Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Roman stepped in front of Harper.
The bathroom door opened.
Paige Lang stumbled out.
Her champagne dress was torn.
Mascara streaked her face.
"Please."
Harper stared.
"Where's Connor?"
Paige began crying.
"They took him."
Roman didn't move.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Wrong answer."
"I swear!"
Paige collapsed onto the bed.
Harper noticed bruises around her wrist.
Real ones.
"Why were you here?"
"Connor told me to come."
"When?"
"After the shot."
Paige looked at Harper.
"He said there was something here that could keep us alive."
Harper held up the ledger.
"This?"
Paige went white.
"No."
Roman noticed.
"You've seen it."
Paige shook her head too quickly.
Harper sat opposite her.
"Three years, Paige."
"What?"
"The photograph. You and Connor."
Paige closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't."
Harper's voice remained calm.
"Don't apologize because you're frightened now. Tell me the truth."
Paige looked at the floor.
"Connor approached me three years ago."
"Why?"
"Daniel Croft."
Harper felt another piece shift.
"Daniel hired you?"
"Not exactly."
"Then exactly."
Paige swallowed.
"My father owed money to a company Daniel controlled. Connor said he could erase the debt if I helped him."
"Help him do what?"
"Watch you."
Harper's stomach twisted.
Roman's jaw hardened.
Paige continued.
"At first, I only reported where you went. Who you met. What files you brought home."
Sarah whispered, "Jesus."
"Then Connor and I..."
"Started sleeping together."
Paige nodded.
Harper felt strangely empty.
The betrayal had become too large for ordinary heartbreak.
"Why humiliate me tonight?"
"Connor said we had to make you angry enough to leave early."
Harper froze.
"What?"
"He knew someone planned to search your apartment during the gala. He thought if you went home unexpectedly, they'd abort."
"Then why didn't he warn me?"
"Because they were watching him."
Roman asked, "Who?"
Paige looked terrified.
"I don't know."
Roman stepped closer.
"You're lying."
"I know one name."
"Say it."
Paige's lips parted.
The lights went out.
Roman pulled Harper down.
A window shattered.
His security team rushed inside.
When emergency lights returned, Paige was gone.
The bathroom window stood open.
Eleven floors above the street.
But a maintenance platform hung outside.
Roman looked down.
Empty.
On the bed, Paige had left something behind.
A silver flash drive.
Harper picked it up.
"Maybe that's what Connor wanted us to find."
Roman nodded.
"But we don't open it here."
They moved to a secure Falco office.
Roman's technology specialist isolated the drive.
One folder appeared.
BENNETT.
Inside were photographs of Harper stretching back four years.
Courthouse.
Apartment.
Restaurants.
Vacations.
Then audio recordings.
Connor and Daniel.
Harper played one.
Connor's voice filled the room.
"She's getting suspicious."
Daniel replied, "Then propose."
Harper stopped breathing.
Connor: "You can't be serious."
Daniel: "An engagement gives you access to her home, laptop, calendar, everything."
Harper pressed pause.
Sarah covered her mouth.
Roman watched Harper, not the screen.
She pressed play.
Connor again.
"And if she finds out?"
Daniel laughed.
"She won't."
Harper shut it off.
She stood.
"I want Daniel arrested."
Roman shook his head.
"Not yet."
"Excuse me?"
"That drive proves surveillance. Maybe conspiracy. It doesn't prove D.C.M."
"Then we'll find proof."
Roman looked at her.
"That's exactly what Evelyn said."
Harper met his eyes.
"I'm not Evelyn."
"No."
Something changed in his expression.
"You're not."
Harper looked away first.
They spent the night tracing the payments.
At four in the morning, Roman brought her coffee.
"How did you know?"
"You've had six cups."
"That's unsettling."
"I own security cameras."
"More unsettling."
A faint smile touched his mouth.
For several minutes, they worked silently.
Then Harper asked, "Why did you really kiss me?"
Roman leaned back.
"You already asked."
"You didn't answer."
He considered lying.
She could see him deciding against it.
"I recognized you."
"From court?"
"Before that."
Harper frowned.
"My father knew yours."
Harper's father, Jonathan Bennett, had died when she was seventeen.
Officially, a car accident.
"What?"
Roman stood.
"He represented Falco Holdings twenty years ago."
"My father was a public defender."
"Before that."
Harper stared.
"He never told me."
"He tried to leave that part of his life behind."
"Leave what?"
"D.C.M."
The room became silent.
Harper whispered, "My father knew about it?"
"He helped create the legal structure they eventually corrupted."
Roman slid an old photograph across the desk.
Jonathan Bennett stood beside Roman's father.
And Daniel Croft.
Harper's hands began shaking.
"Daniel knew my father."
"Yes."
"Why did he hire me?"
Roman looked at her.
"That's what I've been trying to understand."
Harper's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Roman nodded.
She answered.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice.
"Harper?"
Harper froze.
"Who is this?"
"You found the ledger."
Roman heard it.
His face changed.
Harper whispered, "Evelyn?"
Silence.
Then:
"Don't trust the ledger."
Harper stood.
"Where are you?"
"It was created to lead Roman toward the wrong person."
Roman took the phone.
"Evelyn."
The woman inhaled sharply.
"Roman."
"You've been alive this entire time."
"I didn't have a choice."
"You always have a choice."
"No. Not after what I found."
"Who runs D.C.M.?"
Silence.
"Evelyn."
"I'll tell Harper."
"When?"
"Now."
Harper took the phone.
Evelyn spoke softly.
"The person who ordered Connor to watch you is someone you've trusted since you were twenty-four."
Harper thought of Daniel.
"I know."
"No, Harper."
Her blood chilled.
"You don't."
A knock sounded at Roman's office door.
His security chief entered.
"Ms. Bennett has a visitor."
"Who?"
The man looked at Harper.
"Connor Hayes."
Harper stood.
Connor entered.
His tuxedo was dirty.
Blood marked his collar.
He looked at Roman.
Then Harper.
"I'm sorry."
Harper said nothing.
Connor reached into his jacket.
Roman's men moved instantly.
Connor raised both hands.
"It's not a weapon."
He slowly withdrew an envelope.
"I found this after they let me go."
Harper took it.
Inside was her father's death certificate.
A second document was stapled behind it.
An autopsy amendment Harper had never seen.
CAUSE OF DEATH: INCONSISTENT WITH VEHICULAR TRAUMA.
Harper's knees weakened.
Connor whispered, "Your father wasn't killed in an accident."
Harper looked at Roman.
"Who killed him?"
Connor shook his head.
"I don't know."
His phone rang.
Everyone stared at it.
Connor looked at the screen.
His face became white.
Harper asked, "Who is it?"
Connor slowly turned the phone toward her.
The caller ID displayed two words.
DANIEL CROFT.
Connor answered.
Daniel's voice came through the speaker.
"Bring Harper to me."
Connor swallowed.
"Why?"
Daniel laughed softly.
"Because her father left her something."
Harper's pulse hammered.
"What?"
Daniel heard her.
"Oh, Harper."
His voice became almost affectionate.
"You've been carrying it for fourteen years."
Harper looked down at herself.
And suddenly remembered the one possession her father had given her the night before he died.
A small silver key she had never been able to identify.
It was still inside a box in her apartment.
At that exact moment, Roman's security monitor flashed red.
May you like
Someone had just entered Harper's apartment.
And the camera showed Daniel Croft walking toward her bedroom.
