MY HUSBAND LOVE ME TOO LATE

CHAPTER EIGHT TITLE: Who Was It?

Emma's POV

The mansion gates were already open when we pulled up. That never happened. Henry didn't even slow down enough for the guard to wave us through he just drove straight in, tires kicking up gravel, and stopped hard in front of the house.

Lucas was already outside.

He was still in yesterday's shirt, sleeves pushed up, hair a mess. The moment he saw me climb out of Henry's car, something in his face shifted relief, maybe, or something close to it. Then his eyes moved to Henry, and the relief disappeared.

"Where were you?" His voice was tight. "I've been calling for twenty minutes."

"Where's Lily?" I asked, already moving past him toward the door. "Is she here? Is she okay?"

"She's fine. She's inside with Grandma Margaret." He caught my arm before I could push past him, gentle but firm. "Emma, listen to me. She's fine."

I stopped, my whole body sagging with something between relief and panic. "Then what happened? The school called. They said someone tried to" My voice cracked. "They said someone tried to something, and then the call just died."

Lucas's jaw tightened. "Someone tried to pick her up."

The words didn't land right away. "What?"

"A man showed up at the school gate before drop-off even started," he said. "Told the front desk he was there to collect Lily for a dentist appointment. Said I'd sent him." His hands curled into fists at his sides. "I never sent anyone, Emma. I was here all morning."

The ground tilted under me. "Did they let him near her?"

"No. The new security protocol caught it anyone picking up a student has to match a photo on file. He didn't match anything. He left before anyone could stop him." Lucas's eyes flicked to Henry, sharp and questioning. "Which is the only reason we're having this conversation instead of a very different one."

Henry stepped forward. "Do they have him on camera?"

"They're pulling the footage now." Lucas finally let go of my arm. "I want to see it before the police do."

"The police?" I said. "You called the police?"

"Of course I called the police." He looked at me like the question didn't make sense, and for one strange second, I almost forgot everything I'd found that morning the folder still pressed against my ribs under my coat, the letter with Victor's initials, the words advise Emma only what is necessary. For one second he almost looked like a husband who was scared for his daughter and nothing else.

Then his eyes dropped to my coat. To the shape of something square and stiff underneath it.

"What is that?" he asked.

My stomach dropped. "Nothing."

"Emma." His voice went quiet in a way that scared me more than shouting would have. "What's in your coat?"

Henry stepped between us before I could answer. "Lucas, we don't have time for this right now. Someone just tried to take your daughter. Maybe we deal with one crisis at a time."

Lucas didn't move his eyes off me. "Henry drove you somewhere at six in the morning. You're standing here with something hidden under your coat. And you want me to believe none of that is connected to a stranger showing up at my daughter's school?"

I felt my pulse pounding in my throat. He wasn't wrong. That was the terrifying part he wasn't wrong at all.

"I found something in your office," I said finally. There was no point lying anymore, not with his eyes on me like that. "This morning. After you left."

Something flickered across his face. Not surprise. Something closer to dread.

"Emma"

"Share transfer papers," I said, my voice shaking now, all the fear and fury from the last hour finally breaking loose. "My grandfather's signature. A letter with your father's initials on it, telling him to keep me in the dark. You want to talk about what's connected, Lucas? Start there."

For a long moment, nobody said anything. Somewhere behind us, a car door opened, and I turned to see two police officers stepping out, walking toward the house like this was any ordinary morning.

Lucas's face had gone pale. Not angry. Pale, like something he'd been avoiding for a long time had finally caught up to him.

"You went through my desk," he said quietly.

"I went through a drawer that had my life inside it," I snapped back. "A drawer your father used to plan how much of the truth I was allowed to have."

"Emma, you don't understand what you're"

"Then make me understand!" My voice cracked on the last word, loud enough that one of the approaching officers glanced our way. I lowered it, but I didn't back down. "Because right now, someone tried to walk off with our daughter, and I'm holding proof that your father used my grandfather to steal a company, and you're standing there acting like I'm the one who did something wrong."

Lucas opened his mouth. Whatever he was about to say, he never got the chance.

"Mr. Ashford." One of the officers had reached us, notepad already out. "We need a few minutes of your time. And we're going to need to speak with your wife as well."

"Now's not a good time," Lucas said automatically.

"Sir, given what happened at the school this morning, I'm afraid it has to be now."

Lucas looked at me one more time, something unreadable behind his eyes, and for a second I almost thought he was going to reach for my hand the way he used to, back when I still believed small moments like that meant something.

He didn't.

He turned to follow the officer instead, and Henry caught my elbow, pulling me gently toward the house.

"Let me see the footage with you," I said to him quietly, once Lucas was out of earshot. "Before the police do."

Henry hesitated, glancing toward the security office off the main hall. "Emma, if it's who I think it might be"

"Then I need to see it more than anyone."

He didn't argue. We slipped away from the officers and cut through the side hallway, past the kitchen, past the study where I'd found the folder only hours ago, until we reached the small security room tucked behind the staff quarters. A guard sat at the monitors, and Henry leaned over his shoulder without asking.

"Pull up this morning. School gate footage, right before drop-off."

The guard typed fast. A grainy black-and-white feed filled the screen the front gate of Lily's school, a line of cars, a man in a gray coat walking up to the front desk window.

My heart climbed into my throat as the footage kept rolling. The man turned slightly, giving the camera a clear angle on his face for just a second before he walked away.

I leaned in closer. Henry went completely still beside me.

I knew that face.

Not well. Not by name. But I'd seen it before, more than once, standing a few steps behind Victor Ashford at company events, at family dinners, always quiet, always in the background, the kind of person you never really look at twice.

"Henry." My voice came out barely above a whisper. "That's Victor's driver."

Henry didn't say anything for a moment, his eyes fixed on the frozen frame. Then I remembered.

"Henry, listen to me. You were about to tell me a name back at the café. Before my phone rang. Is this it? Is this who you meant?"

Henry didn't answer right away. He rubbed a hand over his face, and for the first time all morning, he looked exhausted rather than scared.

"I didn't know it would be him specifically," he said. "But I knew it would be someone close to Victor. The emails I found they weren't just between your grandfather and Victor. There was a third person copied on almost every message. No name, just an email address. I couldn't trace it last night. I was going to tell you that, before everything else happened."

"Can you trace it now?"

"Give me an hour." He was already pulling out his phone, thumbs moving fast. "If that driver really did try to take Lily, the police are going to want him found just as badly as we do. Maybe faster."

The guard at the monitors cleared his throat, glancing between us like he wasn't sure whether to keep watching or look away. "Should I flag this for the officers outside?"

"Yes," Henry said. "Now. Before anyone has a chance to warn him."

The guard reached for his radio, and I felt something cold settle low in my stomach. If Victor's own driver had come for Lily, that meant Victor already knew I was getting close. Which meant somehow, someone had told him about the shares, about the folder, about all of it before I'd even had time to leave his son's office.

"Henry." My voice came out unsteady. "How would Victor know I found the folder? I only opened that drawer a few hours ago."

Henry's hands stilled on his phone. He looked at me, and something passed behind his eyes that I didn't like at all.

"I don't know," he said slowly. "But there's only two people who knew you were in

that office this morning."

My mouth went dry. "Me. And Lucas.”