Chapter 15
“He’s lying.” Elena’s hand shook. “I’ve never been diagnosed with depression. I’ve never refused treatment.”
“I know,” Dominic said. “And we’re going to prove it. But you need to understand how this plays out. Right now Marcus has the sympathy angle — the worried husband, the devoted partner. We need to shift that narrative, and shift it hard.”
“How?”
“We go public with the truth. Your truth.”
Rebecca pulled up a document.
“We’ve drafted a statement. You read it, approve it, and we release it to the media this afternoon. It details the emotional abuse, the affairs, the financial control. Everything.”
Elena’s chest tightened.
“That will destroy my privacy. Everyone will know.”
“Everyone will know you’re a survivor, not a victim,” Dominic said. His voice was firm but not unkind. “Right now, Marcus controls the story. We take that power back.”
“What if no one believes me? Marcus has friends everywhere — connections, power —”
“So do I.” Dominic leaned back. “And mine don’t care about country club memberships or political donations. They care about results.”
Something in his tone made Elena look at him more closely.
“Who are you, really?”
Rebecca and Dominic exchanged a glance.
“I’m someone who knows how men like Marcus operate,” Dominic said carefully. “Someone who has the resources to fight them. That’s all you need to know right now.”
“No.”
Her voice came out stronger than she expected. Dominic’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
“If I’m trusting you with my life, I need to know who you are.”
A slow smile crossed his face.
“Fair enough. I own several businesses in Chicago. Construction, real estate, development, import, export. Some of my methods are unconventional. I have friends in places Marcus can’t reach. And I have a particular talent for finding information people want to keep hidden.”
“You’re saying you’re a criminal.”
“I’m saying I operate in gray areas. Always have.” He didn’t look away. “Does that change things for you?”
Elena thought about it. About Marcus’s pristine reputation built on cruelty. About the judges and the politicians he’d bought. About twelve years of playing by rules that had only ever protected him.
“No,” she said. “It doesn’t.”
“Good. Because we’re about to get very dirty, very fast.”
He opened a folder and spread photographs across Rebecca’s desk. Elena stared.
Marcus with Veronica at the Peninsula Hotel. Marcus with Amanda at his Lake Forest property. Marcus with a woman named Diane — she’s married to one of his business partners, Dominic said — at a restaurant in the suburbs.