Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 1461

Why the hell was Bella here messing everything up?

He absolutely could not have her hovering around today.

"You're joking, right?" Lucas forced a laugh, his voice slightly higher than usual. "It's a workday. You're swamped at the office. You don't need to waste your time babysitting me. I promise, the second anything changes, I'll call you. If I get even a glimpse of Debbie, you'll be the first to know."

He was practically shoving her toward the door. Bella couldn't stay. The ID was ready, and if everything went according to plan, those millions of dollars would be sitting in his offshore account by tomorrow morning.

Having her in the room would ruin everything. Absolutely everything.

Bella swallowed the spike of irritation rising in her chest. He was trying to get rid of her.

He desperately wanted her out of this room.

Why?

Her mind raced, but she kept a perfectly pleasant smile pinned to her face.

"I'm just teasing you," she said breezily. "I have a million things to do at the company. I just wanted to drop by before work and check the layout for myself. I needed peace of mind."

Lucas let out an audible sigh of relief. Thank God.

If she had stayed, he would have been completely trapped.

Bella grabbed her purse and turned toward the door. "Alright, don't walk me out. It's too risky if someone sees us together."

Lucas nodded eagerly, watching her every step.

As Bella pulled the door shut behind her, Lucas pressed a hand to his chest, trying to slow his racing heart.

That was entirely too close.

Thank God she bought it.

But the moment the door clicked shut, Bella's smile instantly vanished, replaced by a look of sheer, cold fury.

She opened her clenched fist, revealing a crumpled piece of paper she had slipped out from beneath his blanket when she stood up. She had grabbed it blindly, rolling it into a tight ball in her palm.

She practically sprinted down to her car in the parking garage. The second the doors locked, she smoothed the paper out on the steering wheel.

Her eyes locked onto the bold print at the top.

*Power of Attorney for ID Issuance.*

Her gaze swept down to the bottom of the page, landing on the unmistakable, chaotic signature.

It hit Bella like a freight train. The motive was glaringly obvious.

Why split $1.2 billion three ways when you can split it two ways?

Lucas would walk away with hundreds of millions—vastly more than the $40 million original bribe she had promised him.

Human loyalty was nothing in the face of that kind of wealth.

Bella cursed her own stupidity. She should have seen this coming. She had taken Debbie's physical cards, but she had fundamentally failed to secure the loyalty between the three of them.

She dug her nails into her palms, forcing herself to breathe through the blinding rage.

She couldn't just storm back in and confront Lucas.

If this was going to explode, it needed to happen with all three of them in the room.

She would force them to divide the money right in front of her before they had the chance to vanish.

And since Lucas clearly had a secret way to contact Debbie...

Today, Bella was going to track his every single move.