Chapter 9
Lauren screamed.
A chair fell.
Someone grabbed my arm.
I jerked away.
“It’s me,” Lauren whispered.
Emergency lights flickered on near the floor.
David immediately moved toward the conference room door.
“Stay here.”
“No,” I said.
He stopped.
“We stay together.”
Richard pulled out his phone.
“No service.”
Maya checked hers.
“Same.”
David opened the door.
The hallway was dark.
His assistant stood near reception holding a flashlight.
“The entire floor is out.”
“Building outage?”
“I don’t know.”
Then the emergency lights came on fully.
A building alarm started beeping.
Not a fire alarm.
Something electronic.
The assistant checked the security panel.
“Network failure.”
Maya looked at David.
“Could be coincidence.”
Nobody believed that.
I looked at the windows.
Chicago spread below us in lights.
The surrounding buildings still had power.
Only ours was dark.
Then Madison whispered, “Daniel.”
David turned.
“Do not assume.”
“He knows we’re here.”
“He also knows threatening people makes him look guilty.”
“That hasn’t stopped him yet.”
Richard walked toward the window.
“I’m calling building security from the landline.”
He tried.
Dead.
Then someone knocked on the office door.
Three hard knocks.
Everyone froze.
Another three.
David motioned for us to stay back.
He moved toward the reception area.
“Who is it?”
A man’s voice answered.
“Building security.”
David opened the door halfway.
A uniformed guard stood outside.
“We had an electrical panel failure on this floor.”
“Just this floor?”
“Looks like it.”
“Cause?”
“Still checking.”
“Did anyone access the utility area?”
The guard hesitated.
“We’re reviewing cameras.”
“Why?”
“There was a man on twenty-three about ten minutes before the outage.”
My pulse jumped.
“What man?” Richard asked.
“Didn’t belong to the building.”
“Description?”
The guard looked at us.
“Late thirties. Dark coat. About six feet.”
Daniel.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
“Where is he now?”
“We don’t know.”
Madison stepped backward.
“This is him.”
David locked the office door.
“We’re leaving.”
He had us take the stairs instead of the elevator.
Twenty-four floors.
By the time we reached the garage, my legs were shaking.
Not from exhaustion.
From adrenaline.
We walked together toward Lauren’s car.
Then Madison stopped.
“My car.”
“What?”
“It’s over there.”
Her windshield was shattered.
Nothing else.
Just the driver’s-side windshield.
A spiderweb of broken glass.
Under the wiper was a folded piece of paper.
David stopped her before she touched it.
“Don’t.”
He photographed it.
Then used a tissue to lift it.
Two words had been printed in black marker.
LAST WARNING.
Madison started crying.
“This is Daniel.”
Richard looked furious.
“My son would not—”
I turned on him so quickly he stopped.
“You don’t know what your son would do.”
He said nothing.
Police arrived twenty minutes later.
The same female officer from earlier came.
Her expression changed when she saw the note.
She asked Madison whether she wanted to file a report.
“Yes.”
This time Madison didn’t hesitate.
The building security team eventually found camera footage.
A man had entered using a temporary visitor code.
Baseball cap.
Dark coat.
Face partially hidden.
Not enough to identify him.
But he had used a visitor code assigned to Carter Strategic Consulting.
Daniel’s company.
By evening, things were no longer private.
One of Daniel’s investors called Richard.
Then another.
Rumors were spreading.
Accounts had been frozen.
A board meeting had been requested.
And someone had leaked that the company’s CFO might be involved in financial misconduct.
The CFO.
Me.
The title Daniel had secretly assigned to me.
By 8 p.m., my name was attached to something I had never done.
A local business reporter emailed asking for comment.
Emily Carter, listed corporate officer of Carter Strategic Consulting.
I stared at the message.
“He’s setting me up.”
David nodded.
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“We need evidence before we say that publicly.”
“What do we do?”
“We move faster.”
The next morning, we met with federal investigators.
I never imagined I would spend a Thursday birthday dinner discovering an affair and less than forty-eight hours later sit in a government office explaining that my husband had invented a professional identity for me.
They asked simple questions.
Did I work for Carter Strategic Consulting?
No.
Did I authorize bank transfers?
No.
Did I know I owned shell companies?
No.
Did I sign trust amendments?
No.
Did I receive any of the transferred funds?
Not knowingly.
Then one investigator, Agent Harris, placed a document on the table.
“Mrs. Carter, we found a payment made directly to you.”
