Chapter 2 - Five Million Dollars
Selena reached the mansion entrance before Dempster could stop her.
Not that he tried.
He simply followed.
That was becoming unnerving.
Alidoro stood beyond the iron gates in a charcoal suit, his blond hair perfectly styled, as if he had arrived for a magazine shoot instead of confronting the woman he had allegedly attempted to trade for five million dollars.
Beside him stood a nervous attorney.
Alidoro smiled when he saw Selena.
“There you are.”
The familiarity of it made her skin crawl.
Dempster stopped half a step behind her.
Alidoro noticed.
His smile weakened.
“Selena, come outside.”
“No.”
“We need to talk privately.”
“We spent two years talking privately. Apparently I should've requested witnesses.”
His jaw tightened.
“I can explain.”
“Explain the contract.”
“What contract?”
Dempster handed Selena a copy.
She held it against the bars.
Alidoro’s face lost color.
That was enough.
Selena had spent years doubting herself around him.
Was she too sensitive?
Too insecure?
Too emotional?
Now she watched a lie die on his face before he could speak it.
“You knew,” she whispered.
“Selena—”
“You knew.”
“It wasn't what you think.”
“Then tell me what I think.”
Alidoro looked at Dempster.
“This is between us.”
“No,” Selena said. “Apparently five million dollars is between us.”
His attorney murmured something.
Alidoro ignored him.
“You created technology using resources from my company.”
“I created it in my apartment on a laptop I bought.”
“I funded development.”
“You bought dinner twice.”
Dempster coughed.
Selena glanced back.
“Are you laughing?”
“No.”
Alidoro’s face reddened.
“You don't understand what you've done.”
“I woke up married to him. I'm fairly confident nobody understands what I've done.”
“Flores manipulated you.”
Dempster’s expression did not change.
Selena looked at Alidoro.
“Did he forge my signature?”
Silence.
“Did he?”
“I was trying to protect the company.”
“From what?”
“From you walking away with technology we built together.”
Selena stared at him.
There it was.
Not remorse.
Entitlement.
The same entitlement that had allowed him to present her work in meetings.
To criticize her body and call it concern.
To humiliate her publicly and call it humor.
“What’s in the envelope?”
Alidoro lifted it.
“Something your mother left.”
“You knew my mother?”
“Not personally.”
“Then how did you get it?”
His eyes shifted.
Tiny movement.
Selena caught it.
“Who gave it to you?”
“I’ll tell you after you come outside.”
Dempster spoke for the first time.
“No.”
Alidoro glared at him.
Selena raised a hand.
“I can answer for myself.”
Dempster immediately went quiet.
Again, that mattered.
She hated comparing them.
One man had spent two years speaking over her.
The other could silence a room yet stepped back when she asked.
“I’m not coming outside,” Selena said.
Alidoro pressed closer to the gate.
“You think he saved you?”
“I don't know what he did yet.”
“He bought the debt.”
Selena turned toward Dempster.
Dempster didn't deny it.
“When?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“Before the gala?”
“Yes.”
Her stomach twisted.
“So you knew Alidoro would be there.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I would be there.”
“Yes.”
Alidoro smiled.
“Ask your husband why.”
Selena looked between them.
Dempster’s face remained unreadable.
“Why?”
“Inside,” he said.
“No. Here.”
A long pause.
Then Dempster said, “Because I was looking for you.”
Selena felt the ground tilt.
“Why?”
Before he answered, Alidoro shoved the envelope through the gate.
It landed on the stone driveway.
Dempster’s guards moved.
Selena got there first.
“Don't touch it,” Dempster said.
She froze.
“Why?”
“Because he wants you to.”
Alidoro laughed bitterly.
“This is what he does, Selena. Makes everyone afraid until they need him.”
Dempster stared through the bars.
“And what do you do, Alidoro?”
Nobody answered.
Selena crouched.
The handwriting on the envelope looked impossibly familiar.
Her mother had written grocery lists in the same narrow cursive.
Birthday cards.
Notes in Selena’s lunch bag.
You are enough.
Three words her mother had repeated when Selena came home crying because children at school had mocked her weight.
Selena’s eyes burned.
“Open the gate.”
“No,” Dempster said.
She stood.
“You said I'm not trapped.”
“You aren't.”
“Then open it.”
Dempster studied her.
Then nodded to security.
The gate began moving.
Alidoro smiled.
Dempster stepped beside Selena.
Not in front.
Beside.
The difference was small.
It felt enormous.
Alidoro approached and extended the envelope.
Selena took it.
“Now tell me where you got this.”
“A storage box your mother left with my father.”
Selena frowned.
Their families had never been close.
“Why would she do that?”
“You should ask Flores.”
Selena turned.
Dempster’s jaw had tightened.
“You knew?”
“No.”
But he recognized something.
She could see it.
“What?”
Dempster pointed toward the lower corner of the envelope.
A tiny embossed symbol.
A circle crossed by three vertical lines.
Dempster’s expression changed.
“What is that?”
He took a slow breath.
“My father used that mark.”
Selena stared at him.
“Your father knew my mother?”
Before he could answer, Alidoro’s attorney interrupted.
“Mr. Wright, we need to leave.”
Alidoro ignored him.
Dempster looked at the lawyer.
The man was sweating.
“Why?”
The attorney backed away.
“I don't know what you mean.”
“You saw the symbol.”
“No.”
“You did.”
Alidoro turned.
“What is wrong with you?”
The attorney reached his car.
Then Selena’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A woman whispered, “Do not open your mother’s letter in front of Dempster Flores.”
Selena’s blood chilled.
“Who is this?”
The woman breathed shakily.
Then she said a name Selena had not heard since childhood.
A private nickname only her mother had ever used.
“Lena-bird.”
Selena gripped the phone.
May you like
The line went dead.
And behind her, Dempster whispered, “Who called you?”
