Page 32 of Claimed By the Pakhan

“Because he broke into my hotel room. He knows the staff because I’ve been there multiple times, hiding, trying to get away from him.”

Chloe frowns. “And the staff don’t question anything?”

I grimace. “One of them did. He’s now dead.”

Chloe’s jaw falls all the way to the floor. Her eyes fill with horror. Just looking at her sends shivers down my spine. “Tell me you’re joking. He’s a?—?”

“Don’t say it.” I take a big gulp of coffee. Her saying those words aloud will only cause me to hate myself more.

“It gets worse.”

“Worse than him?—”

“He ate me out in bed,” I cringe, apprehensive of her reaction.

It’s not possible for Chloe’s jaw to hang open any wider, but she finds a way to defeat the impossible. “You didn’t.”

“There was one bed. And annoyingly, my husband is very fucking attractive. My body recognizes him.” Shame turns my cheeks red. “I was… doing something under the covers before we went to bed, and he caught me. One thing led to another. Before I knew it, his head was between my legs, his tongue?—”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” The intense look Chloe’s giving me suggests she’s living vicariously through me. “The look on your face says it all. You’re smitten.”

“Which is exactly why I have to get as far away from him as possible. My body surrenders. It feels like second nature to dropmy guard and give him everything, but it’s selfish to indulge. I don’t want a murderer raising my children. I can already see the past starting to repeat, and this time it’s worse.”

“You have to remain strong.” Chloe finishes her coffee. “We’re going to the police.”

“We can’t,” I panic. “It’s not that simple. Emil is working with others. He said something about his enemies finding me.”

“No shit he has enemies, when he kills an innocent hotel staff member.”

“Filing a police report against him is the last thing I need right now while carrying twins. Stress is bad.”

“And it will get worse.” Chloe sighs, pinning me a look. “The last thing I want is to scare you, but fear is what’s going to get you out of this situation, Fia.” She slips her phone, showing me scanned documents. “Take a look at these. I found them at my place around three years ago. I tried asking you about the documents, but you didn’t give me much. I thought it was nothing until you started acting weird.”

“Tell me you didn’t go to the police?”

“You begged me not to.”

Fear rips through my chest as I grab the phone, pinching the screen and zooming in. They’re scanned copies of spreadsheets I unfortunately don’t recognize, but these numbers could be the key to unlocking my memories.

Immediately, something is wrong with these documents. Large amounts of money have been transferred across to shell companies overseas. I trail my finger over interesting references. Two million dollars was sent to a shell account in MonteCarlo, titled ‘logistics support.’ There should be external fees, employees to pay.

The money has been sitting in the account for eleven years, according to this spreadsheet, printed three years ago. Not one cent has been moved out since.

Other strange activity appears as I inspect some of the other documents. Containers described as carrying “low-value goods” are being insured for extremely high amounts of money. Cargo ships look like they’re being sent on scenic routes around the world, which will double their cost in fuel. It makes no fucking sense.

“Harbor Island,” I say aloud, reading the dockyard where these ships are being exported out of.

“Do you remember going there before?”

“No, but going for a stroll around the place might jog my memory.”

Fear lines Chloe’s face. “It’s suicide.”

“No, it’s how I find out the truth. Emil is hiding something from me. He goes mute whenever I bring up the question of how we met. He disappears randomly.” I rise from the table, the chair scraping underneath me. “He’s afraid to tell me something. And I need to be proactive.” I wink.

“Not like this,” says Chloe. “What about your ultrasound?”

“I’ll have to cancel. Emil should be here soon. He’ll grab me with both hands and drag me back home before I have the chance to investigate. Be a doll and send me a copy of those documents. Thank you so much.”