Chapter 6 - MADISON’S HOUSEMadison refused to answer the door.
The door was unlocked.
That frightened me more than if it had been forced.
Ethan never left doors unlocked.
I stepped inside slowly.
Everything looked normal from the foyer.
Our wedding photograph remained on the console table.
The gray sofa was exactly where it had always been.
My coat still hung beside Ethan’s.
Yet the apartment felt unfamiliar.
Like a stage after the actors had left.
Naomi touched my arm.
“Don’t touch anything yet.”
One security officer walked through the rooms.
“Clear.”
We went directly to Ethan’s study.
The wall safe was behind a framed photograph from our honeymoon in Florence.
How appropriate.
A happy memory hiding something rotten.
I entered the combination.
Nothing.
Tried again.
Rejected.
“He changed it,” I whispered.
Naomi frowned.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel crouched near the safe.
“Can it be opened without damaging it?”
The security officer nodded.
“Probably. Give me ten minutes.”
It took nine.
Inside were passports, cash, jewelry, legal documents and three empty spaces where something had obviously been removed.
No blue phone.
My stomach sank.
“He took it.”
Daniel scanned the contents.
“Maybe.”
Naomi held up a stack of envelopes.
“These are interesting.”
They contained cashier’s checks totaling nearly four hundred thousand dollars.
Each payable to companies I didn’t recognize.
Then I noticed a small velvet box.
Inside was a diamond bracelet.
Not mine.
I knew whose it was.
Camille Ross.
Ethan’s colleague.
Thirty-three, beautiful, ambitious.
The woman whose name appeared constantly on his phone.
The woman Ethan said was “practically family.”
I closed the box.
“Claire?” Daniel asked.
“I’ve seen her wear this.”
Naomi’s expression sharpened.
“When?”
“At Halston Pierce’s Christmas party.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
My throat tightened.
“There’s an inscription.”
On the inside of the bracelet were three letters.
E + C.
And a date.
April 14.
Eight months earlier.
I laughed quietly.
Daniel looked concerned.
“I’m okay.”
I wasn’t.
But betrayal has a strange capacity.
Once someone has lied to you enough, another lie no longer breaks your heart.
It simply confirms the pattern.
I put the bracelet down.
“He’s sleeping with her.”
Daniel said nothing.
Naomi photographed everything.
Then we heard the apartment door.
Ethan.
He strode into the study and stopped when he saw us.
His face was gray with exhaustion.
Tie gone.
Shirt wrinkled.
The king had lost his crown.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Naomi stepped forward.
“Mr. Whitmore, I’m Naomi Brooks. I represent Claire.”
“This is my apartment.”
“Claire is still your lawful spouse and resident.”
Ethan’s eyes moved to Daniel.
“You.”
Daniel leaned against the desk.
“Me.”
“What did you do to my company?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit.”
“Your company suspended you.”
“Because Parker Meridian threatened to pull assets.”
Daniel’s expression didn’t change.
“Who told you that?”
Ethan hesitated.
That was enough.
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Graham?”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“I want everyone out.”
I stepped forward.
“Where’s the blue phone?”
His face changed.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
“What phone?”
“Wrong answer again.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Your mother does.”
That struck him.
“Eleanor spoke to you?”
“Yes.”
His voice rose.
“Where is she?”
“I’m not your secretary.”
“You need to stay out of this.”
“I was out of it for six years.”
He looked at the open safe.
Then the bracelet.
Camille’s bracelet.
His eyes flickered.
I picked it up.
“Nice.”
“Claire—”
“How long?”
“It’s not what you think.”
I laughed.
“That sentence should be printed on your business card.”
“Camille and I—”
“How long?”
He rubbed his face.
“Four months.”
“The engraving says eight.”
Silence.
“Try again.”
He looked at Daniel.
“This is private.”
Daniel’s voice was cold.
“You humiliated my sister in front of twelve people yesterday. Privacy seems like an odd new interest.”
Ethan stared.
Then recognition finally began creeping across his face.
Not complete recognition.
But suspicion.
“Who are you really?”
“Claire’s brother.”
“What do you do?”
“I fix things.”
