Chapter 190

Ella

As I watched Marina leave, I couldn’t deny the way my hands trembled beneath my desk. It was just out of Marina’s sight, saving me from any further scrutiny, but I had felt it the whole time.

“This isn’t good,” Ema’s voice echoed in my mind. “Ella, this is really, really not good.”

I almost replied out loud, but then my eyes flickered to my phone; the phone that was tapped and likely had someone listening to my every word right that second, searching for any reason to not trust me.

“I know,” I finally replied inwardly as I took a deep breath. “And now we’re on even thinner ice.”

It was true; I had assumed, because of Marina’s hesitation to confront me, that I was safe. Maybe I had gotten a little too comfortable. Thankfully, I didn’t have any slip ups this time, but I needed to be more careful. One wrong move could mean the death of my little sister.

As I sat there, though, my resolve steeled itself. If I wanted to keep up this charade, then that meant that there was no room for mistakes. Waiting too long, sitting here and contemplating my discussion with Marina for too long after she had left, could be detrimental.

And so, with my heart pounding but my determination hardening, I stood abruptly and began to gather my things. I went through the motions of shuffling papers together, slipping folders into my briefcase, packing up my laptop, and shutting off the lights.

All the while, I kept repeating the words in my head: keep calm, act natural, and go home. That was all I could do, wasn’t it?

Just as I was finishing up, I turned to grab my phone off of the desk. But before I reached for it, I paused, thinking to myself.

That phone was tapped; Logan and I were sure of it. And tonight, Logan and I needed to talk without any hindrances.

I decided to leave my phone behind in the office, conveniently ‘forgetting’ it overnight. This way, Marina wouldn’t be able to track or listen in on my conversations. If she questioned me, it would be easy enough to say that I simply forgot it.

I knew it was a small precaution, but it offered a semblance of control in a situation where control seemed impossible.

As I made my way to the exit, my burner phone buzzed. It was Logan, letting me know that he had arrived to pick me up. I felt a surge of relief, knowing that I would soon be out of this suffocating place.

I texted back a quick “On my way,” and then left my office, locking the door behind me. I couldn’t help but glance back at it one last time, remembering the conversation I had just had with Marina, before I headed down the hallway to meet Logan.

He was waiting in his car outside the building, the engine idling. I climbed into the passenger seat, and as soon as the door closed, I blurted out, “Marina came to see me just now.”

Logan’s eyes flicked to me, widening slightly. “Phone,” he hissed.

I shook my head. “Left it in my office for the night,” I explained. “I needed to talk to you without anyone listening in.”

Logan stared at me incredulously for a few moments before he finally nodded and put the car into drive. “What happened?” he asked as he pulled away from the curb and began to drive down the street. It was rush hour, and so we hit traffic almost immediately.

As we waited in traffic, I recounted the encounter with Marina, repeating every word that had passed between Marina and me, every detail that made my skin crawl. As I spoke, I watched Logan’s expression shift from concern to a mixture of anger and frustration.

“That woman,” he muttered, his grip tightening on the steering wheel. “She’s playing a dangerous game.”

I nodded, feeling a lump form in my throat. “Logan, I need to know your plan,” I insisted, my voice trembling slightly. “How do you plan on getting us out of this mess?”

Logan’s gaze met mine, and he held my gaze for a few moments before returning his attention to the road in front of us. “Like I said before, we’re going to play stupid for now,” he said, his voice low and serious. “But I have a trick up my sleeve. Something that’ll catch Marina and Harry off guard.”

I frowned. “Logan, you can’t just tell me you have a trick up your sleeve,” I said. “I need to know. I can’t stay in the dark throughout all of this.”

“Ella, there are some things you can’t know,” he replied quickly, his tone firm. “If they were to interrogate you, it’s safer for you to be genuinely unaware. I can’t risk this all being upended out of nowhere.”

I opened my mouth to argue, to voice my frustration and the feeling of helplessness that had been gnawing at me, but Logan’s expression stopped me. There was a hardness in his eyes, a determination that told me he wouldn’t budge on this.

“It’s not fair,” I finally managed to say, my voice cracking ever so slightly. “I feel like I’m just bait for the sharks, Logan. I found information on that businessman suing you, you know. I could provide valuable insight to help you, but you won’t even hear me out. I don’t even feel like a real lawyer anymore.”

Logan’s grip on the steering wheel tightened even more, and he let out a sigh. “Ella, I know it’s hard,” he said softly. “But I need you to trust me. I have everything under control, and this will be over soon. You just need to hang in there a little longer.”

His dismissive words made me frown. It felt as though he didn’t really listen to anything I said; it was as if he didn’t trust my input on this situation at all. Even though I had found information that could be useful, whatever ‘trick’ he had up his sleeve seemed to be paramount—and he wouldn’t even do me the service of telling me what it was, because he didn’t even trust me to keep my mouth shut in the event of an interrogation.

I wanted to argue, to demand more answers, but the look in his eyes silenced me. Something about the way his jaw was clenched as he drove, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on the road, told me that he wouldn’t listen to me anyway.

As Logan navigated the car down the busy city streets, I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned to look out the window. The cityscape passed by in a blur as the traffic thinned and we picked up speed, perfectly mirroring the way my thoughts were whirling in my head.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was in over my head, that I was playing a dangerous game with high stakes.

And now, I felt more helpless than ever, in a field in which I should never have felt this way to begin with.

Was I even a lawyer anymore, or was I just a pawn in a game that I never should have started playing?