Chapter 10
The major twist was that Sabine had not entered Cassian’s life by accident.
Adrian had put her there.
Not originally to marry him.
Not originally to kidnap Elodie.
To find out what Claire had left behind.
After Claire died, Adrian and Sabine faced a problem.
They knew she had discovered the billing fraud.
They knew she had copied invoices.
They knew she had taken notes.
What they did not know was whether she had already given evidence to Cassian, outside counsel, auditors, or law enforcement.
Months passed.
Nothing happened.
Adrian could have confessed.
Sabine could have walked away.
Instead, they interpreted silence as an opportunity.
Adrian believed the safest way to learn what Cassian knew was to place someone close enough to observe him without looking like an investigator.
Sabine resisted at first.
The old emails established that.
I’m not dating a grieving widower because you’re scared of paperwork.
Adrian replied:
Nobody said date him. Meet him. Find out whether Claire told him anything.
That was why Adrian arranged the museum seating.
Sabine’s original task was simple.
Talk to Cassian.
Learn whether Claire had ever mentioned Halifax, Vale Strategic Transport, or suspicious invoices.
Then leave.
But Cassian asked Sabine to dinner.
Sabine accepted.
Then another.
Then another.
Somewhere during those months, the operation stopped being simple.
Sabine later told investigators that she genuinely fell in love with him.
That claim could not be proven or disproven.
What could be proven was that she never told him the truth.
Instead, she began quietly searching for Claire’s materials.
She asked staff whether Claire kept private files.
She spent unusual amounts of time in Claire’s former office.
She encouraged Cassian to clear old storage boxes because she said the estate needed to “move forward.”
Adrian repeatedly asked whether she had found anything.
She had not.
Then the framed photograph became important.
Sabine saw it in Elodie’s room months before the wedding.
She recognized herself and Adrian in the background.
She tried once to persuade Cassian to replace it with a more formal portrait of Claire.
Cassian refused because Elodie loved that picture.
That was clue one.
The second clue was Adrian arranging Sabine’s seat beside Cassian before their supposed first meeting.
The third was Sabine’s repeated interest in Claire’s old office and archived records.
Then came the final pressure.
Two weeks before the wedding, Rinaldo Marine’s new controller discovered inconsistencies in old Vale invoices during an unrelated tax review.
He asked Cassian whether he wanted an external audit.
Cassian said yes without understanding what he was reopening.
Sabine overheard the conversation.
She told Adrian.
Their eighteen-month cover was about to collapse.
They could no longer simply disappear.
They had tied themselves to Cassian publicly.
Sabine’s name was connected to the wedding.
Adrian’s company depended on Rinaldo contracts.
Investigators would follow the money.
So Adrian transformed the old infiltration into an exit plan.
Take Elodie during the chaos before the ceremony.
Fly to Halifax.
Force Cassian to suspend the audit and transfer the Canadian port-services company in exchange for the child’s return.
Then leave for Europe before the full financial picture emerged.
Elodie was not the purpose of Sabine entering Cassian’s life.
She became the weapon they chose when every earlier lie began collapsing.
That distinction made the betrayal worse.
Cassian had spent days believing Sabine had suddenly revealed herself at the hangar.
The truth was that the relationship had begun with deception eighteen months earlier.
Rebecca placed the final email on the table.
Sabine to Adrian, three days after meeting Cassian:
He doesn’t know about Halifax. Claire never told him. Stop panicking.
Cassian read it once.
Then again.
He did not yell.
May you like
He simply leaned back.
For the first time since opening the travel case, everything made sense.
