Chapter 3 - The Video That Was Never Supposed to Spread
Elena stared at the childhood photograph until the edges blurred.
"What am I supposed to remember?"
Michael didn't answer.
"Dad."
"I don't know."
"You recognized that car."
"Yes."
"And Victor has it."
"Apparently."
"And somebody thinks I remember something."
Michael placed his phone on Richard's desk.
"We're leaving."
Elena laughed once.
It wasn't amusement.
"No."
"This isn't a discussion."
"It became one when somebody paid Chase twenty thousand dollars to provoke me."
Michael's eyes hardened.
"Exactly why you're leaving."
"With you?"
"Yes."
"To the house where everyone will tell me nothing?"
Michael's silence confirmed it.
Elena shook her head.
"No."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Elena, whoever arranged tonight knew you'd be here."
"I understand that."
"They knew what you were wearing."
She looked at him.
"What?"
Daniel pointed toward Chase.
"Did your contact describe her?"
Chase hesitated.
"Yes."
"How?"
"Brown hair. Cream blouse. Black skirt."
Elena's skin prickled.
She had changed clothes forty minutes before leaving home.
Nobody at the gala could have known.
Michael understood at the same moment.
"Who saw you before you came here?"
"No one."
"Think."
"My neighbor. The rideshare driver."
"Anyone else?"
Elena thought.
Then remembered the envelope.
It had been waiting beneath her apartment door.
Her invitation.
Except she hadn't requested one.
She had assumed her father arranged it.
"Dad, did you send my gala invitation?"
Michael slowly shook his head.
Richard looked confused.
"I assumed Michael's office requested it."
"It didn't," Michael said.
Elena felt the floor tilt.
"Then who invited me?"
Frank searched the guest database.
He typed her name.
Then stopped.
"That's strange."
"What?"
"Miss Carter isn't listed."
Preston frowned.
"Then how did she get through?"
Elena reached into her purse and removed the elegant ivory invitation.
Richard took it.
He examined the embossed seal.
"It looks authentic."
"Looks?"
"Our invitations have serialized numbers."
He turned it over.
There was a number.
Frank entered it.
His expression changed.
"That invitation belongs to someone else."
"Who?" Elena asked.
Frank read the screen.
"Victoria Sloane."
Michael went completely still.
Elena heard the surname.
"Sloane."
Daniel looked at Michael.
"Victor's wife?"
"His daughter," Michael said.
Chase whispered, "The woman in red?"
Frank pulled up registration information.
A photograph appeared.
The same woman.
Victoria Sloane.
Elena stared at her face.
Something about it felt familiar.
Not from tonight.
Older.
Much older.
Then Elena remembered a summer afternoon.
A swimming pool.
Her mother laughing.
Another little girl chasing her through sprinklers.
"Vicky."
Michael looked at her sharply.
"What did you say?"
"I knew her."
"You were children."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"It wasn't important."
"Someone from my childhood just arranged to have me humiliated in a ballroom. It feels important now."
Michael sat down.
The anger left Elena for a moment.
Her father looked tired.
"Victor and I were friends once," he said.
"Close friends?"
"Like brothers."
Nobody interrupted.
"Our families spent time together. Your mother was close to Victor's wife. You and Victoria played together."
"What happened?"
Michael looked toward Richard.
Richard remained silent.
"Victor wanted more," Michael said. "More money. More influence. More control. When I discovered what he was doing, I ended our partnership."
"And his family?"
"They left Chicago."
"Why?"
Michael's jaw tightened.
"Because Victor blamed me for everything he lost."
Elena looked again at Victoria's photograph.
"So she came back for revenge?"
"I don't know."
Preston spoke from across the room.
"Maybe we should ask her."
Everyone looked at him.
He held Chase's phone.
Chase patted his pocket.
"What the hell?"
"You really need a better passcode."
Preston turned the screen around.
A new message had arrived.
From the unknown number.
MIDNIGHT. PENTHOUSE 1701. ELENA COMES ALONE.
Michael said, "Absolutely not."
Elena said, "I'm going."
"No."
"It's upstairs."
"No."
"Half the people in this room can watch the elevators."
"No."
"Dad, stop deciding for me."
"I'm trying to keep you alive."
The words escaped him.
Silence.
Elena stared at him.
"Alive?"
Michael realized his mistake.
"What aren't you telling me?"
"Nothing."
"You don't say that unless there's something worse."
Daniel stepped between them emotionally, if not physically.
"Michael, she's already involved."
Michael looked at him.
"You stay out of this."
"I can't."
"Why?"
Daniel hesitated.
That hesitation caught Elena's attention.
"Daniel?"
He reached inside his suit.
Michael's security reacted.
Daniel slowly removed an envelope.
"I received this yesterday."
He handed it to Elena.
Inside was a photograph.
Elena entering her apartment building.
On the back were three words.
PROTECT HER TONIGHT.
Elena stared at him.
"You knew?"
"I knew someone was worried about you. I didn't know why."
"Who sent this?"
"No return address."
Michael took the photograph.
His face changed.
Elena saw recognition again.
"What?"
Michael rubbed his thumb across the handwriting.
"I've seen this before."
"Where?"
Michael looked at her.
"Your mother's letters."
Elena stopped breathing.
"My mother is dead."
"I know."
"Then how—"
A knock interrupted them.
Everyone turned.
Frank frowned.
"No one should be up here."
One of Michael's security men approached the office door.
"Who is it?"
No answer.
He opened it carefully.
The hallway was empty.
An ivory envelope lay on the carpet.
Elena's name was written across the front.
Michael picked it up before she could.
Inside was a hotel keycard.
And beneath it, a handwritten note.
Elena recognized the handwriting before Michael said a word.
She had seen it on birthday cards.
Lunchbox notes.
Letters from summer camp.
Her mother's handwriting.
Elena took the note with shaking fingers.
There were only two sentences.
May you like
MICHAEL NEVER TOLD YOU WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT.
COME UPSTAIRS AND I'LL SHOW YOU.
