Chapter 9 - Her Father’s Second Bargain
Taras’s second bargain was more dangerous than the first.
Vadim showed Elara the photographs the following morning.
Taras leaving a Chicago hotel.
Morozov entering through a separate entrance.
Both departing ninety minutes later.
“What does Morozov want?” Elara asked.
Vadim folded his arms.
“Revenge.”
“Against you?”
“Yes.”
“Why use Dad?”
“Because Taras is desperate and predictable.”
Elara studied the images.
“What does my father want?”
“To survive.”
“Financially?”
“Perhaps more than that.”
Mikhail placed another document on the desk.
“Federal investigators have started asking questions about Fagan Logistics.”
Natalia paled.
“Does Dad know?”
“Probably.”
Elara understood immediately.
“He needs someone to blame.”
Mikhail nodded.
“And my name is already on the paperwork.”
“Yes.”
Vadim’s voice became low.
“He married you to me so he could create another explanation.”
Elara frowned.
“What explanation?”
“That the suspicious transfers were connected to Sokolov interests.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Me.”
Vadim nodded.
“If authorities traced the accounts, Taras could argue that you were moving funds after becoming involved with me.”
“But the documents predate the marriage.”
“Some do.”
Mikhail slid forward another stack.
“These don’t.”
Elara stared.
New transactions.
Recent dates.
Her signature.
“They’re still using my name.”
“Yes.”
Anger replaced fear.
“Can we stop them?”
“We can.”
Vadim looked at her.
“But we may learn more by allowing one controlled transaction to proceed.”
Elara’s eyes narrowed.
“You want to use me as bait.”
“No.”
“That sounded exactly like bait.”
“I want to use an account they believe is still available.”
“Same thing.”
Vadim’s expression tightened.
She waited.
Finally he said, “You’re right.”
The admission disarmed her.
He continued.
“I dislike it.”
“I know.”
“It carries risk.”
“I know.”
“And if you say no, we stop.”
Elara thought of her mother.
Her stolen inheritance.
The photographs taken while she walked unknowingly through Chicago.
The lies Taras had planted before sending her away.
“No.”
Vadim became still.
“No to the plan?”
“No to stopping.”
“Elara.”
“I want this finished.”
“Elara—”
“You said I get to be involved.”
“I did.”
“Then don’t turn protective the moment involvement becomes uncomfortable.”
His jaw tightened.
“You’ve become difficult.”
She smiled faintly.
“I’m discovering I enjoy it.”
Vadim looked as if he wanted to argue.
Instead he nodded.
The plan involved nothing dramatic.
No weapons.
No dangerous meeting.
Vadim’s legal team coordinated with financial investigators.
The suspicious account would remain active long enough for the next attempted transfer to identify its origin.
Elara signed documents affirming she had never authorized activity.
Then they waited.
Two days.
Nothing.
On the third morning, the alert arrived.
A transfer request.
$1.8 million.
Originating from an account linked indirectly to Morozov.
Destination: an investment entity allegedly controlled by Elara.
Mikhail looked almost satisfied.
“We have them.”
But Vadim frowned.
“Too easy.”
Elara looked at him.
“What?”
“Morozov knows financial surveillance.”
“You think it’s fake?”
“I think it’s distraction.”
Thirty minutes later, Marina entered the office.
“Mr. Sokolov?”
“Yes?”
“A package arrived for Mrs. Sokolov.”
Vadim’s face changed immediately.
“From whom?”
“No return address.”
Security examined it before Elara was allowed near it.
Inside was an old wooden jewelry box.
Elara recognized it.
Her mother’s.
She hadn’t seen it since Evelyn died.
Her hands shook as she lifted the lid.
Inside lay a silver necklace.
And beneath it, an envelope.
ELARA
Her mother’s handwriting.
Elara stopped breathing.
Natalia covered her mouth.
“How did he get that?”
Elara whispered, “Dad kept Mom’s things locked in storage.”
Vadim examined the envelope.
“It may have been opened.”
“I don’t care.”
“Elara—”
“I need to read it.”
He handed it to her.
The letter was short.
My sweetest Elara,
If you are reading this, I may no longer be able to tell you what I should have said every day.
There is nothing about you that requires apology.
Your father worries too much about appearances. I worry that one day he will make you believe his fears belong to you.
They do not.
You are not too much.
You are not difficult to love.
And you never need to become smaller to deserve kindness.
Elara couldn’t continue.
Tears blurred the page.
Vadim looked away, granting privacy without leaving.
She forced herself onward.
I created something for you that is yours alone. When you are older, use it to build whatever life feels like your own.
Not mine.
Not your father’s.
Yours.
Love always, Mom.
Elara pressed the letter to her chest.
For fourteen years she had lived with Taras’s voice.
Too large.
Too quiet.
Too awkward.
Too embarrassing.
Her mother had anticipated the damage.
She had tried to leave Elara a shield.
Taras had stolen even that.
At the bottom of the jewelry box was another note.
Not Evelyn’s handwriting.
Taras’s.
Come home and everything stops. Stay with Sokolov, and everyone learns what your mother really thought of him.
Vadim read it.
“What does that mean?”
Elara wiped her face.
“I don’t know.”
Natalia spoke suddenly.
“I might.”
Everyone turned.
She looked terrified.
“When Mom was sick, I heard them arguing once.”
“About what?”
“Dad.”
Natalia swallowed.
“Mom said she knew what he was doing with the company. She said she was going to leave him.”
Elara stared.
Natalia continued.
“Dad told her if she embarrassed him, none of us would ever see her money.”
The room went silent.
Vadim’s face hardened.
“What else?”
“I was sixteen. I ran away before they saw me.”
Elara looked down at the letter.
Evelyn had not simply left money.
She had been preparing an escape.
Taras had spent fourteen years burying that truth.
Now, frightened and desperate, he had made a mistake.
He had returned Evelyn’s letter.
And hidden in the corner beneath the final line was a tiny handwritten notation Elara had initially missed.
A bank name.
A date.
And two words.
Ask Daniel.
Elara looked up.
“Who is Daniel?”
Natalia went pale.
“I think I know.”
“Who?”
“Mom’s attorney.”
Vadim was already reaching for his phone.
If Daniel was alive, Evelyn Fagan might have left far more than a letter behind.
May you like
And Taras’s entire empire could be built on a secret he had spent fourteen years trying to erase.
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