Chapter 7
1247 Words
Charlotte stared at the caption for a long moment before she opened Julian's number and pressed call.
He answered on the second ring.
"Charlotte." His voice came through immediately. "I received the gift. You really shouldn't have done that. Olivia loves the watch—"
"You're mistaken." Charlotte rested her elbow on her knee and looked at the photograph again. "I ordered that watch weeks ago. It was a wedding gift."
Silence met her for a beat.
"I know how much you wanted it." Her thumb pressed against the edge of the phone. "I also know pulling that amount of money from Mercer Group would have been difficult for you."
"Charlotte—"
"Send it to my office tomorrow morning." She lowered her eyes to the watch on Olivia's wrist. "And tell Olivia not to scratch it. I may ask for a refund."
Before Julian could say anything, Charlotte ended the call.
Then she called Sloane immediately.
"Did you see that post?" Her words arrived fast. "Because she has completely lost her—"
"Don't waste your energy on her." Charlotte sat back against the headboard and tucked one leg beneath her. "She isn't worth it."
"Charlotte, she literally—"
"I know what she did." Charlotte looked at the photograph again. "Leave it."
For a moment Sloane said nothing.
When she spoke again, her voice had changed.
"You already did something, didn't you?" Her words came slower this time.
Charlotte looked toward the bedroom door.
"Good night, Sloane."
She ended the call after.
For a few seconds she didn't move, her phone still in her hand.
From the kitchen came the sound of a cupboard door closing, followed by the scrape of a pan across the stove.
Charlotte stood in the doorway. "What can I help with?"
He didn't turn around. "Set the table."
He served two plates and excused himself to the bedroom. She heard the shower. He came out ten minutes later in a shirt and shorts, sat across from her, and picked up his fork.
She took the first bite.
It was good. Actually good,
When the plates were mostly empty he asked, "How was work? Did the board say anything?"
"Nothing new. They want proof the marriage is real." She set her fork down. "They'll be watching."
"Okay."
He was about to stand when she said, "My mother mentioned a property on Riverside. Empty since my uncle left for London. She suggested we move there."
Ethan stacked the plates without rushing. "I'll find us an apartment. One you'll like. I'll look at some options and get back to you."
She looked at him. "You don't have to—" Her fingers tightened around the edge of the table.
"I'll handle it."
"Okay." Charlotte lowered her eyes to the tablecloth and folded one corner between her fingers.
He took the plates to the sink.
"I can take the couch," she said. "I'm smaller. It makes more sense."
He turned from the sink.
The almost-smile. "Where I come from, women are treated with respect."
Charlotte felt something move in her face that she did not authorize. She turned and went to the bedroom before it could develop into anything further.
~~~
The next morning followed the same shape as the one before it.
He was in the kitchen when she came out.
The lunch box sat on the counter beside her travel mug.
"Good morning." Charlotte reached for the lunch box.
"Morning." Ethan looked up from the coffee maker.
She took it without comment.
They went down together. His truck at the curb. He opened the passenger door.
She was about to get in when he said, "Wait."
She stopped.
He got down from the car and went over to open the door.
Charlotte saw a printed invitation from the dash. A printed invitation, it says, “End of Month Gathering — Partners Welcome. Friday, 6PM.”
She looked at it. She took the card, Ethan opened the door for her and she got down.
He closed the door. "Have a good day," he said.
Anna was waiting on the steps.
~~~
The watch was on her desk when she arrived.
A courier box, Bennett Holdings address, no note. She lifted it out of the packaging and held it for a moment. Two point four million dollars. Four months of sourcing.
Julian's name on the order, her card on the payment, her handwriting on the gift card that she had written three weeks ago in the study of a life she was no longer living.
She looked at it.
Then she looked at Anna, who stood in the doorway with Charlotte's morning schedule tucked against her chest.
"Take it," Charlotte said.
Anna stared. "Ma—"
"It's a gift."
"Ma'am, this is—"
"Anna."
"This is a Patek Philippe."
"I know what it is."
Anna stood very still for another second, then took it with both hands the way you take something you don't fully believe is being handed to you. "Thank you," she said quietly. "I don't — thank you."
Charlotte had already turned back to her screen.
~~~
By midday the emails had been answered, the Qihang reports reviewed, the eleven o'clock call with the Tokyo contact confirmed for next week. She pushed her chair back and looked at the window for a while.
Then she opened a new folder on her desktop.
In her first life she had found the offshore transfers after everything else was already gone — her parents, Julian's consolidation, Eleanor and Olivia had dead, nothing left to trace and no one left to question. She had seen the shape of it and had no way to pull the thread.
This time the thread was still attached.
She picked up her phone and typed a message to Sloane.
“I need someone. Finance background. Discreet. Not connected to Dad's circle. Can you ask around?”
Sloane's reply arrived in forty seconds.
“I might know someone. Give me a day.”
Charlotte closed the message and went back to work.
~~~
A message came in from Ethan, he found a house and would love them to check together.
By five o'clock the building had thinned out. She packed her bag, took her jacket from the hook, and went to the elevator.
The lobby was quiet. Through the glass she could see Ethan's truck at the curb.
He was leaning against the passenger side, with her bag already taken from her hand before she'd processed that he'd moved.
They walked to the truck. The lobby doors opened behind them and she heard heels on marble and then Olivia's voice, carrying the way voices did in open lobbies when they wanted to be heard.
"Charlotte, leaving already? It's only just five."
Charlotte turned her hand firmly on Ethan.
Olivia stood just inside the glass doors with her bag over one arm and the expression of someone performing a chance encounter they had timed precisely.
Her eyes went to Ethan briefly, then back. Then they went to Anna, who had come out just behind Charlotte with her own bag and her coat and the Patek Philippe on her wrist, catching the last of the evening light.
Olivia's gaze stopped.
Charlotte watched it stop.
She said nothing. She turned and she left together with Ethan to the truck.
Ethan closed her door and walked around to the driver's side, and Charlotte looked straight ahead through the windshield, and Charlotte was smiling.
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