Elena’s POV
"Tell me everything." Ivan's voice was sharp and cold. “Tell me why Adrian Moretti's devoted wife wants her loving husband destroyed."
I explained everything from the tracking app, to finding Adrian with Celeste, the conversation I had overheard concerning the experiments on my babies, and his plan to divorce me.
By the time I finished, tears were running down my cheeks again.
Ivan was silent for a long moment.
"Do you have proof?" he finally asked.
"Yes." My voice was stronger now. "Medical records, bank statements, transfer documents. Everything."
"And you have fifty percent shares in the company?" Ivan asked.
"He doesn't know about them. Nobody does." I replied. "I also have evidence of everything illegal he had done in his company. But I can't use it. He has connections, lawyers, and my family—"
"Your family supports him?"
The question was like a knife to my chest, because the answer was a bitter truth.
My mother had never wanted me back.
I was ten when the DNA test results came back. Celeste and I had been switched at birth because of a hospital error.
When they came for me, I had been living in a small countryside village with a seamstress who had raised me. We were poor, but I’d been happy.
They took me to their mansion in the city, but my mother couldn't let Celeste go. She had raised Celeste, and loved her.
So she kept both of us.
But there was never any question who she preferred.
“Elena, fix your posture. You look like a peasant.”
“Elena, speak properly. Your accent is embarrassing.”
“Elena, why can't you be more like Celeste?”
Nothing I did was ever good enough. I took etiquette classes but I was too clumsy. I studied languages but my pronunciation was wrong.
Celeste was perfect and graceful, and my mother made sure I knew I didn't measure up.
By eighteen, I had learned to stay quiet, to make myself small, and to not expect love.
That's when I met Adrian. He was charming, successful, and he looked at me like I mattered.
“You're different from other girls,” he had said.
I fell in love with him fast and hard.
When he proposed after six months, I said yes immediately.
My mother had pulled me aside the night before the wedding. “Adrian Moretti is using you. But you're too stupid to see it.”
I hadn't listened.
I had married him, spent eight years trying to be the perfect wife.
And the whole time, Celeste had been there, sleeping with my husband behind my back, and I had never suspected a thing.
My chest ached as I blinked hard, forcing myself back to the present.
"My family loves my sister. They'll most likely side with him when he divorces me. I can't trust on their support."
Ivan was silent for a moment. "So you want revenge."
"I want justice," I corrected, my voice breaking. "He murdered my babies. He used them to cure my adopted sister's womb so she could carry his child. He made me sign away everything I had, and now he's going to throw me away like garbage."
"And why did you come to me?" Ivan asked curiously.
"Because you hate him." I replied desperately. "Adrian told me to stay away from you. He said you would do anything to destroy him."
He chuckled coldly. "What do you want from me, Elena?"
I clenched my fists tightly. "I want to take everything from him, the way he took everything from me. His company, his reputation, his freedom. I want him to lose it all. I have fifty percent of his company. You're his biggest competitor. Together, we can ruin him."
Ivan was quiet, then finally he spoke. "If I help you, it won't be charity. I want something in return."
My stomach clenched at the tone of his voice. "What do you want in return?"
"Marry me."
"Marry you?" I repeated incredulously, my voice barely above a whisper.
"Yes," Ivan said simply. "If I'm going to help you destroy Adrian Moretti, I want something permanent in return. Not money. Not shares. You."
"But—"
He interrupted. "Think about my offer, Mrs. Moretti. You have my number."
The call was disconnected.
I stared at my phone, my mind spinning. Marry Ivan Romano? Adrian's biggest enemy?
I shook my head. No. I didn't need him. I had the evidence. I had the shares. I could handle this myself.
I would make sure Adrian lost everything, the same way he'd taken everything from me.
