Chapter 5 - Enemy of My Enemy
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The line crackled with static. My mind raced, trying to reconcile the voice on the phone with the woman who had spent months plotting to steal my life.
"Rachel?" I breathed, my pulse hammering against my ribs. "Why are you calling me?"
"Because if you talk to Detective Elena Ward, you’re going to end up dead before the weekend," Rachel whispered frantically. I could hear the sound of heavy wind in the background, as if she were standing on an open balcony or a roof. "Elena Ward is on my father’s payroll. She’s been Victor Mercer’s cleanup agent for eight years!"
"Why should I believe anything you say?" I demanded, anger flaring through my pain. "You set this up! You wanted me gone so you could marry Logan!"
"I wanted Logan, yes!" Rachel cried out quietly, her voice breaking. "I was stupid, I was jealous, and I hated you because Logan kept telling me you were a gold-digger holding his career hostage! But I didn't know about the acid, Maya! I swear on my life, I didn't know!"
"He paid a man to throw acid in my face!" I hissed into the receiver.
"I know!" Rachel sobbed. "I found out an hour ago! I found the offshore wire transfer receipt on Logan's desk. But it's worse than that, Maya. Logan and my father... they aren't planning to leave you in a private care facility. The twenty-million-dollar insurance policy has a double-indemnity clause for death occurring within thirty days of a catastrophic injury!"
A cold dread washed over me. "They're going to kill me."
"They’re going to stage a medical complication from your injuries," Rachel confirmed, her breath coming in fast, ragged bursts. "My father already paid off the chief of surgery at your hospital. If Detective Ward takes your statement, she’ll report it directly to my father, and they’ll accelerate the timeline."
"Why are you telling me this, Rachel?" I asked, my voice deadly quiet. "If your father is involved, you're risking everything."
"Because Logan is a monster!" Rachel snarled, pure hatred bleeding through her fear. "I caught him on the phone twenty minutes ago telling his manager that once my father's distribution deal is signed and the insurance money hits the account, he's going to stage an 'overdose' for me too, so he can inherit the Mercer Records estate!"
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She took a ragged breath.
"He lied to both of us, Maya. He used you for clout, and he’s using me for money. If we don't destroy him together, neither of us will survive the month."
