“There are things happening. Things your father never meant to be part of.”

“What things, Mother?”

“I can’t explain over the phone. Please, Elizabeth, bring Savannah home where we can protect her.”

“Like you protected her before?”

“That was…” She hesitated. “A mistake. We thought we were keeping her safe from Dean. From whoever he really is.”

“So you did know,” I said quietly.

“Not everything. But enough to be concerned.” She lowered her voice. “Your father received threats after that boy disappeared. We thought… we thought if Savannah wasn’t connected to us, she’d be safer.”

It was such twisted Carrington logic that I almost believed her.

Almost.

“We’ll talk when I’m ready,” I said finally. “Not before.”

I hung up as Nico’s number flashed on my screen.

“Elise,” he said, breathless. “This is big. Really big. We need to meet.”

We arranged to meet at his office that evening. I left Savannah at the Airbnb, promising to be back within a few hours.

Nico’s small office was in a converted warehouse downtown, the kind of place where startups and freelancers rented space. I took the freight elevator to the third floor, knocking on his door with our old pattern.

Two quick. One slow.

I knocked again, louder this time.

Still nothing.

The door was unlocked.

I pushed it open slowly, calling Nico’s name.

The office was dark except for the glow of a computer screen. Papers were scattered everywhere, drawers pulled open, furniture overturned. My heart raced as I moved carefully through the destruction.

“Nico?”

A groan came from behind the desk.

I rushed over to find Nico on the floor, blood matting his hair, one eye swollen shut.

“Jesus, Nico.” I crouched beside him. “What happened?”

“They came for the drive,” he mumbled. “Right after I called you. Said they’d kill me if I published anything.”

“Did they get it?”

He shook his head, wincing at the movement.

“Hidden inside my Star Wars mug.”

I looked up to see a Darth Vader mug on the bookshelf, conspicuously untouched among the chaos.

I retrieved the drive while helping Nico to a chair.

“Hospital,” I insisted. “You need a doctor.”

“No.” He grabbed my arm. “Not safe. They said they’d be watching. You need to go. Take the files. All of them.”

He gestured to his computer.

“Downloaded everything. Made copies. It’s all there. Names, dates, transactions. Your father’s name is all over it, Elise.”

“What exactly is it?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“Project Insight. It wasn’t just domestic surveillance. It was targeted blackmail. They gathered data on politicians, judges, business leaders, anyone with power or influence. Used it to control votes, decisions, contracts.”

His eyes were fierce despite his injuries.

“Your father wasn’t just consulting. He was coordinating between Velker and the targets.”

The room seemed to tilt around me.

“Why? Why would he be involved in something like this?”

“Money. Power. The usual.” Nico grimaced. “But there’s more. Dean—or Leo, whatever his name is—found evidence the program never really shut down. It just went deeper underground. New company, new name, same people running it.”

“And now they’re after him.”

“And Savannah. And you,” Nico said grimly. “You need to be careful. These people don’t just threaten. They act.”

I helped clean him up as best I could, then downloaded the files from his computer. Before I left, Nico pressed a burner phone into my hand.

“My contact at the FBI. Only person I trust with this. Call when you’re ready to go public.”

I hugged him carefully, mindful of his injuries.

“Thank you for everything.”

“Just be careful,” he said. “And tell one hell of a story when this is over.”

When I returned to the Airbnb, I found the door slightly ajar.

My heart stopped.

I pushed the door open wider.

The living room was empty, but I could hear muffled sounds from the bedroom. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and moved quietly down the hall.

The bedroom door was closed.

I took a deep breath and flung it open.

Savannah was huddled in the closet, her face streaked with tears. She had wedged herself behind the hanging clothes, one hand over her mouth to muffle her sobs.

“Savannah, what happened?”

“Someone was here,” she whispered. “They broke in while I was in the bathroom. I heard them searching the living room, so I hid.”

I helped her out of the closet, checking her for injuries.

“Did you see who it was?”

She shook her head.

“But they left something.”

She pointed to the bed.

On the rumpled comforter lay a photograph.

Dean—or Leo—sitting at an outdoor café, unaware of the camera. The picture had been taken recently. He had the same haircut he’d had when he disappeared.

On the back, someone had written coordinates and today’s date.

“He’s alive,” Savannah breathed. “Elise, he’s alive.”

I stared at the photo, hope and suspicion warring within me.

“It could be a trap.”

“Or it could be him,” she insisted, trying to reach out.

My phone buzzed with a text from Maya.

He’s alive. But if you want to see him, you’ll have to make a choice.

The coordinates led to a remote cabin in West Virginia, a five-hour drive from Richmond. Maya had sent additional instructions.

Come alone. No phones. Arrive after dark.

“It’s too dangerous,” I told Savannah. “You can’t come. Think of the baby.”

“It’s my fiancé, Elise. The father of my child.” Her eyes were steady, determined. “I’m coming.”

I knew that look. It was the same one I saw in the mirror when I had made up my mind.

The Carrington women might be taught to keep quiet, but once we found our voices, nothing could silence us again.

“Fine,” I relented. “But you stay in the car until I make sure it’s safe.”

We left that night, taking back roads and switching vehicles twice. Paranoid measures I had picked up from too many spy novels, perhaps, but they made me feel safer.

Savannah dozed in the passenger seat while I drove, one eye on the rearview mirror.

