Chapter 6 - Gate Thirty-TwoThere are very few situations in life when a billionaire, a pregnant sister, three corporate investigators, and a former bride should race through Manhattan traffic toward an airport.
The groom was gone.
The bride had changed into a simple cream cocktail dress.
My sister had abandoned the imitation gown and was wearing one of Claire’s emergency dresses.
Half the guests had stayed.
The other half were probably texting everyone they knew.
Nobody seemed sure whether they were attending a celebration, corporate coup, or family intervention.
I didn’t care.
I was eating cake.
Nathaniel sat across from me in the church’s private reception room.
“You’re remarkably calm.”
“I’ve eaten three pieces of chocolate cake.”
“That explains everything.”
“It explains more than therapy currently could.”
He almost smiled.
Amelia entered without knocking.
Her expression told me immediately that something was wrong.
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
Nathaniel stood.
Amelia placed her laptop on the table.
“Ryan’s Northstar credentials were terminated this morning.”
“I know.”
“But twenty minutes ago, someone used an emergency hardware authentication key tied to your administrator account.”
I stopped chewing.
“That’s impossible.”
Nathaniel leaned closer.
“What key?”
Northstar’s most sensitive systems required physical security devices for emergency access.
Only four existed.
One belonged to me.
I carried it inside a small safe in my home office.
My stomach dropped.
“Ryan knows where mine is.”
Amelia nodded.
“We believe he took it.”
I grabbed my phone.
Our apartment security feed refused to connect.
“Cameras are offline.”
Nathaniel was already calling someone.
“Vale security can meet us there.”
“I’m going.”
“Obviously.”
I looked at him.
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
That answer was becoming dangerously attractive.
Danielle appeared at the doorway.
“What happened?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
She folded her arms.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Protect me because I’m pregnant.”
I stared at her.
Three hours earlier she had attempted to destroy my wedding.
Now she sounded almost like my sister again.
“Ryan may have stolen something from my apartment.”
Her face hardened.
“I know where he keeps a spare key.”
“To our apartment?”
She winced.
“Yes.”
Of course she did.
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I grabbed my purse.
“Come on.”
Nathaniel’s driver got us downtown in twelve minutes.
Vale security arrived seconds behind us.
Our building manager met us in the lobby.
“Ms. Hart, Mr. Prescott came through around one-thirty.”
“Was he alone?”
“No.”
I froze.
“Who was with him?”
“A man. Tall. Gray coat.”
Nathaniel exchanged a look with Amelia.
“Did you recognize him?”
The manager shook his head.
We took the private elevator upstairs.
My front door showed no sign of forced entry.
Inside, everything appeared normal.
Too normal.
Ryan had been careful.
I went directly to my office.
The painting above the safe hung slightly crooked.
I opened the panel.
The safe door was unlocked.
The authentication key was gone.
So was my backup laptop.
“Damn it.”
Danielle stood behind me.
“What exactly can he do with that?”
“Potentially access our unreleased architecture.”
“Can you stop him?”
“We can revoke the key, but if he already copied data—”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Olivia Hart.”
Ryan’s voice came through.
“Enjoying the reception?”
Nathaniel looked at me.
I placed the call on speaker.
“What did you take?”
“My dignity, apparently.”
“Ryan.”
He laughed.
“The key?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Why?”
“So I can congratulate you personally on adding theft to your wedding vows.”
Danielle almost smiled.
Ryan ignored the remark.
“I want a deal.”
Nathaniel mouthed: Keep him talking.
“What deal?”
“You release a statement saying the accusations today were misunderstandings.”
“No.”
“You tell Prescott Global’s board there was no theft.”
“No.”
“You reinstate my access to Northstar.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then your company loses something very valuable tonight.”
My skin chilled.
“You don’t understand what you have.”
“I understand enough.”
“No. You don’t.”
The predictive engine Ryan wanted wasn’t simply commercial technology.
Northstar had recently adapted portions of it for emergency transportation networks.
Hospitals.
Disaster response.
Critical supply chains.
A compromised copy could cause enormous damage.
Nathaniel stepped closer to the phone.
“Ryan, you’re no longer negotiating a corporate dispute.”
There was silence.
Then Ryan laughed.
