Chapter 3 - The Fiancée Who Knew
Daniel wanted Lauren arrested.
Torres refused.
“A security image is not enough.”
“She knew about the plates.”
“That’s evidence worth investigating. It isn’t proof of attempted murder.”
Daniel hated the distinction.
But he understood it.
For the next two days, he said nothing to Lauren.
He said nothing to Marcus.
Instead, he worked.
Emily pushed his body.
Margaret protected his company.
Torres investigated the crash.
And Noah drew the future before any of them reached it.
Day 92 showed Daniel standing between parallel bars.
“You’re optimistic,” Daniel said.
“You moved two toes yesterday.”
“One toe.”
“Two.”
“One.”
Noah considered this.
“I rounded up.”
Daniel laughed.
It surprised him.
So did Emily.
The man who had awakened furious and frightened was beginning to return.
Not the CEO from magazine covers.
Something quieter.
Something better.
During therapy, Emily learned Daniel’s father had died when Daniel was twenty-four.
His mother had died six years later.
Marcus had grown up partly in their home after his own father disappeared.
“I trusted him,” Daniel said.
“Maybe you still don’t know what happened.”
“I remember him in the car.”
“You remember a fragment.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You sound like Torres.”
“That’s because Torres is sensible.”
“I dislike sensible people.”
“You employ accountants.”
“I dislike them too.”
By the end of the week, Daniel could contract muscles in both thighs.
It was almost invisible.
To him, it felt like an earthquake.
Then Torres found the parking footage.
The timestamp hidden behind Noah’s drawing corresponded to a private Kang Meridian garage camera.
Daniel’s company claimed the recording had been automatically deleted.
It hadn’t.
Someone had copied it before deletion.
Torres played the recovered video.
Daniel exited the elevator.
Marcus followed.
They spoke.
No audio.
Marcus handed Daniel coffee.
Daniel drank.
Three minutes later, Daniel entered his car.
Marcus climbed into the passenger seat.
Lauren appeared.
She leaned through the driver’s window.
Then the video ended.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“Where’s the rest?”
“Deleted.”
“By whom?”
Torres looked at him.
“Administrative credentials belonging to Marcus Han.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Lauren visited that evening.
He decided to stop pretending.
“You were in the garage.”
She went pale.
“Daniel—”
“You were there.”
Lauren sat.
“Yes.”
“Why did you lie?”
“Because Marcus told me to.”
“Why?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of Marcus?”
She shook her head.
“Of what you would remember.”
Daniel felt his pulse quicken.
“What should I remember?”
Lauren covered her face.
“I made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“Northstar.”
Daniel waited.
Lauren confessed that she had introduced Marcus to executives at Northstar months earlier. She believed a merger would make Daniel less obsessed with work.
Marcus wanted control.
Lauren wanted Daniel.
Then Marcus discovered something.
Daniel’s father had created a hidden voting trust controlling enough Kang Meridian shares to block any hostile acquisition.
Only Daniel could activate it.
Unless Daniel died.
“Did Marcus drug me?”
Lauren cried.
“I didn’t know he was going to hurt you.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Yes.”
The word landed softly.
“He put something in your coffee.”
Daniel’s voice became almost inaudible.
“And you watched.”
“I thought he was only going to scare you. Make you miss the board meeting. I swear.”
“Then why didn’t you call police?”
“Because Marcus said you were alive. He said you had disappeared deliberately after discovering financial problems.”
“For eighty-nine days?”
“I believed him at first.”
“At first.”
Lauren looked down.
“Then I became afraid to ask.”
Daniel stared at the woman he had planned to marry.
“You went on television.”
“I was trying to find you.”
“You stood beside Marcus and cried for cameras.”
“I did love you.”
“Did?”
Lauren couldn’t answer.
Daniel pressed the nurse-call button.
“Leave.”
“Daniel—”
“Leave.”
Lauren stood.
At the door she stopped.
“There’s something else.”
Daniel said nothing.
“The night of the crash, Marcus wasn’t trying to kill you.”
Daniel looked at her.
“How comforting.”
“He needed something.”
“What?”
Lauren turned.
“A password.”
Daniel frowned.
“To what?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
“Then why was I in the car?”
“Because you refused to give it to him.”
Daniel’s memory cracked open.
Rain.
Marcus shouting.
Daniel fighting sleep.
A hand grabbing his jacket.
Marcus saying, Tell me where your father put it.
Daniel gasped.
Emily entered as Lauren fled.
“What happened?”
Daniel looked at her.
“My father left something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Noah appeared behind her holding Day 93.
Daniel glanced at the drawing.
His father was in it.
Daniel went still.
“Noah.”
“Yeah?”
“Why did you draw that man?”
Noah looked confused.
“I didn’t.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Then who did?”
Noah turned the paper over.
A message had been written across the back.
YOUR FATHER KNEW MARCUS WOULD COME.
Beneath it was an address.
Emily read it.
Daniel recognized the street.
It belonged to a house his father had sold twenty years earlier.
Torres arrived within the hour.
They agreed nobody would go there alone.
But at midnight, Daniel woke to movement.
Noah’s drawing was gone.
So was the police officer outside his room.
Then Daniel heard the lock click.
May you like
The door began opening.
And the person entering whispered the name only Daniel’s father had ever called him.
