The First Lie
1739 Words
Nate took Elena's phone before she could stop him.
His face changed as he read the messages.
Not fear.
Something colder.
“Give me the phone.”
“No.”
“Nate.”
“Whoever sent this knows where you are.”
“I figured that out.”
“Security is locking down the floor.”
Elena pushed back from the desk. “That is exactly what I don't want.”
He looked at her as if she had suggested opening the windows and inviting the shooter in.
“You don't want security?”
“I don't want whoever sent those messages to know I scared easily.”
“You were nearly killed.”
“And now they think I remember nothing.”
Nate stopped.
Elena lowered her voice.
“That is the only advantage I have.”
He stared at her.
She could almost see him fighting every instinct he had.
“I don't like this.”
“You don't have to.”
“Elena.”
“If Jaden is involved, I cannot suddenly start accusing him. He has spent years around me. He knows how I think.”
“You think Jaden sent these?”
“I think his company name just surfaced in my memory, and seconds later someone warned me to stop looking.”
“That is not proof.”
“No. It is a reason to be careful.”
Nate paced once across the office.
Elena watched him.
The man she remembered hated waiting. Young Nate attacked problems head on, usually with too much confidence and not enough sleep.
This version was different.
He had learned patience.
Or maybe pain had taught it to him.
“What do you know about Valen Holdings?” she asked.
Nate stopped moving.
“It was created about three years ago.”
“By Jaden?”
“He was listed as manager when it was formed.”
“What did it do?”
“Consulting. Private investments. At least on paper.”
“On paper is doing a lot of work in that sentence.”
Nate gave her a look.
“Jaden closed it last year.”
“Before the investigation?”
“Yes.”
“How long before?”
“About four months.”
Elena felt a chill.
“So while someone was still using my credentials to move money, his company disappeared.”
“Potentially.”
“Stop protecting him.”
Nate's jaw tightened.
“I'm not.”
“You said potentially.”
“Because I am not going to accuse my brother of trying to murder my wife without evidence.”
The word wife struck both of them.
Nate looked away first.
Elena ignored the warmth that moved through her chest.
“Fine,” she said. “Then let's get evidence.”
He exhaled slowly.
“I already called Damon.”
“Who is Damon?”
“Our head of security.”
“Our?”
“Mercer's.”
“Right.”
Another piece of a life she had forgotten.
Within ten minutes, a broad shouldered man in a dark suit entered the office. He looked at Elena with the careful expression people used when they knew too much about her and weren't sure what she knew about them.
“Elena.”
“Damon.”
His eyebrows lifted.
She smiled. “Nate told me your name thirty seconds ago. Don't get excited.”
For the first time, Damon smiled.
“Still you, then.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
Nate handed him the phone.
Damon read the messages.
His smile disappeared.
“We'll trace the number.”
“It's probably disposable,” Elena said.
“Probably.”
“Can you tell where the message was sent from?”
“Maybe. It depends how careful they were.”
Elena leaned against her desk.
“What about building cameras?”
Damon looked at Nate.
“What?” Elena asked.
“There was a camera outage on this floor this morning.”
Her skin prickled.
“How convenient.”
“Seven minutes,” Damon said. “Only forty one and forty two.”
“Before I arrived?”
“Started two minutes after your elevator opened.”
Nate swore under his breath.
Elena did not.
She was too busy thinking.
“Who can shut them off?”
“Security administrators. Certain executives during emergencies. IT at the system level.”
“Jaden?”
Damon hesitated.
Nate noticed too.
“Answer her.”
“He had access until six months ago.”
Elena frowned. “Why did he lose it?”
“Your request.”
The room became still.
“My request?”
Damon nodded. “You ordered his access restricted after the internal investigation started.”
Nate looked as surprised as Elena felt.
“You never told me that,” he said.
Damon's expression stayed neutral. “Mrs. Mercer asked me not to.”
Elena stared at him.
“Why?”
“You said you were testing a theory.”
Her heartbeat quickened.
“What theory?”
“You didn't say.”
Of course she hadn't.
Apparently older Elena had trusted almost no one.
Including her husband.
A knock interrupted them.
A woman stood in the doorway.
She was maybe thirty, with dark curls pulled into a loose knot and a tablet hugged against her chest.
Her eyes filled when she saw Elena.
“Oh my God.”
