more to this."

Abruptly agitated, he stood pacing.

He said, "I had your belongings transported from the bakery to my previous house before to the fire." "Every one of them. It should be at my mountain property if it was with your belongings.

"Let's go grab it then."

He gave me another glance. "We are unable to."

"Why?"

"Because Maya now owns that land."

I became cold. "You made a sale?"

"No. Richard handed it to her. as security.

For a long time, the room remained silent.

The screen then flickered once more.

There was a new message.

The flash drive was not the source of this one.

The system was the source of it.

**"You wed her. You two now pass away together. **

Ethan got up and helped me get up.

"We're heading out," he said. "Now."

"But where-?"

I was about to finish when the lights went out.

The door behind us then banged.

Then there was a hissing sound.

Gas.

They had located us.

As Ethan pulled me in the direction of the emergency panel, my eyesight became blurry.

However, I heard the voice once more before we arrived at it.

Inside the bunker this time:

Good night, Mrs. Cole.