Chapter 3 - Nine Years EarlierBy the time we reached my car, Nina hadn't said another word.
She sat in the passenger seat with her engagement ring in her palm.
She kept turning it over.
Like she couldn't decide whether it was jewelry or evidence.
I didn't start the engine.
“Nina.”
She stared through the windshield.
“What happened nine years ago?”
I looked at her.
“I lost everything.”
Her eyes shifted toward me.
“Everything?”
“My company was tiny back then. Three clients. Two employees. One office I couldn't really afford.”
“What happened?”
“One of my partners forged invoices.”
“And stole money.”
“More than money.”
I swallowed.
“He sold confidential client information to a competitor.”
“Who?”
“Wentworth Advisory.”
Nina went still.
The name hit her immediately.
“Your company's old family?”
“Yes.”
She looked down.
“Is that how you met Heloise?”
“No.”
“Then why does she hate you?”
“I don't know if she hates me.”
Nina laughed softly.
“She gave you a social boundaries agreement.”
“Fair point.”
I finally started the car.
As we pulled away from the hotel, Nina asked quietly, “Did she ruin your company?”
“She tried.”
“What happened?”
“I rebuilt.”
I didn't tell her the whole story.
Not yet.
There had been another detail.
The stolen client data hadn't simply been sold.
Someone inside Wentworth Advisory had instructed my partner on exactly which accounts were valuable.
Someone had known my contracts.
Someone had known my expansion plans.
Someone had known where I kept emergency reserves.
The investigation had never found the person.
The trail ended at a private number.
The only thing we recovered was a name.
Eleanor Vale.
A name that didn't belong to any employee.
It belonged to a shell company.
A shell company that vanished two months later.
I had spent nine years refusing to think about it.
Until tonight.
My phone rang.
Lydia.
I answered through the car system.
“What happened?”
“Your office received another message.”
“From whom?”
“We don't know.”
“Read it.”
Lydia hesitated.
Then she did.
“Stop digging into Meridian.”
I glanced at Nina.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Lydia continued.
“Leave the Wentworth family alone.”
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel.
“Anything else?”
“There is one final sentence.”
I waited.
Lydia's voice lowered.
“It says, ‘You already know what happened to your partner.’”
The line went silent.
My stomach dropped.
I knew immediately what that meant.
My old partner, Daniel Mercer, hadn't disappeared.
At least, not the way I'd been told.
Nine years ago, investigators had reported that Daniel had left the country after stealing money.
I had never believed it.
But I had never proved otherwise.
I pulled into an empty parking area overlooking the river.
Nina stared at me.
“What is it?”
I couldn't answer.
The lights from downtown shimmered over the water.
Nine years earlier, Daniel had sent me one final message.
Don't trust the man who smiles when he loses.
I had assumed he meant our competitor.
Now I wondered whether he'd meant the Wentworths.
My phone buzzed again.
Lydia had sent a photo.
A scanned page.
It was an old police report.
Daniel's name.
Date of disappearance.
Last known location.
And beneath it, a handwritten annotation.
Case reopened.
Nina read the screen over my shoulder.
“Why would they reopen it now?”
I looked at her.
“Because someone just admitted he knew what happened.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
My phone buzzed again.
This time, it was a photograph.
No message.
Just an image.
I opened it.
And my blood ran cold.
It was Daniel.
Alive.
Older.
Thinner.
Standing outside a coffee shop.
The timestamp was from three days earlier.
Nina whispered, “That's him.”
I nodded.
Then another message appeared.
Tomorrow. 9:00 a.m. Don't bring the police.
A location followed.
May you like
And a final sentence.
Come alone, or Nina won't be safe.
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