SON-IN-LAW BY DAY, UNDERGROUND KING BY NIGHT

5

“The world isn’t the same as you left it years ago. While you were… indisposed, the Arthur Elston family got completely crushed by a series of corporate scandals, but his daughter, Aria, is still surprisingly standing. And now Arthur is maneuvering to get into politics. All these four years you spent in jail, a lot of intense things happened.”

Mikael skimmed the headline: a devastating financial collapse followed by a political pivot. Arthur hadn't been defeated, he had merely shifted his battleground.

“So, why are you helping me?” Mikael asked, handing the tablet back. “Why did you go to this massive, dangerous length to get me out?”

Helen gave him a look of cool exasperation. “Enough with the pretense, Mr. Dray. I know exactly who you are. You can drop the act of the confused, falsely accused ex-CEO.”

“What act are you talking about?” Mikael countered, his voice sharp. He was instinctively hiding his real identity, the identity Thompson was the only one who truly knew. “I simply asked a straight question: Why did you help me out?”

Helen sighed, her composed façade momentarily slipping to reveal urgency. “Because I need your help, Drayson. I desperately need your help. I need you to be my spouse, publicly, for exactly three months.”

“What?!” Mikael exclaimed again, leaning back in disbelief. He ran a hand over his face.

“Why me? Why on earth would you need me?”

“Because you are Drayson,” Helen stated, her voice dropping, full of a quiet certainty that chilled Mikael to the bone. “The sole surviving heir of a slaughtered mafia dynasty, the one who tried to go legitimate with a fake name while trying to get back at the man who caused the death of his family Arthur. You don’t have to hide your identity from me, even when you try. You can’t erase that part of your history.”

Mikael felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. This was impossible. Nobody knew his real background except Thompson, even at that Thompson didn't know that Arthur was the one who killed drays family and he was only with them to get back to them but he ended up in prison as soon as he remembered, and he couldn't come out because if he does his secret will come to light, the reason he had spent his entire life running from his past and trying to bury the name Drayson.

“How?” he whispered, his eyes wide. “Nobody knows about me, how do you know?”

“That is a question for another, much safer day,” Helen replied, her voice softening with genuine appeal. “My father is old, powerful, and very traditional. He wants me to marry an extremely wealthy figure who is a lot older than me, a man I absolutely cannot stand. He told me the only way he will finally let me be free of his constant matchmaking is if I bring him the infamous, untouchable Drayson. He thinks you are the one person who would truly intimidate him. I know we just met, and I know you have a lot to process. You even stayed in prison for four years to hide your true identity, to kill the legend of Drayson. Please, just do me this one favor, Drayson.”

Mikael felt the weight of his forgotten, buried life pressing down on him. The life he had tried so hard to escape was now the key to this beautiful, powerful woman’s freedom.

“I’m sorry, Miss Helen. I truly can’t be of help to you,” Mikael said, his tone final. “Like you correctly said, Mikael Dray is dead, and the man you call Drayson wants to remain buried. I will like to be dropped off right here.” He looked out the window. “And I will have my secretary reimburse you for the money you spent, no matter the massive amount it took to buy my release.”

Helen looked at him, her beautiful face falling in immediate distress. “Where will you possibly go to? You can’t afford to be seen in the public light right now. You have no resources.”

“Don’t worry, Miss Helen,” Mikael said, a slight, grim smile touching his lips. He turned his eyes to the road. “My team are already outside, waiting patiently. As soon as you stop this car, they will pick me up and vanish me back into the shadows.”

Helen looked out the window, following his gaze. Her face immediately drained of all color. The three additional black sedans that had been following them for the last ten minutes—which she had mistakenly assumed were part of her own security detail—were, in fact, larger, more heavily armored, and manned by men who looked infinitely more serious than her own security personnel. They were Mikael Drayson’s men.

Fear gripped her. She slammed her hand down on the console, ordering the driver to stop the car immediately. The sedan smoothly pulled to the curb.

Before Mikael could open the door and step out, Helen quickly slid a sleek, silver business card into the deep pocket of his prison-issue trousers.

“Call me,” she commanded, her voice low and desperate. “Please. When you are ready.”

Mikael merely nodded, pushed the door open, and stepped out into the chaotic, liberated darkness of the city. He didn’t look back as his men converged on him, surrounding him instantly and moving him into the safety of their waiting convoy.

***

Mikael stepped out of Helen Charles’s expensive sedan and was instantly enveloped by the professionalism of his own security detail. A man immediately stepped out of the vehicle following him. It was Mr. Thompson, the man he had just left, now appearing calm and collected amidst the serious-looking armed men. Thompson wore the same simple, well-tailored suit that looked so out of place in the prison and now perfectly normal among his crew.

“What did she say, Mikael?” Mr. Thompson asked, his voice a warm, familiar comfort, cutting through the low murmur of the idling engines.

Mikael didn't acknowledge the greeting. He was focused on the painful revelation that had just been forced upon him. “Did you tell Helen about my secret? Did you tell her I am Drayson?”

“No, I did not, sir. I have strictly followed your instructions since you went inside,” Thompson stated firmly, adjusting the file he held. “Arthur—he played dirty, Mikael. He has connections everywhere. She approached me, not the other way around, and made it clear she knew things. When she decided to do this, we decided it was better to combine our efforts. We couldn’t fight him in the courts, not with his connections. So, we had to get you out a different way, a way that makes you legally untraceable