I stared at it.
$48,000.
Transferred into my personal account eleven months earlier.
“I don’t remember this.”
“Check the date.”
I did.
November 17.
Then I remembered.
Daniel had told me one of my grandmother’s investment accounts had issued a distribution.
He said it was an estate adjustment.
I had used part of it to pay property taxes.
“I thought it was from my trust.”
Harris nodded.
“Who told you that?”
“Daniel.”
“Do you have the message?”
I searched my phone.
There it was.
Daniel:
Grandma’s estate finally released that adjustment. Should hit checking today.
I handed over the phone.
Harris photographed the conversation.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“It supports your explanation.”
I exhaled.
Then another investigator entered.
He whispered something to Harris.
Harris looked at me.
“Do you know where your husband is?”
“No.”
“He hasn’t been home?”
“I’m not staying there.”
“Has he contacted you today?”
I checked.
Nothing since the threat.
“No.”
Harris looked at David.
“We attempted to contact him this morning.”
“And?”
“His attorney says he’s unavailable.”
My stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Harris didn’t answer directly.
“We’re trying to determine his location.”
After the meeting, Richard was waiting outside.
He looked terrified.
“What happened?”
“They’re looking for Daniel.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“I knew this would happen.”
I stared at him.
“No, you didn’t.”
He looked at me.
“If you knew, you would have stopped protecting him years ago.”
His face crumpled.
For the first time, he looked like a father who understood that rescuing his son had helped destroy him.
“My whole life,” Richard whispered, “I thought giving him another chance was love.”
I didn’t answer.
He looked at me.
“I was wrong.”
My phone rang.
Patricia.
Everyone looked at the screen.
I answered.
“Where are you?”
She was crying.
“Emily, I need your help.”
I almost laughed.
“You need my help?”
“Daniel left me.”
“Where are you?”
“Milwaukee.”
Richard stepped closer.
“Put her on speaker.”
I did.
Patricia continued.
“He said we were leaving together.”
“Leaving for where?”
“Canada.”
Richard’s face went white.
“He said we needed time until the lawyers fixed everything.”
David asked, “Where is Daniel now?”
Patricia heard his voice.
“Who is that?”
“My attorney.”
She started panicking.
“No. No lawyers.”
“Then I’m hanging up.”
“Wait!”
I stopped.
“Tell me where Daniel is.”
“He took the money.”
“What money?”
“The three million.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“You had it?”
Patricia went silent.
He stepped closer to the phone.
“You stole three million dollars from us?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
I almost laughed.
Like mother, like son.
Nothing was ever like that.
“I was protecting it.”
“From whom?”
“Everyone.”
Richard looked sick.
“Where is Daniel?”
“He said he needed the money to get us out.”
“And you gave it to him?”
“I transferred most of it.”
“How much?”
“Two point four.”
Richard stumbled backward.
David asked again.
“Where is Daniel now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did you last see him?”
“At a hotel near the airport.”
“Which airport?”
“Milwaukee.”
David wrote down the hotel name.
Then Patricia said something that made me stop.
“He knows about Samuel.”
My heart jumped.
“What?”
“He knows Samuel recorded the call.”
“How?”
“I told him.”
Richard shouted, “Why would you do that?”
Patricia started crying harder.
“He said Samuel was lying!”
I grabbed the phone.
“When did you tell him?”
“This morning.”
“And what did he say?”
“He said he was going to fix it.”
My skin went cold.
“Did he say how?”
“No.”
I hung up and immediately called Samuel.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
David called.
Nothing.
Lauren whispered, “Emily.”
I was already searching Samuel’s office number.
A receptionist answered.
“Price Legal Group.”
“I need Samuel Price.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Price hasn’t arrived yet.”
“What time does he normally arrive?”
“Eight thirty.”
I looked at the clock.
10:12.
“Have you heard from him?”
“No.”
David took the phone.
“This is attorney David Rosen. I need you to call building security and check Mr. Price’s office immediately.”
The receptionist sounded nervous.
“Is something wrong?”
“Please do it now.”
She put us on hold.
Thirty seconds.
A minute.
Then she returned.
“His office is empty.”
“Is his car there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
We waited.
Then my phone buzzed.
A new message.
From Samuel.
One sentence.
Daniel is here.
I stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived.
Do not call me.
And then a third.
I’m sending you the recording now.
May you like
An audio file appeared.
Three seconds later, Samuel’s phone went offline.