“Nathaniel Vale.”
“Yes.”
“Always waiting for another man to fail before taking his place.”
Nathaniel didn’t react.
Ryan continued.
“Tell Olivia if she wants her precious code back, she’ll meet me tonight.”
“Where?” I asked.
“Alone.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t directed at you, Vale.”
“It applies anyway.”
Ryan’s voice sharpened.
“Midnight. Pier 17.”
The call ended.
Danielle stared at the phone.
“He’s lost his mind.”
Amelia immediately began speaking with investigators.
Nathaniel looked at me.
“You’re not going alone.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Good.”
My sister paced.
“Who was the man with him?”
“We need to identify him.”
She stopped.
“I might know.”
Everyone looked at her.
Danielle swallowed.
“Ryan introduced me to someone in Chicago.”
“Who?”
“Martin Kessler.”
Nathaniel went still.
That worried me.
“Who is he?”
Nathaniel answered.
“A technology broker.”
“Legitimate?”
“Sometimes.”
“And other times?”
“He sells to whoever pays.”
Amelia cursed softly.
Danielle continued.
“Ryan said Martin was helping him arrange his new company.”
“Did you meet him more than once?”
“Twice.”
“Where?”
“Chicago. Then here.”
“When here?”
“Last week.”
My pulse quickened.
“What did they discuss?”
“I don’t know. Ryan made me leave the room.”
I walked toward her.
“Think.”
She closed her eyes.
“They were arguing.”
“About what?”
“Martin said something like, ‘You promised exclusivity.’ Ryan said he needed another buyer to raise the price.”
Nathaniel grabbed his phone.
“What?”
He called his cybersecurity director.
“Lock every Northstar-linked Vale environment now. Full isolation protocol.”
I stared at him.
“You think there are multiple buyers?”
“Yes.”
Amelia asked, “How many?”
Nathaniel looked at Danielle.
“That depends on how ambitious Ryan became.”
My sister’s face crumpled.
“I helped him.”
“You didn’t know this.”
“I introduced him to Martin.”
I stared.
“You what?”
“He told me Martin could help him become independent from you.”
“From me?”
“He said once he had his own company, we could be together publicly.”
I shut my eyes.
There were moments when forgiving Danielle seemed possible.
Then there were moments when I remembered she had actively helped Ryan undermine me.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Stop saying that.”
She flinched.
“I need actions now, not apologies.”
She nodded.
“Tell me what to do.”
“Give Amelia every message, every email, every meeting location you have.”
“I will.”
“And Danielle?”
“Yes?”
“If you delete one thing to protect yourself, we’re done.”
Her face tightened.
“I won’t.”
Nathaniel and I searched the apartment while security reviewed building footage.
In the bedroom, I found something else missing.
My passport.
“What would he want with that?” Nathaniel asked.
I opened the drawer again.
“My second passport too.”
“Dual citizenship?”
“My mother was born in Canada.”
Nathaniel frowned.
“He may be planning to impersonate your authorization overseas.”
Amelia entered.
“We identified the man from the lobby footage.”
She showed us a still image.
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
“Martin Kessler.”
“So Ryan has the hardware key, my laptop, and my passports.”
“And perhaps copied signatures.”
I sat on the edge of the bed.
For the first time all day, fear finally arrived.
Not heartbreak.
Not humiliation.
Fear.
Northstar employed six hundred people.
Hundreds of clients depended on us.
This was bigger than my ruined wedding.
Nathaniel crouched in front of me.
“Look at me.”
I did.
“We’ll contain it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
I appreciated the honesty.
“But Ryan is panicking. Panicked people make mistakes.”
“What if his mistake destroys my company?”
“Then we rebuild.”
The simplicity of that answer made my throat tighten.
I looked at him.
“You make rebuilding sound easy.”
“It isn’t.”
“Then why say it like that?”
“Because difficult and impossible are different things.”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message.
He read it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
“Vale cybersecurity just detected an attempted login from the key.”
“Where?”
He turned the screen toward me.
JFK International Airport.
Danielle whispered, “He’s leaving.”
Nathaniel stood.
“No.”
He looked at the timestamp.
May you like
“He’s selling.”
And the buyer’s flight departed in ninety-three minutes.
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