CHAPTER 1 — THE MAN ISABEL CALLED
Chapter purpose:
Reveal Matthew’s connection to Isabel without immediately making him an enemy, intensify the pursuit, and introduce the first shocking piece of evidence against Elena’s stepmother.
“I know who Isabel Vargas is,” Matthew said.
Elena’s fingers closed around the door handle.
The SUV behind them surged closer, its headlights filling the back window with blinding white light.
Matthew did not reach for her.
He did not raise his voice.
He simply looked at her bruised face and added, “And she has been trying to reach me for the past forty minutes.”
Elena’s heart slammed against her ribs.
“Let me out.”
“At this speed?”
“I don’t care.”
“You will when the men behind us catch you.”
She pulled the handle anyway.
The door remained locked.
Panic exploded inside her.
“You work with her!”
“No.”
“You’re lying!”
Matthew glanced toward the rear window. “I was supposed to meet her tonight.”
The SUV drew alongside them.
A darkened window rolled down.
Elena saw the silhouette of a man leaning outward.
Then something struck the side of Matthew’s car with a violent crack.
Elena screamed.
The driver swerved.
Matthew grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down as another object hit the rear window. The glass did not break, but a spiderweb of fractures spread across it.
“Armored,” Matthew said calmly. “Stay down.”
The driver turned sharply onto a narrow service road between two fields. The SUV tried to follow, skidded in the mud, and nearly collided with a stone barrier.
Matthew’s car accelerated into the darkness.
Elena struggled against his hand.
“Don’t touch me!”
He released her immediately.
“Then keep your head below the window.”
She stared at him, breathing hard.
Lightning flashed across his face.
He looked cold. Controlled. Dangerous.
But not surprised.
That frightened her more than anything.
“Why were you meeting Isabel?” Elena demanded.
Matthew picked up his phone.
The screen lit again.
Nine missed calls.
All from Isabel Vargas.
“She requested a private meeting about the Vargas estate,” he said. “She claimed there was an urgent dispute involving company ownership.”
“What does that have to do with you?”
“I acquire distressed companies.”
Elena’s mouth went dry.
Her stepmother had spent months saying the family business was close to collapse. She had blamed Elena’s late father, the economy, disloyal employees, and anyone else convenient.
But Isabel never accepted blame herself.
“She wanted you to buy the company?”
“She wanted me to buy something.”
“What?”
“That is what I intended to find out.”
Elena looked at the cracked window.
“Then why did she call you tonight?”
Matthew’s gaze hardened.
“Because twenty minutes ago, she sent me a message saying the situation had become complicated.”
He turned the phone toward her.
The message was short.
The girl became unstable. If she contacts anyone, do not believe her. She has a history of manipulating men.
Elena stopped breathing.
Beneath the message was another.
I may need your assistance controlling the damage.
Elena stared until the words blurred.
“She planned this,” she whispered.
Matthew watched her carefully. “Planned what?”
“She knew I might escape.”
The driver turned again, leaving the service road and entering a wooded route almost invisible beneath the storm.
Elena wrapped Matthew’s coat tighter around herself.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To a secure residence.”
“No hospitals.”
“You need medical attention.”
“No hospitals,” she repeated, louder. “Isabel knows people everywhere. She makes donations. She sits on boards. She knows administrators and police officers. If my name enters a system, she’ll find me.”
Matthew’s expression changed slightly.
Not disbelief.
Recognition.
“You think she controls the police?”
“I know she controls at least one officer.”
“Who?”
Elena hesitated.
Then she remembered the locked bedroom.
Mr. Ambrose smiling as Isabel closed the door.
Her stepmother telling her that no one would believe an ungrateful girl.
“Captain Robert Hale,” Elena said. “He comes to the mansion for dinner. He makes problems disappear.”
Matthew exchanged a glance with the driver.
That glance told Elena the name mattered.
“Do you know him?” she asked.
“I know enough.”
The car continued through the forest until the SUV’s headlights disappeared.
After several minutes, the driver touched an earpiece.
“We lost them.”
Matthew leaned back.
Elena did not.
Her body remained ready to run.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Matthew Carranza.”
The name landed somewhere in her memory.
She had heard it during business dinners. Isabel had spoken about him with the careful tone she used for people she could not intimidate.
Carranza Holdings.
Hotels. Shipping. Real estate. Security contracts.
A man newspapers called private, ruthless, and almost impossible to negotiate with.
“You’re that Matthew Carranza.”
“I assume there is only one version of me causing this reaction.”
“My stepmother said you destroy families.”
Matthew looked out the window. “People frequently confuse consequences with destruction.”
Elena studied him.
“You expect me to trust you?”
“No.”
His answer surprised her.
“You entered my car because you were desperate. Desperation is not trust.”