Ethan’s mouth tightened.
“Cute.”
Daniel pulled a business card from his pocket and placed it on the desk.
Ethan looked down.
He stopped breathing.
PARKER MERIDIAN GROUP.
DANIEL PARKER.
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN.
Ethan picked up the card.
His eyes lifted.
“No.”
Daniel said nothing.
“You’re Daniel Parker?”
“Yes.”
“The Parker Meridian Daniel Parker?”
“Still yes.”
Ethan looked at me.
“You told me he was a mechanic.”
“He was.”
“When?”
“When he was nineteen.”
“You lied to me.”
That almost made everyone in the room laugh.
I stared at him.
“You want to discuss lying?”
His face flushed.
“You deliberately hid your family’s wealth.”
“No. I refused to advertise it.”
“You let me look like an idiot.”
“You did that yourself.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Is this why Parker Meridian invested with Halston Pierce?”
“No.”
“Did you arrange it?”
“No.”
“Did he get me hired?”
I said nothing.
Ethan looked at Daniel.
Daniel answered.
“Yes.”
The word landed like a hammer.
Ethan staggered backward.
“What?”
“You were rejected by twelve institutions after your disclosure violation.”
“That was confidential.”
“So was my guarantee.”
Ethan looked at me.
“You knew?”
“Not the details.”
“You had him interfere in my career?”
“I asked my brother to help my husband find work.”
“I built everything after that!”
“Then you shouldn’t be worried.”
Ethan looked between us.
His arrogance and fear were battling inside him.
Fear began winning.
“What exactly does Parker Meridian know?”
Daniel crossed his arms.
“Enough.”
“About Graham?”
“Enough.”
“About Cresswell?”
“Enough.”
Ethan went pale.
“Listen to me.”
“No,” Daniel said.
“You listen.”
His voice was quiet.
Which made it worse.
“My sister asked me never to interfere in her marriage. I honored that even when I believed you treated her poorly. I recommended you professionally because she believed in you.”
Ethan said nothing.
“You were given a second chance.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“If you used that chance to steal, manipulate markets or exploit my sister, I will not save you from the consequences.”
“I didn’t steal.”
“Then cooperate with investigators.”
Ethan looked away.
“Graham set this up.”
“Maybe.”
“He controlled everything.”
“Then you should have nothing to fear.”
Ethan suddenly looked at me.
“Claire, please.”
It was the first time he had said please in twenty-four hours.
“Where’s the blue phone?”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“I destroyed it.”
Daniel’s posture changed.
Naomi stepped forward.
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“How?”
“I smashed it and threw it into the Hudson.”
Naomi’s expression remained neutral.
“That was potentially evidence.”
“I panicked.”
I stared at him.
“What was on it?”
“Nothing important.”
“Then why destroy it?”
He didn’t answer.
I stepped closer.
“What was on the phone?”
Finally Ethan whispered:
“Messages.”
“Between who?”
“Graham.”
“And?”
He looked at me.
“My mother. Camille. Me.”
My stomach turned.
“What kind of messages?”
“Trades. Allocations. Timing.”
Daniel exhaled slowly.
Ethan continued.
“Graham said the information was legal because we weren’t trading personally.”
“Was it?”
“No.”
The admission barely existed.
Naomi said, “You need criminal counsel.”
“I know.”
Suddenly Ethan looked smaller.
“I never meant for this to happen.”
I almost asked which part.
The fraud?
The affair?
The theft?
The humiliation?
Instead, I said, “Why did you keep the phone here?”
“Graham wanted leverage.”
“Against who?”
“Everyone.”
“And the files?”
“What files?”
Daniel straightened.
Ethan froze.
There it was again.
“What files?” Daniel repeated.
Ethan looked toward the safe.
“I don’t have them.”
“What files?”
He swallowed.
“Copies of every transaction.”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed.
“Where are they?”
“I told you. I don’t have them.”
“Who does?”
Ethan whispered a name.
“Madison.”
His sister.
May you like
The woman whose townhouse had been purchased partly with my stolen inheritance.
And apparently the woman now holding evidence that could send half her family to prison.
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