He moved toward her.
Raphael stepped once into his path.
Johnny stopped immediately.
Angela noticed the instinctive fear in him and finally understood their relationship.
Johnny had not outsmarted a dangerous man.
He had panicked in front of one and used Angela as the nearest shield.
Johnny pointed at the letter.
“What is that?”
Angela watched him carefully.
The hunger in his expression answered her before his mouth did.
“You recognize it.”
“No.”
“You were looking for it.”
Johnny’s eyes flicked toward the envelope on the floor.
Raphael saw it too.
Johnny began backing away.
“I was looking for whatever your father left because I thought it could help us.”
“You thought it could pay him.”
Johnny said nothing.
Angela unfolded the letter.
“The money is still there.”
Johnny’s mouth parted.
For one revealing second, he looked relieved.
Then Angela added, “And you’re never touching it.”
His relief vanished.
“Angela, you don’t understand what ten million dollars could—”
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The reason you stayed.”
Johnny froze.
Angela had expected rage when the truth finally came.
Instead she felt an almost surgical calm.
She remembered every time Johnny had encouraged her to search old family boxes.
Every question about her father’s business.
Every suggestion that there might be something valuable hidden among the papers.
The affair had been betrayal.
But this was architecture.
He had built their relationship around the possibility that Angela might lead him to money.
Johnny stepped closer again.
“I loved you.”
Angela looked at the wedding dress he had expected her to wear while he stood beside her and lied.
“Maybe you loved the door you thought I could open.”
Johnny’s face hardened.
He turned on Raphael.
“You made a deal.”
Raphael’s expression became cold.
“With a man who offered another human being as collateral.”
“You accepted!”
“Yes.”
The admission silenced the room.
Raphael looked at Angela rather than Johnny.
“And I was wrong.”
Johnny laughed bitterly.
“That’s it? You suddenly grow a conscience because of an old letter?”
Raphael moved closer to him.
“No.
