Page 44 of Liam (The Valeur Billionaires #4)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

ALERIA

“ T hat voice,” Cora whispers, her words slicing through the tense silence. “I know that voice.”

Every eye in the room shifts toward her.

“It’s Arlo.”

The name slams into the room like a wrecking ball. Shock spreads across the faces of the Valeur family, normally so composed in their world of wealth and power. I glance at Sloane, who stands rigid next to me, her expression tight.

“Arlo was Cora’s boyfriend,” Sloane murmurs, her voice hushed. “At first, he seemed great, but then things got...weird. Cora broke it off.”

I nod, my eyes darting back to Cora as the realization sinks in. The color drains from her face, her wide eyes filling with horror.

“Oh God,” she chokes out. “Why would he take Liam? Is he related to the threats? Why does he hate us?” Her voice falters, breaking into gasps.

“He was here—in this house—all the time. I gave him a tour. I let him meet all of you.” Her voice rises, edging toward hysteria. “He knows so much about us.”

Cora crumples, knees buckling beneath her as sobs rack her body. Ryder’s at her side in an instant, scooping her into his arms. His expression is of controlled fury, barely concealing the storm brewing beneath.

The room erupts into chaos, everyone talking at once. Accusations fly, fear and anger palpable in the air. Through it all, Cora’s sobs echo, a heartbreaking reminder of the personal betrayal at the center of this nightmare.

“Cora.” Peter’s voice cuts through the chaos like a knife, firm yet gentle.

His daughter’s tear-streaked face turns to him.

“I know this is hard, but we need you to focus. You knew this man. Liam needs your help.”

Cora’s body goes rigid, her sobs quieting to hiccups. She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, smearing mascara across her cheek. “What do you need me to do?” she asks, her voice hoarse but steady.

Logan steps forward, his face a mask of determination. “Call him. See if you can get him talking. If you can get a location out of him.”

Cora’s hand trembles as she reaches for her phone. The room falls silent, the only sound the rapid tapping of her fingernails against the screen. She puts it on speaker, and the dial tone fills the air.

One ring. Two. Three.

“Well, well,” the voice oozes from the speaker, dripping with false warmth, “if it isn’t my favorite Valeur. Missing me already, sweetheart? I must say I thought you’d figure it out a lot sooner.”

Cora’s jaw clenches, a muscle twitching in her cheek. “What are you doing, Arlo? Why are you doing this? What do you want with my brother? Is this because I broke up with you?”

A dark chuckle crackles through the line, sending a chill down my spine. “Oh, honey. You think this is about you? You were never the point. You were just my way in.”

“What are you talking about?” Cora’s voice wavers, betraying her fear.

“Allow me to introduce myself properly.” The voice takes on a mocking formality. “My name isn’t Arlo. It’s Elias. Elias Nort.”

The effect is immediate. Peter staggers back, collapsing into a nearby chair. The color drains from Lucas’s face while Logan’s eyes widen in horrified recognition.

What the hell is going on?

“That’s right,” Elias says, his voice dripping with malice. “Your daddy dearest killed my father. And now, I’m here to return the favor.”

Arlo’s voice—or Elias’s as it appears—crackles through the speaker, cold and precise. “Remember that little robbery attempt on you, Cora?” He chuckles, the sound devoid of warmth. “That was my doing. The guy I hired was supposed to finish the job, but he was a coward.”

Cora’s fingers tighten around her phone, her knuckles turning white. She sways slightly, and Ryder steadies her with a hand on her back, his face a picture of rage.

“I was supposed to walk away clean, pretend I was never even there. You know, for the alibi,” Elias says, his voice tinged with frustration. “But no, you survived, and not only that—you broke up with me and shut off my access to the family.”

A strangled sound escapes Cora’s throat. Her free hand flies to her mouth, eyes wide with horror as the full implications of his words sink in.

“You... You were going to...” she stammers, unable to finish the thought.