Elena glanced at Nate.
He said quietly, “Mara Chen. Your executive assistant.”
Was.
Everything in this building seemed to come with an invisible past tense.
Mara took one cautious step inside.
“I heard you were here.”
Elena smiled. “I'm sorry. I don't remember you.”
“I know.”
The hurt in Mara's voice was immediate and genuine.
Elena hated this.
“I've been told we worked closely.”
“For six years.”
Mara swallowed. “You hired me when Mercer was still on the twelfth floor.”
Something flashed.
A tiny desk outside Elena's office.
A woman crying because she'd spilled coffee on her first day.
Elena saying, *If coffee is the worst thing that happens here, you'll have an amazing career.*
Then it vanished.
Elena blinked.
“Mara.”
“Yes?”
“You spilled coffee on your first day.”
Mara's hand flew to her mouth.
Nate looked at Elena.
“I remember a little.”
Mara laughed through tears. “You told me never to buy the white blouse again.”
“That also sounds like me.”
For a moment, something in the room softened.
Then Mara glanced toward Damon.
“I should go.”
Elena noticed the change.
“Why?”
“I don't want to interrupt.”
“You aren't.”
Mara looked at Elena again.
There was something she wanted to say.
Elena knew that expression even if she didn't remember the woman wearing it.
“Mara.”
“Yes?”
“Did I ask you to keep anything for me?”
Mara froze.
Nate straightened.
Damon became very still.
Elena's pulse jumped.
“That wasn't a random question,” Nate said.
“No.”
Mara's face had gone pale.
“How much do you remember?”
“Not enough.”
“Does Jaden know you're here?”
Elena's stomach tightened.
Nate stepped forward. “Why are you asking about Jaden?”
Mara looked frightened now.
Not nervous.
Frightened.
“Elena told me if anything happened to her, I was not supposed to give it to anyone in the Mercer family.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Nate's expression didn't change, but Elena saw the blow land.
“Not even Nate?” Elena asked.
Mara shook her head.
Elena looked at him.
His eyes were fixed on the floor.
Another life.
Another version of herself who had stopped trusting the man she loved.
“What did I give you?”
Mara's gaze moved to Damon.
Then Nate.
Then back to Elena.
“A flash drive.”
“Where is it?”
“Not here.”
“Good.”
Mara blinked.
Elena didn't know why she'd said it.
Instinct, maybe.
Or memory hiding somewhere deeper than thought.
“Can you bring it to me?”
Mara hesitated. “You made me promise I would only give it to you if you used a specific phrase.”
Elena stared.
“Seriously?”
“You were extremely paranoid by then.”
“I am beginning to understand why.”
“What phrase?” Nate asked.
Mara shook her head. “She has to say it.”
Elena almost laughed.
Of course she did.
She closed her eyes.
A phrase.
What would she choose?
Something no one else would know.
Something from before money and boardrooms and betrayal.
Her mind drifted toward a tiny apartment.
A burnt pan.
Nate swearing at smoke.
Jaden eating their food.
Then another memory surfaced.
A cardboard box used as a desk.
Nate typing at two in the morning.
Elena walking past him and saying, *If this company ruins my life, I'm haunting you.*
His answer.
*Only if we make it big enough to be worth haunting.*
Elena's eyes opened.
“Worth haunting.”
Mara inhaled sharply.
Nate stared at her.
“That's it,” Mara whispered.
Elena's heart began pounding.
Mara reached into her bag and removed a small brass key.
“The drive is in a bank box under my name.”
“Why not bring it?”
“Because you told me if anyone ever asked for it without those words, I was supposed to destroy it.”
Elena looked at Nate.
He was pale.
“I didn't trust anyone.”
“No,” Mara said softly. “You didn't.”
She placed the key in Elena's palm.
“But there was one more thing you told me.”
“What?”
Mara glanced toward the hallway, then lowered her voice.
“You said the money was only half of it.”
Elena's fingers closed around the key.
“What was the other half?”
“I asked you.”
Mara's eyes filled again.
“You said, ‘If I can prove why they chose me, everything changes.’”
Elena felt cold.
Not why they stole.
Why they chose her.
Someone had not merely needed a convenient set of credentials.
They had needed Elena specifically.
And somewhere inside a bank box, the woman she used to be had left herself the reason.
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