Just outside Richmond, I made one final stop.

The Carrington estate.

I didn’t tell Savannah. She was asleep, and I needed to do this alone.

My mother opened the door before I could knock. She was dressed impeccably, as always, but her eyes were ruined.

“Elizabeth,” she said, relief washing over her face. “You came back.”

“Not for long,” I said, stepping inside. “I need to talk to Father.”

She led me to his study, where he sat behind his massive oak desk. He looked older than I remembered, the lines in his face deeper.

“I know about Project Insight,” I said without preamble. “I know about Velker. I know what you did.”

He didn’t deny it. Didn’t even look surprised.

He simply opened a drawer and pulled out a check, sliding it across the desk toward me.

“For Savannah,” he said. “Enough to start over somewhere safe. No press. No noise.”

I picked up the check. The amount made my eyes widen.

Then I deliberately tore it in half.

Then quarters.

Then eighths.

I let the pieces flutter back onto his desk.

“We don’t want your money,” I said. “We want the truth.”

“The truth,” he echoed, a bitter smile touching his lips. “The truth is, I made a mistake. Got involved with people I shouldn’t have. When I tried to back out, they made it clear that wasn’t an option.”

“So you what? Helped them blackmail people? Spy on American citizens?”

“I did what I had to do to protect this family.” His voice hardened. “When your sister started seeing that boy, when I realized who he really was, I tried to warn her away without telling her the truth. I thought I was protecting her.”

“By throwing her out when she was eight months pregnant?”

“That was your mother’s idea,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “She thought if Savannah wasn’t connected to us, they’d leave her alone.”

“And it never occurred to you to go to the authorities? To do the right thing?”

He laughed, a hollow sound.

“The authorities are compromised. How do you think this operation has survived this long? There are people in every agency, every branch of government, who benefit from Project Insight.”

I studied him. This man I had feared and respected all my life.

“You’re a coward.”

He flinched as if I had struck him.

“I’m a pragmatist. There are forces at work here bigger than one family. Bigger than your sister’s broken heart.”

“Dean is alive,” I said. “And I’m going to find him.”

My father’s face drained of color.

“Don’t. For God’s sake, Elizabeth, stay out of this. Take your sister and go. Canada, Europe, anywhere.”

“Just disappear like you wanted her to do? Hide away the shameful secret?”

I shook my head.

“That’s not who we are anymore.”

As I turned to leave, he called after me.

“Elizabeth, be careful. These people don’t make empty threats.”

“Neither do I,” I said, and closed the door behind me.

Back in the car, Savannah was still asleep, one hand protectively cradling her belly. I brushed a strand of hair from her face, wondering if I was doing the right thing. Taking her into potential danger seemed reckless, but leaving her behind might be worse.

We reached the coordinates shortly after midnight. The cabin was set deep in the woods, only a narrow dirt track leading to it. No lights were visible from the outside.

I parked a short distance away, turning to Savannah.

“Stay here. Lock the doors. If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, drive away. There’s a burner phone in the glove compartment with Nico’s FBI contact programmed in.”

“Elise—”

“Promise me.”

She nodded reluctantly.

“Be careful.”

I approached the cabin cautiously, every sense alert. When I reached the door, I knocked three short taps, like Maya had instructed.

The door opened slowly to reveal a tall, bearded man holding a shotgun.

Not Dean.

Not Maya.

“Hands where I can see them,” he said quietly.

I raised my hands.

“I’m looking for Dean Wilson. Or Leo Martinez. Maya Voss sent me.”

The man studied me for a long moment, then stepped aside.

“Inside. Quickly.”

The cabin was sparsely furnished but clean. A fire burned in the stone hearth, casting long shadows.

At a table in the corner sat Maya, her expression grim.

And beside her—

“Dean,” I breathed.

He looked different. Thinner, with a beard and longer hair. A bandage wrapped his left forearm, and he moved stiffly as he stood.

His voice was the same, though.

“Where’s Savannah? Is she safe?”

“She’s in the car,” I said. “She’s fine. The baby, too.”

Relief flooded his face. Then he turned to the bearded man.

“Ramy, bring her in carefully.”

Ramy nodded and slipped outside.

“What happened to you?” I asked Dean.

He gestured to his injuries.

“Velker’s cleanup crew found me. I got away, but not before they left their mark.”

Maya stood, arms crossed.

“He’s been hiding here for the past two weeks. I told him to stay put, but he insisted on reaching out once he heard about Savannah.”

“She was in the hospital,” I said. “Someone hurt her.”

Dean’s face darkened.

“I never wanted her involved in this. Any of it. When I met her, I didn’t know who she was. Just this beautiful, kind woman who saw me. Really saw me for the first time in years.”

“And when you found out she was Edwin Carrington’s daughter?”

He had the grace to look ashamed.

“I should have walked away. But by then I was already in love with her. I told myself I could keep those worlds separate.”

“Until you couldn’t,” I said.

He nodded.

“Until I found evidence your father was involved deeper than anyone knew. Until I realized Velker was still operational under a new name. Until they started following me.”

The door opened, and Ramy entered with Savannah.

She froze when she saw Dean, one hand flying to her mouth.

“Dean,” she whispered.

He crossed the room in three strides, gathering her in his arms as she broke down in tears.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured into her hair. “I’m so sorry I left you.”