The following morning, Ella sat in her living room, staring at the blank page in her journal. She had always used writing to make sense of the chaos in her life, but now, even her thoughts felt too tangled to put into words.
Tania. Fabian. Grace. The lies. The threats.
She took a deep breath and tried to focus. The pieces of the puzzle were slowly coming together, but there were still so many missing parts. How long had Tania and Fabian been involved? Was their relationship something that started before she and Ethan’s marriage crumbled? And how had she, Ella, never noticed her own sister’s affair with the man who was supposed to kill her?
She pressed the pen to the paper, trying to organize her thoughts.
One, Fabian is Grace’s father.
Two, Tania and Fabian must have been together while I was still with Ethan.
Three, How long was their relationship? And how did they even meet?
Ella bit her lip, trying to recall any moment when Tania might have been acting suspiciously, but nothing came to mind. Tania had always been secretive, but Ella had chalked it up to their strained sibling relationship, not some hidden affair with a hitman.
Ella’s thoughts were interrupted by another knock on the door. She braced herself, half-expecting another threat, but when she opened the door, it was Derek.
“Come in,” she said, stepping aside to let him in.
Derek’s expression was grim as he handed her a file. “I did some more digging, and I think you’ll want to see this.”
Ella opened the file and scanned the documents inside. They were phone records, dates, times, and places that showed a pattern. Fabian and Tania had been in contact for years long before Fabian was hired to kill her.
Her stomach churned as she realized just how deep the betrayal ran.
“They were together this whole time?” she muttered, flipping through the pages. “I never even knew… How could I not have seen it?”
Derek placed a hand on her shoulder. “They were good at hiding it. Tania was always good at covering her tracks, and Fabian… well, he played the part of the loyal friend well.”
Ella closed the file and leaned back in her chair. The weight of the truth settled heavily on her chest. Fabian had saved her life, yes, but how much of that had been out of guilt? And now, he had betrayed her again by keeping Grace’s paternity a secret.
“I don’t know who to trust anymore, Derek,” she said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. “I feel like I’ve been living in a web of lies.”
“You can trust me,” Derek said, his voice steady. “We’ll protect Leo and Liam. But we need to be careful. These threats… they’re not something to take lightly.”
Ella nodded, her resolve hardening once again. She couldn’t let her guard down, not now. Not when her children’s safety was at risk.
“Do you think it’s Tania making the threats?” she asked.
Derek shrugged. “It’s possible, but it could also be someone else. Fabian, maybe, though he seems to be more conflicted than anything.”
Ella frowned. The thought of Fabian threatening her children didn’t sit right with her. He had saved her once, and she knew there was still some part of him that cared about her and the twins. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of being manipulated by Tania.
“We’ll keep digging,” Derek said, standing up. “But for now, stay vigilant. Don’t let anyone near the boys that you don’t trust completely.”
“I won’t,” Ella replied, her voice firm.
As Derek left, Ella sat back down, staring at the file in front of her. The pieces were coming together, but there were still too many unanswered questions. How deep was Fabian’s involvement? How long had Tania been plotting against her? And most importantly, how far were they willing to go to protect their secrets?
Ella closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was determined to find out the truth, no matter what it took.
This time, she wasn’t just fighting for herself. She was fighting for her children.
And she wouldn’t stop until they were safe.