Chapter 3
1174 Words
The stairwell smelled of wet concrete and old paint. Maren kept her back to the wall, one hand braced against the rail, the other pressed low over the waistband of jeans that already felt too tight. She had taken the test twice in the last hour. Both strips lay in the bottom of her purse, the second one still damp.
She had not expected the third confirmation to come from Cordelia's own mouth.
The recording played on a loop inside her head. Cordelia's clipped voice, the soft click of a lighter, the words "the photos are enough, he'll believe anything once he sees her with Bellamy." Maren had found the file on the private drive Lennox never used, tucked inside a folder labeled quarterly projections. She had not meant to look. The phone had been left charging on the kitchen island after the gala, and the drive had still been logged in.
A door opened two flights below. Footsteps echoed, measured, not rushed. Maren froze. The steps climbed. She counted them. When they reached the landing beneath her, a man's voice spoke into a phone.
"She's not in the penthouse. The doorman says she left through the service exit twenty minutes ago. No, he didn't see which car."
Maren recognized the voice. It belonged to one of the private security men Cordelia had brought in six months earlier, the ones Lennox never questioned. The man listened, then said, "Understood. If she surfaces, we bring her in before morning. The accounts are already frozen."
The line went dead. He continued up. Maren turned and climbed, staying light on the balls of her feet. At the next landing she slipped through the fire door into a narrow service corridor that smelled of bleach. A row of locked utility closets ran along one wall. The third one had a keypad. She had watched the maintenance staff enter the code once when they thought no one was looking. She punched the numbers now. The lock clicked.
Inside, the closet held a single metal chair, a bucket, and a wall panel that opened onto the building's old dumbwaiter shaft. She had discovered the shaft during a tour Lennox had given her when they first moved in. He had called it a relic. She had memorized the route.
She dropped her purse on the chair, pulled out the two test strips, and stared at them again. The second line on each was unmistakable. She wrapped both in a paper towel and pushed them deep into the lining of her coat. Then she opened the panel.
The shaft was narrow, lined with decades of dust and old grease. A metal cable ran down the center. She had no harness, only the thin leather belt she wore. She looped it around the cable twice, tested the weight, and lowered herself. The descent took less than a minute. At the bottom she landed in the sub-basement near the loading dock. A single security camera pointed at the freight elevator. She kept to the blind spot along the wall until she reached the side door that opened onto the alley.
The alley was empty except for two dumpsters and a black town car idling at the far end. The driver's window was down. She recognized the profile of another of Cordelia's men. He was watching the service entrance, not the alley exit. Maren moved along the wall until she reached the street, then stepped into the flow of late-night traffic.
Her phone was already dead. She had removed the SIM card on the stairwell and crushed it under her heel. The only thing left in her coat was the platinum band Lennox had given her on their wedding day. She had taken it off after the papers were served, but she had not left it behind. She did not examine why.
Three blocks away she found a twenty-four-hour pharmacy. The woman behind the counter did not look up when Maren bought a burner phone and two prepaid cards. She activated the phone on the sidewalk outside, then walked another four blocks to a diner that still had its lights on. She ordered coffee she did not drink and used the phone to access the single encrypted folder she had saved to a cloud account Cordelia did not know existed.
The folder contained the doctored photographs, the audio file, and a list of the shell companies Cordelia had used to move money out of Calloway Holdings over the past eighteen months. Maren studied the list until the numbers blurred. Then she closed the file and opened a new message window.
She typed one line: I have the originals. Do not follow me.
She sent it to the only number she still trusted besides Lennox's. Soren Bellamy answered within thirty seconds.
Where are you.
Maren typed back: Not yet. I need time.
His next message came faster. Lennox is looking. Cordelia is moving faster. There's a car outside your building already.
Maren looked up. Through the diner window she saw a black SUV double-parked across the street. The driver was the same man from the alley. He was on his phone again. She slid lower in the booth.
Another message from Soren: I can get you out tonight. But you have to decide now.
She stared at the screen. The twins were five weeks along, maybe six. She had no money, no passport, no name that Cordelia could not trace. The only thing she still possessed was the evidence in the folder and the knowledge that Lennox had believed the lie without asking her once.
She typed: Send the car. North entrance. Ten minutes.
She paid for the coffee she had not touched and left through the kitchen. The cook did not stop her. She crossed the street behind a delivery truck and reached the north side of the block just as a gray sedan pulled to the curb. The driver did not look at her. She opened the rear door and got in.
The sedan merged into traffic without signaling. Maren watched the city slide past the tinted windows. At a red light she opened the glove box. Inside was a manila envelope with her name on it. She opened the envelope. It contained a new passport, a driver’s license, and a single sheet of paper with an address in another state. The name on both documents was Maren Lowell.
She had never used her maiden name with Lennox. He had wanted her to keep Calloway. The documents were recent. Soren had prepared them before tonight.
The light changed. The sedan accelerated. Maren closed the envelope and placed it inside her coat, next to the platinum band. She did not ask the driver where they were going. She already knew the answer would not matter until she decided what to do with the two lives growing inside her and the proof that could destroy the woman who had taken everything else.
Behind them, the black SUV pulled away from the diner and began to follow.
- Writer