“Kill you?” Elias finishes for her, his tone matter-of-fact. “That was the plan. Just like I planned to kill Lucas on that bike ride. Using proxies was a mistake. Some things,” he says, lowering his voice, “you need to do yourself.”

Lucas stumbles backward, his face ashen.

“Oh, and Logan,” Elias’s voice takes on a mocking lilt, “you were actually first on my list. But then I found out you were adopted, so I decided to let you live. After all, you’re not really a Valeur, are you?”

Logan’s eyes widen, unfocused. His mouth opens and closes, but no sound comes out.

The room seems to shrink around us, the air growing thick and heavy. Cora’s breath comes in short, sharp gasps. Lucas leans over the table, looking like he might be sick. Logan stands frozen, his face a mask of shock and disbelief.

I watch as the Valeur family crumbles before my eyes, their world shattering with each revelation.

All I can do is stand here, an outsider witnessing the implosion of a family I thought I knew.

“You're sick,” Cora whispers, her voice trembling.

“No,” Elias snaps, his calm voice cracking. “What's sick is watching your father die and being powerless to stop it. What's sick is growing up knowing the man who killed him walks free, living in luxury while you have nothing!”

Elias’s voice changes, small and vulnerable. “I was five years old.”

The shift in tone has us all leaning in, despite ourselves.

“I saw everything. Your father, Peter Valeur, murdered my dad in cold blood in front of me.”

Peter’s face contorts, the confusion giving way to a slow, dawning horror. His hands tremble as they grip the arms of his chair, his knuckles white. “There was no child there that night. What...what are you talking about?” Peter demands, his voice cracking, disbelief thick in every word.

“I was there!” Elias screams. “I was just a little boy, but I swore that day that I would make the Valeurs pay. And now, here we are. Your day has arrived.”

Peter’s head shakes, his breath coming in short, stilted bursts. “I… I didn’t know. There was no child. I saw no one.” His voice lowers to a whisper as if speaking any louder might break him. “I would never have?—”

Elias interrupts, laying out his demands again, each word precise and cutting. “…all of the Valeur wealth, donated to charities of my choosing. And Peter Valeur must die. On camera, confessing every sin, every crime he’s committed.”

Cora lets out a choked sob.

“The whole world will know the truth before he takes his last breath,” Elias says. “Only then will Liam be released.”

“You won’t get away with this,” Logan growls through clenched teeth.

“But I already have,” Elias says. “You see, alive or dead, your father’s going down.

And I get to watch this family destroy itself either way.

If he lives, Liam dies, and you spend the rest of your lives knowing you could have saved him.

If he dies...” Elias tsk s. “Well, that guilt’s a different kind of poison, isn’t it? ”

The silence that follows is deafening. Peter Valeur stands rigid, his face a mask of anguish as he looks at his children.

“Tick tock,” Elias sing-songs. “What’s it going to be, Peter? Your life, or your son’s?”

A commotion erupts from the phone’s speaker. Fabric rustles, followed by the scrape of a chair against the floor.

“Don’t do it, Dad!” Liam’s voice rings out, hoarse and strained. The desperation, the fear—it’s all there, and my heart clenches so tight it feels like I can’t breathe.

A dull thud echoes through the line. Liam’s sharp intake of breath cuts off, replaced by a muffled groan. The sound of his suffering tears through me like a knife.

I can’t hold back anymore. A sob rips from my throat, raw and agonizing.

I sink to the floor, wrapping my arms around myself as if I could somehow hold the pieces of my breaking heart together.

The room spins, but all I can focus on is the sound of Liam’s suffering echoing in my mind, relentless and unforgiving.

And I’m powerless. So utterly powerless.

“You have twenty-four hours and counting,” Elias’s voice returns, cold as ice. “Actually, less than that now. Or Liam dies, and I move on to the next Valeur. And the next. Until there’s no one left.”

Peter struggles to his feet, his face pale. “Listen to me, Elias. Your father… He wasn’t a good person. There are things you don’t understand?—”

The line goes dead. Elias has hung up.

