"I made some calls," Victor finally says slowly. "Pulled some political favors. The Romanian treasury traced the origin of the fifty-million-dollar account. The routing numbers lead back to a heavily guarded shell corporation, right here in Romania."
My pulse hammers in my ears.
I stand, my injured arm forgotten, pain forgotten.
"Names," I say, my voice firm and deadly. "Give me the fucking name of the business. And the person attached to it."
Victor looks at Lucian.
Lucian steps forward and clears his throat.
"The shell corporation belongs to our father, brother," he says. "Nicolae Ionescu."
The world tilts.
For a moment, I think I'm going to throw up. My stomach churns, bile rising in my throat.
Elena gasps beside me, her hand flying to her mouth.
"What the fuck?" I say, my voice cracking. "Are you serious?"
Lucian's face is firm.
"Yes."
"No," I say, shaking my head. "No. That doesn't…"
"It does," Victor says sharply. "The money came from him, Adrian. It all traces back to him."
I stagger back a step, my hand gripping the back of the couch for support.
Elena is crying now, tears streaming down her face.
"Why?" she says. "Why would he…"
Lucian crosses his arms.
"Because he's fucked all of us over at some point, but based on things our father has told me over the years," Lucian says, "I think he viewed Elena as a distraction. He thought she was making you soft."
My chest tightens.
"And," Lucian sighs, then continues, "he hated that you weren't controllable. That you weren't playing your part in the family. I just can't believe after all he's done, he could stoop even lower."
"We think," Victor says, "that he ordered Lupu to fake the crash and that father paid the Russians fifty million dollars to take her, intending to break you and force you to retreat back into the family. To work under his thumb, forever."
I look down at the ground, trying to breathe.
My own father.
My own father orchestrated Elena's kidnapping. Paid the Volkovs to take her.
He's the reason she was drugged, sold, abused.
And then the last thought comes into my mind, and it almost knocks me over.
My own father is the reason my baby died.
I turn to look at Elena. She's sobbing now, her face buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking.