Episode Four. The Deal
883 Words
Claire took me to the floor and knocked on the double doors.
Then she stepped aside. I walked in by myself.
The man behind the desk did not look up. He was reading something with one hand on the desk completely still. When he finally looked up, his eyes went straight to my face. Stayed there. He did not smile. He did not stand up.
"Sit down Ms Wren."
I sat down.
Close he was harder to figure out than I thought. Not cold, exactly. More like someone who had decided a time ago that showing what he was thinking was a waste of time.
"I am sorry about your wedding," he said. Then he said, "I will not waste your time. You already know about the document. What you do not know yet is how far this goes."
He turned a folder around. Pushed it across the desk.
It was bank records. Eighteen months of money transfers. Money was moving between accounts. I saw Davens name on the one. Elena's name was in second.
Then I saw the name.
My hand stopped moving on the page.
It was someone I had trusted longer than I had trusted Daven. Someone who had no reason to be connected to any of this.
"That cannot be right," I said.
"Two of my people checked it," Ethan said. "It is right."
I sat back. My mouth was dry. My hands were shaking.
"Why are you showing me this?" I said. "You do not know me. This is not your problem."
"Your father's company and mine have been talking for four months," he said. "If that document is filed, it does not just hurt your family. It hurts me. So yes, Ms Wren. It is much my problem."
He was not doing this out of kindness. He was doing this because Daven had made an enemy of the wrong person. I understood that. I respected it more than I would have respected kindness.
"What do you want from me?" I said?
"A deal."
I had been waiting for that word since I walked through the door.
"My company has been pushing me to look more stable in public. Someone at my side at events for three months. Nothing beyond that. In return, I will use everything I have to make sure that document never gets to court. I will protect your father's shares. I will expose Daven Cole completely."
I looked at Ethan.
"You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend."
I want you at my side at events, he said. "What other people think is their business."
Twenty-four hours ago, I was at the altar. Now I was in a billionaire's office being offered a deal that made no sense and somehow made sense at the same time.
". If I say no?"
"Then your father finds out about the document from his lawyers instead of from you."
Not a threat. Just a fact delivered in that flat voice.
I looked down at the folder. At that name. The one that had shaken me more than Daven or Elena. I needed to know how deep this went. The only person in this room with the power to find out was Ethan. Three months, I said.
"Three months," he confirmed.
He reached to the side of his desk. Placed a single sheet of paper in front of me. A contract. Already printed. Already prepared. Like he had known before I walked in what my answer would be.
I looked at it. Then at Ethan.
"You already had this ready."
I like to be prepared, he said.
I picked up the pen.
Stopped.
Three years. I had trusted Daven for three years without knowing he had a plan running at the time. Now I was about to sign something for a man I had known for fifteen minutes who also already had a plan.
I looked up at Ethan.
"Is there something you are not telling me?"
Ethan held my gaze without flinching.
"There are things I am not telling you," he said. Nothing that changes what is on that page.
I stared at him. He stared back. Neither of us moved.
I signed.
Ethan took the contract, looked at it once and set it aside. Then he looked at me.
"One thing," he said.
"What?"
The person running this is not Daven, he said. "Daven is being used. Someone else is behind all of this. Someone with access to both your world and mine. We just do not know who yet."
The pen was still in my hand.
"Why are you telling me this now? After I already signed?"
The corner of his mouth moved. Not quite a smile.
"Because now you have a reason to stay."
I walked out of Ethan's office with a contract in my name and more questions than I had walked in with.
Someone bigger was behind all of this. Someone with access to my world. Someone who had been watching enough to know exactly when and how to move.
As I stepped into the elevator and the doors closed in front of me, one face came into my mind without warning.
A face I had never once suspected.
I pushed the thought away immediately.
It came back.
It kept coming.
- Writer
