Chapter Thirteen: Grant
332 Words
Grant Halden turned out to be easy to find and harder to read — a smooth, unhurried man in his forties who kept an office on the top floor that seemed designed to remind visitors exactly how far they still had to climb.
Mara requested the meeting under the pretense of a scheduling question and watched him carefully the entire fifteen minutes, the way the texter had taught her to watch faces for the truth beneath the words.
"Elise Vance," he said, when she finally asked, unbothered, almost amused. "A very thorough young woman. Ambitious, too — I always admired that about her, even when it worked against my interests." He steepled his fingers. "You want to know if I had something to do with her disappearance."
"Did you?"
"I had every reason to want her silenced. I'll admit that much, since I suspect you already know it. But I didn't need to make her disappear, Miss Ellison. I only needed the board to doubt her credibility, and grieving, unstable young women who vanish under mysterious circumstances tend to accomplish that all on their own, without any help from me." His smile didn't reach his eyes. "Whatever she found, whatever story she was building — I imagine she's found a far more effective way to destroy Julian Cole's reputation by disappearing than she ever would have by staying and fighting me directly."
"You think this is about Julian. Not you."
"I think," Grant said, standing to signal the meeting's end, "that Elise Vance was always playing a longer game than anyone gave her credit for. And I think you should be very careful about which version of that game you've agreed to be a piece in."
That night, the text arrived earlier than ever, as though Elise had been sitting somewhere nearby, watching the whole meeting unfold.
Grant's not wrong about one thing.
This was never really about the money.
It was always about Julian. And you're about to find out why.
- Writer