The silence presses in, suffocating me. My gaze drifts to Peter, and through the blur of my tears, I struggle to reconcile the man before me with the image I’ve always held of him—the powerful, untouchable patriarch admired by his sons, especially Liam.

But now, he looks…shattered. His broad shoulders slump under the weight of years-long secrets, each one adding more cracks to his once-imposing figure.

His eyes, usually sharp and full of authority, are hollow as he lifts his head to meet our collective stares. In that moment, I see a man aged by guilt, by the mistakes that have led us here. The man I love is in danger—mortal danger—because of something buried in Peter’s past.

Logan’s fist slams onto the desk, the sharp crack reverberating through the tense room. I jump, a small gasp escaping my lips.

“Got something!” Logan’s voice is raw with excitement, wild, like someone dangling on the edge of desperation. We all surge toward him, huddling around his computer like it holds the key to saving Liam.

A map lights up on the screen, a pulsing red dot at its center. “The call,” Logan says, words spilling out in a rush. “Mercer’s people traced it to this area. It’s not exact, but?—”

“It’s a start,” I breathe, my heart hammering in my chest. For the first time since this nightmare began, a flicker of hope pierces the suffocating darkness.

But then Peter’s voice cuts through the moment. “I’ve made a decision.” His tone is flat, resigned. It’s the sound of a man who’s already given up, who’s preparing to do the unthinkable.

All heads turn to him, dread pooling in the pit of my stomach.

“I’m going to do what Elias wants. ”

The room erupts. Cora’s scream is the first to cut through the noise, raw and guttural. “Dad, no!” She rushes to him, clutching his arm with a desperation I’ve never seen before. “We’ll find another way. We always do!”

“You can’t just give in,” Lucas says, his voice sharp with fury, but underneath, I hear the fear. “If you do what Elias wants, Liam’s as good as dead. It won’t save him—it’ll destroy all of us.”

But Peter’s expression doesn’t waver. His face is a mask of determination, etched with the lines of too many sleepless nights and too many regrets.

“I’ve carried this guilt for too long,” he says, his voice firm despite the surrounding chaos.

“If my death can save Liam, if it can save all of you, then it’s worth it. ”

For a moment, the room falls into stunned silence. My chest tightens, air refusing to fill my lungs. I stand there, watching this family—the Valeurs—fall apart, and it hits me just how deep their love runs, how much pain they’re willing to bear for each other.

Liam loves his father, and admires him more than anyone. The man he looks up to will sacrifice himself for a crime long buried, but Liam would never want that. He’d never forgive it.

I can’t stay silent. I can’t let this happen.

“Mr. Valeur,” I start, my voice shaking but somehow steady enough to be heard, “I understand why you feel like this is the only way. But Liam loves you. He’d never want you to throw your life away like this. Not before you tried every other option. We still have just under twenty-four hours.”

Peter’s eyes land on me, softening, but the pain in them runs deep. “You really do love my son, don’t you?”

I nod, tears pricking at my eyes again. I think I’ve loved him since college.

I never stopped loving him. “I do. And that’s why I can’t let you do this.

It will destroy him. We’ll find another way.

And besides, we have no assurance that Elias will let Liam go even if you comply with all his demands. ”

Logan steps in, his voice ringing with resolve. “Aleria’s right. We’re Valeurs. We don’t quit. And we sure as hell don’t let scum like Elias win. We’re going to find Liam. Together.”

For the first time in hours, I feel something other than dread—a thread of hope, fragile but present. We may be up against impossible odds, but Logan’s right. We have something Elias will never understand. Family. Love.

I close my eyes, summoning Liam’s face to the forefront of my mind. His quick wit, his quiet strength, the way he makes me feel seen even in the middle of a storm. I can’t lose him. Not like this.

“Hold on, Liam,” I whisper, a prayer woven with every ounce of hope I have left. “We’re coming for you. Just hold on.”