Married To My Husband’s Rival

CHAPTER 13: Ingrid

WREN POV

“You went still when Cal said that name.”

Seth looked up from his laptop.

I was standing in the doorway of his office and I was not moving until he talked.

He closed the laptop.

Yeah. That was a signal.

I walked in and sat down in the chair across from his desk. The office was quiet. Just the low hum of the city outside and the lamp on his desk throwing yellow light across everything.

“Ingrid Vael,” I said. “Talk.”

He leaned back in his chair. Looked at me for a second like he was deciding something. Then he said “She was not a girlfriend.”

“Okay. What was she?”

“It started as professional. She ran a consulting firm. I used her services during a specific period when I was building Maren Capital and needed certain information gathered quickly.”

“What kind of information?”

“The kind that lives in grey areas.”

I stared at him. “You used the same type of firm that broke into my sister’s apartment.”

“A different firm. Similar methods.” He did not look away. “It became personal for a period. That was a mistake. When it ended it did not end cleanly and she walked away with access to things she should not have had.”

“What kind of things?”

“Information about my business. Some of my early acquisition strategies. Certain connections I had built that were not public.”

“Did she use any of it?”

“Not yet,” he said. “That I know of.”

Not yet. Great.

“Is she connected to Bree?” I asked.

“I think so. They moved in the same circles a few years back. I don’t have proof that they’re working together right now but it’s possible.”

“Could Ingrid be the one who sent that message at the gala? The I see you Wren message?”

Seth was quiet for a second. “If it was her she wasn’t in that building herself. Ingrid does not do field work. She pays people for that.”

“So someone paid her. And she paid someone else.”

“Yes.”

I leaned forward. “Who paid her Seth?”

He looked at me.

“I have a short list,” he said carefully.

“Is Diane on it?”

“Yes.”

“Who else?”

Silence.

“Seth.”

“I’m not ready to say the other name yet,” he said. “I want to be sure before I put it in front of you.”

There it was again. Him deciding what I was ready to hear and when. I felt that familiar heat move up my chest. The same feeling I had in the car after the charity dinner.

But I looked at his face. Really looked.

This was not him protecting himself. I could feel the difference now. I was starting to learn his face whether I wanted to or not.

This was him protecting me from something he was not sure about yet.

I did not love it. But I understood it.

“Be sure fast,” I said.

“I will.”

I stood up. “Is there anything else about Ingrid I should know?”

“She’s smart,” he said. “Smarter than she lets people think. And she does not reach out unless she wants something.”

“Has she reached out to you recently?”

“No.”

“Okay.” I moved toward the door. Then I stopped. “Seth. The next time you have a name that matters, tell me before Cal reads it off a report in front of my sister.”

He nodded once. “Fair.”

I went back to my room.

June’s light was off down the hall. Good. She needed sleep more than she would ever admit.

I sat on my bed and picked up my phone to plug it in.

That’s when I saw it.

A voicemail. Unknown number. Came in forty minutes ago while I was in Seth’s office.

I almost ignored it.

Almost.

I pressed play and put it to my ear.

The voice was a woman’s. Calm. The kind of calm that did not come naturally. The kind you practiced.

“Wren Calloway. My name is Ingrid Vael.”

My whole body went still.

“I know this is unexpected. I know you don’t know me. But I think we should meet.” A small pause. “I have information about Seth Maren. Information about what he has done and what he is still doing that I think you deserve to know before you go any further into this arrangement.”

I was gripping the phone so hard my knuckles hurt.

“I’m not your enemy” she said. “I just think someone should be honest with you.”

Then the message ended.

I sat there.

The phone was still against my ear even though the message was done.

Ingrid Vael.

The same woman Seth just told me about. The same woman Cal found connected to the firm that walked into June’s apartment like the locks meant nothing.

She called me.

She called me directly.

My name in her mouth felt wrong. Too familiar. Like she had been saying it for a while already.

I played the message again.

I have information about Seth Maren that you deserve to know.

I sat with that sentence and turned it over.

She could be lying. She could be trying to mess with my head. She could be working for Diane or for Bree or for someone on that short list Seth would not name yet.

Or.

Or she actually knew something.

I put the phone face down on the bed.

My chest was doing that tight thing it did when too many things were happening at once and my brain could not figure out which one to be scared of first.

Seven days. It had been seven days since that gala corridor. Seven days since I said yes with my shoes in my hand and nothing left to lose.

And now there was a woman on a voicemail saying Seth had secrets I did not know yet.

The worst part?

I believed her.

Not because I didn’t trust Seth. But because I already knew he had a short list he wasn’t showing me. I already knew there were things he was holding back until he was “sure.”

What if Ingrid was sure already?

I picked the phone back up and listened to the message one more time.

I’m not your enemy.

I put it down again.

Lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

I was not going to sleep tonight. I already knew that.

The city outside was finally going quiet and my room was dark and somewhere down the hall June was sleeping and Seth was probably still at his desk and none of them knew that a woman named Ingrid Vael had just dropped a small quiet bomb right into the middle of my night.

I closed my eyes.

Opened them again.

I needed to decide what to do with that voicemail.

And I needed to decide before morning.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​