“He drove away in his luxury car while I went into labor on the side of the road, completely unaware that the billionaire who saved my life recognized my married name.”

“Hello, Daniel,” I said, my voice steady, smooth, and shockingly calm.

Daniel took an involuntary step backward toward the doorway, his hand reaching behind him for the door handle. “You… you were at Patton Avenue. You were supposed to—”

“Supposed to what, Daniel?” Elijah took a slow, deliberate step toward him. “Supposed to bleed out on the asphalt? Supposed to freeze in an abandoned parking lot while you went back to the Bohemian to sleep with Vanessa Hale?”

Daniel swallowed hard, his throat bobbing. Sweat began to bead along his hairline. “Elijah… you don’t understand. This is a personal matter. Abby is unstable. She ran away from home last night during a violent episode. I was searching for her all morning! I was terrified!”

The sheer audacity of his lie was breathtaking.

“Is that why you canceled her medical insurance at midnight?” Elijah asked, pulling a sheet of paper from his jacket and tossing it at Daniel’s feet. “Is that why you emptied her grandmother’s trust account at five yesterday afternoon?”

Daniel stared at the paper on the floor. His breathing turned ragged. “You… you went through my private finances?”

“No,” Elijah replied coldly. “I went through *her* finances. Because Abigail Whitmore is no longer an isolated victim you can starve into submission. As of eight o’clock this morning, she is the majority owner of Reed-Whitmore Infrastructure.”

Daniel blinked, horrified. “What are you talking about?”

“The contract you drafted for today’s acquisition,” I spoke up, drawing Daniel’s terrified gaze back to me. “The fine print stated that in the event of criminal endangerment or fraudulent misrepresentation by the managing partner, all intellectual assets and board voting shares revert immediately to the legal spouse.”

Daniel’s jaw trembled. “You didn’t… you couldn’t have signed that.”

“I didn’t,” Elijah said. “Daniel, you signed it yourself six months ago when you submitted the preliminary charter to my board. You were so desperate for my money that you agreed to my morality clauses without reading Section Nine.”

Elijah stepped within inches of Daniel, towering over him with quiet menace.

“You told me your wife was in Switzerland,” Elijah whispered. “You told my board you were a family man of honor. Instead, I pulled her out of the rain at a closed gas station while you drove away in a Mercedes registered under her grandmother’s estate.”

Daniel’s knees visibly buckled. “Elijah, please. We can talk about this. The deal—the thirty million—it’s everything I’ve worked for! Vanessa’s family put their entire firm on the line!”

“Then I suggest you go tell Vanessa’s family to hire a criminal defense lawyer,” Elijah said, pointing toward the open door. “Get out of this hospital before I have my security team throw you down the stairwell.”

Daniel looked at me, a pathetic, desperate plea in his eyes. “Abby… please. Think of our child. You can’t do this to Maya’s father.”

“You lost the right to speak her name the second you put your car in drive,” I replied, staring through him as if he were nothing more than glass. “Goodbye, Daniel.”