Falling for My Ex’s Mafia Dad — Episode 45
The classified designation explained Ivan’s confidence without clarifying his loyalty. A confidential asset could be a criminal trading information, an undercover operative protected by a false identity, or both at different times. Kent assumed the worst: Ivan was building a federal case around the Lippert family.
Fay asked how the team obtained a sealed memo. No one answered. She realized that Kent’s defense against illegal surveillance involved illegal surveillance of his own. The distinction between hunter and hunted depended mainly on who controlled the evidence.
Daniel wanted to move Colin and Fay’s parents out of the country. Colin refused to disappear again. David and Janeen, when told only that federal attention had increased, likewise chose to remain in the protected apartment arranged near the estate.
Fay respected their decisions even though they frightened her more than she admitted. Kent watched her allow loved ones to choose risk and said nothing. The lesson challenged every instinct he possessed.
They built a counterintelligence plan. Daniel would continue appearing as the devoted fiancé. Fay would keep the clinic negotiations open, giving Ivan a legitimate reason to approach. Kent would reduce visible security around her while covert teams tracked every contact. Colin volunteered to analyze university records for connections to Grant, but Daniel refused until Colin reminded him that protection without participation had already become another form of hiding.
“You want me to be bait,” Fay said. Kent rejected the word. She reminded him that changing the label did not change the function. He admitted the plan depended on Ivan believing he could influence her, and he offered to abandon it if she refused.
Fay agreed with conditions. She would control each meeting, receive all intelligence gathered from it, and carry no recording device without knowing its range. She also demanded authority to end an operation without debating her judgment over an open channel. Kent accepted every term, though asking permission for danger looked physically painful. He ordered the team to treat her withdrawal signal as final, equal to an evacuation command from him.
Their thirty-day deadline had twelve days remaining. Daniel proposed announcing a postponed wedding after the clinic audit, creating uncertainty Ivan might exploit. Publicly, Fay and Daniel would remain affectionate. Privately, he released her from any expectation beyond maintaining the cover.
The release mattered more than Fay anticipated. She removed the engagement ring in Daniel’s presence and asked whether he resented her. He said he resented the situation, Kent’s gravity, and the fact that protecting Colin had required Fay to become a target. He did not resent her for wanting a life of her own.
Daniel kept the ring in his safe. They agreed she would wear a replica at public events and nothing in private. The compromise turned the diamond from a symbol of ownership into a prop they both understood.
Kent noticed her bare hand at dinner. He did not ask what had changed until Daniel and Colin left. Fay explained the new agreement and warned that it did not automatically erase the boundary between them.
“Twelve days,” Kent said. Fay answered that dates did not create trust; behavior did. He had respected her limits since the garden, but respecting limits to earn a reward was not the same as changing.
Kent accepted the criticism. He gave her a key to the exterior gate and the code disabling the alarm on her bedroom corridor. The key did not override security during an active attack, but on ordinary days she could leave the estate without requesting permission. A vehicle and driver would remain available if she wanted them, yet she could refuse both. The arrangement shifted security from an order into a service.
Fay closed her fingers around the metal. Freedom granted by a captor could still feel like a gift, and she hated the gratitude rising inside her. Kent told her not to thank him for returning something that had always belonged to her.
The words proved the change more than the key. She stepped closer, testing whether he would interpret emotion as invitation. Kent remained still, his hands loose at his sides.
Fay touched his bandaged ribs through his shirt. He inhaled sharply but did not cover her hand. She asked whether the wound hurt. “Less than this,” he said, looking at her bare finger.
She reminded him that Daniel’s ring was not his to resent. Kent agreed. He said the absence represented possibility, not possession, and possibility was harder to endure because it could still choose someone else.
Ivan called her secure phone before Fay could answer. He invited her to inspect his clinic the following night during a fundraising masquerade. Board counsel and press would attend, making refusal appear political rather than cautious. He sent a guest list containing judges, surgeons, and diplomats whose presence would make overt violence unlikely while providing perfect cover for private deals.
Fay accepted after setting security terms. Ivan added that Lorenzo had already promised to escort her if Daniel was unavailable. The arrangement revealed how deliberately her father was moving her from one alliance toward another.
When the call ended, Kent asked whether she intended to flirt with Ivan as part of the plan. Fay said she intended to learn the truth. Kent’s gaze dropped to her mouth. “Those are not mutually exclusive,” he warned—and the jealousy in his voice sounded dangerously close to permission breaking.