“Then why help me?”
Matthew did not answer immediately.
The road opened before them, revealing iron gates set into a high stone wall.
Cameras turned as the car approached.
The gates opened.
Beyond them stood a modern house built into the hillside, its windows glowing through the rain.
The car entered.
The gates closed behind them.
Elena’s fear sharpened again.
A secure residence could also be a prison.
When the vehicle stopped beneath a covered entrance, two women and three men approached. They wore dark clothing, but none displayed weapons openly.
Matthew stepped out first.
Elena remained inside.
He opened her door but stayed several feet away.
“A physician is waiting,” he said. “A female physician. No records will be entered under your name.”
“How do I know you won’t call Isabel?”
“Because I haven’t answered her.”
He held up the phone.
Then he pressed the power button until the screen went black.
Elena slowly climbed out.
Pain shot through her bare feet.
Her knees buckled.
Matthew caught her before she hit the ground.
For a second, she froze in his arms.
He immediately lowered his hands and allowed the female physician to take his place.
“I’m Dr. Sarah Lane,” the woman said gently. “You’re safe here.”
Elena almost laughed.
Safe had become a word rich people used before locking doors.
Inside, the house was quiet. No servants stared. No one asked questions. Dr. Lane led Elena to a private room and examined her injuries.
The bruising on her face was severe but not dangerous.
Her wrists showed marks from being restrained.
Her feet were cut.
There were fingerprints on her upper arms.
Dr. Lane photographed everything with Elena’s permission and recorded a statement.
Matthew waited outside.
When the examination ended, Elena was given clean clothes, warm socks, and tea she could barely hold.
She found Matthew standing near the fireplace in the library.
“You knew Captain Hale’s name,” she said.
He turned.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because my company has been investigating him.”
Elena stopped.
“For what?”
“Bribery, intimidation, evidence suppression, and financial transfers connected to several businesses.”
“Including Vargas Global?”
Matthew’s silence answered.
Elena placed the tea on a table before she dropped it.
“You weren’t going to buy the company.”
“No.”
“You were investigating Isabel.”
“She contacted me because she believed I was interested in purchasing a controlling stake. I allowed her to believe it.”
Elena felt the room tilt.
“Why?”
“Because three people connected to Vargas Global have disappeared in eighteen months.”
The fire cracked softly.
Elena stared at him.
“Disappeared?”
“One accountant. One driver. One legal assistant.”
“I knew the legal assistant,” Elena whispered. “Maya.”
Matthew’s eyes narrowed. “Maya Chen?”
“She worked for my father before he died. Isabel said Maya stole money and fled.”
“We found no evidence that she left the country.”
Elena lowered herself into a chair.
Her father had died two years earlier after falling from the balcony of a hotel owned by Vargas Global.
The death had been ruled an accident.
Isabel had cried beautifully at the funeral.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Isabel’s problems may be larger than tonight.”
Elena looked toward the rain-streaked windows.
“She’ll say I’m unstable.”
“She already has.”
“She’ll say I attacked Mr. Ambrose.”
“Did you?”
Elena remembered the wine bottle shattering against the wall after she swung it at him.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
She looked up.
Matthew’s face remained unreadable.
“If he entered that room knowing you were locked inside,” he continued, “he deserved worse.”
Elena’s eyes filled with tears she hated.
She turned away.
“Why are you really helping me?”
This time Matthew’s answer came quietly.
“Because eleven years ago, my younger sister asked someone for help.”
Elena looked at him again.
“No one opened the door for her.”
The pain beneath his calm voice was so deep that it did not need explanation.
Before Elena could respond, a security alarm sounded once.
Not loud.
But immediate.
One of Matthew’s men entered.
“Mr. Carranza, we intercepted a message sent to every local patrol unit.”
Matthew’s jaw tightened.
“What message?”
The security officer looked at Elena.
“A missing-person alert. Isabel claims Ms. Vargas suffered a psychotic break, assaulted a guest, stole confidential company documents, and may be armed.”
Elena rose so quickly the chair fell backward.
“She’s making me the criminal.”
Matthew took the tablet from the officer.
A photograph of Elena appeared on the screen.
Beneath it were instructions to detain her immediately.
Then another alert appeared.
A breaking-news notification.
HEIRESS MISSING AFTER VIOLENT ATTACK AT FAMILY ESTATE.
Isabel had already gone public.
Elena stared at her own face on the screen.
But it was not the photograph that terrified her.
It was the security image attached beneath it.
The picture showed Elena climbing into Matthew Carranza’s car.
And the caption named him as her suspected accomplice.
Matthew slowly looked up.
May you like
“Someone at that mansion knew exactly whose car you entered.”
Before Elena could answer, the lights throughout the house went out.
