CHAPTER 7 — THE BAIT

Daniel claimed Margaret had learned my identity three years earlier.

She discovered it through a background investigator hired during a dispute over our prenuptial agreement.

Once she knew I was Vittorio Russo’s daughter, she began studying his companies.

The Hale business was failing, but Margaret saw another path to wealth.

She believed that if Sofia’s trust were threatened, I would eventually contact my father.

My Christmas call had been part of her plan.

“That makes no sense,” I said. “She was arrested.”

“She didn’t expect Travis to lose control.”

“And what did she expect?”

“For your father to arrive angry.”

Daniel lowered his voice.

“My mother has spent months telling federal investigators that Vittorio Russo uses illegal threats to control businesses.”

I looked at him through the glass.

“What investigators?”

“She contacted a task force.”

My father’s empire had always lived in the space between rumor and fact. He owned shipping companies, hotels, construction firms, and private security businesses. People whispered about what he had done decades earlier, but no criminal case had ever reached a courtroom.

Margaret wanted to change that.

“She believed your father would threaten us, attack Travis, or order someone taken away,” Daniel continued. “The house had hidden cameras in every room.”

My father’s arrival was supposed to become evidence.

The assault against me was bait.

The forged transfer created the crisis.

And Sofia was the pressure point.

“Did you know?” I asked.

Daniel shut his eyes.

“I knew she wanted your father involved.”

“That is not an answer.”

“Yes.”

The word left him barely above a whisper.

I gripped the telephone receiver.

“You let your mother use our daughter to provoke my father.”

“I thought no one would actually get hurt.”

“You told them to scare me.”

“I was trying to save the company.”

“You were trying to save yourself.”

Daniel began crying.

A year earlier, I would have reached through the glass if I could.

Now I felt nothing.

He offered the location of Margaret’s hidden account in exchange for my help. I refused.

“Tell the prosecutors,” I said. “Maybe they will consider your cooperation.”

“Elena, please.”

“You watched your mother build a case to take Sofia from me.”

“I never would have let it happen.”

“You already did.”

As I stood to leave, Daniel struck the glass with his palm.

“Your father is not innocent!”

I turned back.

“No,” I said. “But this time, neither are you.”

That evening, federal agents arrived at my townhouse.

They did not arrest my father.

They asked to speak with me.

The lead agent placed a still image from Margaret’s hidden camera on the table.

It showed my father standing inside the Christmas house.

A man from his security team was whispering into his ear.

The agent enlarged the photograph.

The man was holding a handwritten list.

At the top were the names Margaret Hale and Travis Hale.

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