THE MAN I WAS PAID TO FORGET

PROLOGUE

Emma's Last Night

Three months before Lily Morgan ever walked into Ethan Carter's office, Emma Carter stood alone in the dark hallway of the Carter mansion, watching rain slide down the windows.

Something about the night felt wrong.

She had spent the past week trying to convince herself that she was imagining things. The strange cars outside. The footsteps she sometimes heard after midnight. The feeling that someone was watching her whenever she left the house.

Tonight, she could no longer ignore it.

Her phone lit up in her hand.

"You should have stopped digging."

Emma's fingers tightened around the phone.

For a moment, she simply stared at the message.

Then she locked the screen and walked into her bedroom.

She opened the drawer beside her bed and pulled out a small envelope. Inside was a photograph, a folded letter and a name written carefully across the front.

Lily Morgan.

Emma looked at the name for several seconds.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

She had never met Lily.

But she knew Lily was the only person who could eventually uncover what Emma had spent months trying to hide.

Emma touched the silver necklace around her neck.

The necklace wasn't hers.

She had kept it because it was the only thing that could lead Lily to the truth.

Her phone vibrated again.

Another message.

"Stop digging."

Emma's breath caught.

Someone knew about the necklace.

She quickly removed it and held it tightly in her palm. For months, she had searched through Carter Holdings' records, followed payments, questioned people she should never have trusted.

Now she understood the danger.

The truth was much closer to Ethan than she had ever imagined.

A sound came from downstairs.

Emma froze.

Footsteps.

Slow.

Measured.

Getting closer.

She grabbed the envelope and stepped toward the bedroom door, but stopped when she noticed something through the glass balcony doors.

A shadow had appeared outside.

Emma's heart slammed against her ribs.

She took a step back.

The door handle moved.

Once.

Twice.

Someone was trying to get inside.

Emma clutched the necklace against her chest and looked toward the locked door.

For the first time, she understood that she had made one mistake.

She had trusted the wrong person.

And before the night was over, Emma Carter would be dead.