Page 49 of Desperate Vows

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.

Chapter Twenty

CLAIRE

Lucas let me believe he was Franklin the whole time and then had the audacity to think that I would ever betray him like that. Briefly, I thought maybe this thing between us could be salvaged. He knew that I wasn’t working with Franklin, but it didn’t matter what I did. I’d never earn his trust.

I stormed from the front door all the way to the closet and began gathering my clothes in my arms. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I wasn’t staying here. I didn’t have to live with him to be married to him.

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