Chapter 5 - Dinner for an Empty Chair
“Clara Elise Bennett.”
She froze.
Almost nobody used her middle name.
“Who is this?”
The man disconnected.
Damian saw her expression.
“What happened?”
“Someone canceled my surgery.”
His eyes hardened.
“And?”
“They knew my security information.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Damian immediately called Marcus.
Within an hour, Clara and Noah were moved to a secure apartment owned by one of Damian’s legitimate companies.
No marble.
No armed men standing visibly in hallways.
Clara approved.
Damian did not leave.
“You can go,” she told him.
“No.”
“I’m not your employee.”
“I’m aware.”
“You don’t get to order me around.”
“I’m becoming increasingly aware.”
Noah opened the refrigerator.
It was full.
He looked at Damian.
“Did you arrange this?”
“Yes.”
“I might like you a little.”
“Traitor,” Clara said.
That evening, Damian returned to the mansion.
For the first time in two years, Clara’s chair at the kitchen table was empty.
She rarely sat during formal meals.
But after the staff finished, she often ate there with Mrs. Alvarez.
Damian had never noticed the chair before.
Now he noticed nothing else.
Vincent had disappeared.
His phone was off.
His apartment empty.
His office cleared.
But he had left too quickly.
Marcus found an encrypted drive hidden beneath his desk.
They broke into it shortly before midnight.
The first folder contained financial records.
The second contained surveillance.
The third was labeled BENNETT.
Damian opened it.
Clara’s entire life appeared.
Her address.
Noah’s college.
Hospital records.
Bank balances.
Photographs.
Then an audio file.
Damian played it.
Vincent’s voice.
“She’ll leave eventually.”
Another man answered.
“When?”
“Soon. Cross is attached.”
Damian stopped the recording.
Marcus stared at him.
“Play it.”
Damian did.
Vincent continued.
“That makes her dangerous. He listens to her.”
“Then remove her.”
“No. If she disappears, he’ll burn the city looking for whoever did it.”
“So?”
“Make him push her away himself.”
Damian’s hand slowly closed.
The recording continued.
“Sabotage the leave request. Increase the pressure. She’ll become exhausted. He’ll become irritated. Eventually they’ll clash.”
The other man laughed.
“And if she stays?”
Vincent’s answer came immediately.
“Then we use the brother.”
Damian shut off the audio.
Marcus said nothing.
He didn’t need to.
Damian had spent his life believing control was strength.
Vincent had used that belief against him.
He hadn’t needed to force Damian to fire Clara.
He had only needed to create the right morning.
The right pressure.
The right audience.
Damian had done the rest himself.
At 1:13 a.m., Damian arrived at the secure apartment.
Clara opened the door wearing sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt.
“No.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
“It’s one in the morning.”
“I found something.”
That changed her expression.
She let him in.
Noah was asleep.
Damian played the recording.
Clara listened without moving.
When Vincent mentioned Noah, her face emptied.
Damian stopped it.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For making his plan work.”
Clara folded her arms.
“You didn’t forge the signature.”
“I fired you.”
“You did.”
“I humiliated you.”
“Yes.”
“I should have asked what was wrong.”
“Yes.”
Every answer landed harder because she didn’t soften it.
Damian looked down.
“I was wrong.”
Clara stared at him.
Perhaps that sentence was rarer than any threat Damian Cross had ever made.
“Okay.”
He looked up.
“Okay?”
“You apologized. I heard you.”
“That’s all?”
“What do you want, a certificate?”
A reluctant laugh escaped him.
Clara’s expression softened for half a second.
Then disappeared.
“I still don’t work for you.”
“I know.”
“And you cannot solve my surgery by throwing money at the hospital.”
“I know.”
“You’re lying.”
“Yes.”
She almost laughed.
Damian took an envelope from his jacket.
Clara’s eyes narrowed.
“If that’s a check—”
“It isn’t.”
Inside was a printed report.
Marcus had traced the call canceling her surgery.
It originated from a prepaid phone.
Purchased near Vincent’s apartment.
But there was something else.
The phone had called one number repeatedly.
A number registered to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
An internal extension.
Clara stared at it.
“Someone at the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Her phone rang.
Both looked at it.
Unknown number.
Clara answered on speaker.
A woman whispered:
“Ms. Bennett, I work at the hospital.”
Clara sat down.
“I can’t talk long.”
“Who are you?”
“I know who accessed your file.”
Damian moved closer.
The woman’s breathing became fast.
“He knows I found out.”
“Tell me his name.”
“I can’t over the phone.”
“Where are you?”
“Come to the employee parking garage tomorrow. Level four. Ten a.m.”
Then she whispered one final sentence.
“Don’t bring Damian Cross.”
The line went dead.
Clara looked up.
Damian was already shaking his head.
“No.”
She folded her arms.
“Funny.”
“What?”
“You’re not my boss anymore.”
At 9:59 the next morning, Clara stepped onto level four alone.
A woman stood beside a concrete pillar.
She turned.
Her face was terrified.
Then Clara heard a car door slam behind her.
May you like
The woman whispered, “He found me.”
And somebody started walking toward them.
