Chapter 3 - The Man Carrying Silver Shoes
For several seconds, I thought there had to be another Chloe Vance.
There wasn’t.
Julian’s general counsel had written:
Source identifies herself as Chloe Vance.
I looked at the woman standing beside Marcus.
She was still holding his arm.
Still wearing that glittering gown.
Still apparently unaware that a message bearing her name had just stopped a multimillion-dollar acquisition.
“Everything okay?” Marcus asked.
Julian locked his phone.
“Something at work.”
Marcus studied him.
“The deal?”
“I don’t discuss active transactions socially.”
Marcus gave a strained laugh.
“Of course.”
Chloe looked between them.
For the first time, I wondered how much she truly knew.
Five years ago I had turned her into a villain because that had been easier than admitting my husband was the person who had made vows to me.
Chloe had participated in the betrayal.
But Marcus had engineered my financial destruction.
There was a difference.
And now someone using Chloe’s name had contacted Rhodes Capital.
Julian and I excused ourselves.
We stepped onto a quiet balcony overlooking the hotel gardens.
“What exactly did the message say?” I asked.
Julian handed me his phone.
His general counsel, Samantha Hale, had received a secure whistleblower submission approximately forty minutes earlier.
The sender claimed Mercer Strategic Holdings had materially misstated liabilities connected to several subsidiaries.
Supporting documents had been attached.
Samantha recognized the seriousness immediately.
Then she saw the source name.
Chloe Vance.
“Could someone be impersonating her?” I asked.
“Absolutely.”
“Marcus asked me about the files.”
Julian’s eyes sharpened.
“What files?”
“The old records.”
“He mentioned them tonight?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did he say?”
“‘Does Julian know everything about you? The files.’”
Julian was silent.
“That’s not random,” he said.
“No.”
“Do you still have them?”
“In the safe-deposit box.”
“Good.”
I folded my arms against the cool air.
Five years earlier, I had preserved those records because they frightened me.
Not because I understood them.
Now Marcus was afraid of them.
That changed everything.
Julian called Samantha.
She answered immediately.
He put her on speaker.
“Tell me what you have.”
Samantha’s voice was controlled.
“Anonymous portal submission. The sender entered Chloe Vance as her name, but we haven’t verified identity.”
“What are the allegations?”
“Undisclosed debt. Related-party transactions. Possible misrepresentation during diligence.”
My attorney brain took over.
“Dates?”
Samantha answered.
Some were recent.
Others went back six years.
Six years.
That meant the activity could overlap with my marriage.
“Evelyn?” Samantha said.
“I’m here.”
“Do not open your old files tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because if those records become relevant, I want chain-of-custody procedures documented from the beginning.”
“Understood.”
“And do not discuss them with Marcus.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
Julian asked, “Does the submission reference Evelyn?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
“How?”
“Indirectly. It says, ‘The former Mrs. Mercer may still possess the earliest records.’”
Julian looked at me.
Someone knew.
Someone knew exactly what I had kept.
“Who had access to those records originally?” he asked.
“Marcus. Me. Possibly his accountant.”
“Name?”
“Daniel Price.”
Samantha went silent.
Then said, “Daniel Price died three years ago.”
I remembered.
Heart attack.
Fifty-eight years old.
Marcus had attended the funeral.
“So who else?” Julian asked.
I thought.
“There was an assistant.”
“Name?”
“Lydia...”
I stopped.
I hadn’t thought about her in years.
“Lydia Grant.”
Samantha typed.
“Former executive assistant?”
“Yes.”
“Left Mercer six months after your divorce.”
“Do you have current contact information?”
“No.”
“I’ll handle it.”
We ended the call.
When Julian lowered his phone, I realized my hands were cold.
He took them.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have to be.”
“I know.”
That was another thing I loved about him.
He never told me how I should feel.
Through the glass doors, I could see Marcus talking intensely to Chloe.
She pulled her arm away.
Interesting.
Julian followed my gaze.
“You think she sent it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Want to leave?”
I looked toward Rebecca.
She was laughing beside her new husband.
“No. Marcus doesn’t get to ruin Rebecca’s wedding.”
Julian kissed my forehead.
“Then we dance.”
“What?”
“The band started.”
“You want to dance now?”
“Yes.”
I laughed.
“Why?”
“Because our daughter is currently attempting to steal icing from a wedding cake, your ex-husband looks like he swallowed a battery, and I married the prettiest woman in the room.”
“Terrible line.”
“It worked.”
“It did.”
We returned inside.
For ten minutes, I let myself forget Marcus.
Julian held me beneath the chandeliers.
Emma danced on my mother’s feet.
Rebecca laughed.
Life was absurdly normal.
Then Chloe appeared beside me while Julian went to retrieve drinks.
“Bathroom,” she whispered.
I looked at her.
“What?”
“Two minutes.”
She walked away.
I waited thirty seconds.
Then followed.
Chloe wasn’t in the bathroom.
She was standing in the quiet corridor beside it.
“You sent something to Rhodes Capital,” I said.
Her face changed.
So it was her.
“How do you know?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Why did you send it?”
She looked toward the ballroom.
“Because Marcus is lying.”
“About what?”
“Everything.”
I almost laughed.
“You’re five years late.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Chloe crossed her arms.
“I know what you think of me.”
“You slept with my husband.”
“I know.”
“In my house.”
“I know.”
“Then we’re probably clear.”
She looked down.
For the first time since I had known her, Chloe appeared ashamed.
“I thought he was leaving you,” she said.
“He did.”
“No. Before that. He told me your marriage was over. He said you were staying because you wanted money.”
I stared at her.
“I had my own career.”
“I know that now.”
“Convenient.”
Her eyes lifted.
“I deserve that.”
That stopped me.
The Chloe I remembered never admitted fault.
“What happened?” I asked.
She swallowed.
“Marcus is in trouble.”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know all of it. But he’s been moving money.”
“From where?”
“Companies. Accounts. I don’t understand.”
“Then how did you get documents?”
“I photographed them.”
“Why?”
“Because three weeks ago I asked when we were getting married.”
I said nothing.
“He laughed,” she continued. “Then he told me marriage was a financial mistake he would never make twice.”
There it was.
Five years of Chloe believing she had won.
And Marcus had never intended to give her what she wanted.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
She looked genuinely startled.
“I don’t need pity.”
“It wasn’t pity.”
“What was it?”
“Recognition.”
Her eyes filled briefly.
She blinked it away.
“There’s more.”
“Tell me.”
“He has a second phone.”
“That’s hardly shocking.”
“There are messages about the acquisition.”
My attention sharpened.
“What messages?”
“He thinks Rhodes Capital will discover something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who is he messaging?”
“I only saw initials.”
“What initials?”
Chloe hesitated.
“L.G.”
Lydia Grant.
A cold sensation moved through me.
“Where is Marcus now?”
“In the ballroom.”
“Does he know you photographed the documents?”
“No.”
“Keep it that way.”
Chloe looked frightened.
“I think he knows someone sent something.”
“Why?”
“He got a text ten minutes ago.”
“What did it say?”
“I only saw the first line.”
“What line?”
She looked directly at me.
She kept the drive.
My heartbeat became loud in my ears.
“Who sent it?”
“I don’t know.”
A door opened at the far end of the corridor.
Chloe stepped backward.
Marcus appeared.
He looked at her.
Then at me.
Nobody spoke.
His phone was in his hand.
The screen lit up again.
A new message arrived.
Marcus read it.
Then slowly raised his eyes toward me.
“Evelyn,” he said.
And this time, there was no arrogance left in his voice.
May you like
Only fear.
“They know you have it.”
