Chapter 5 - CHLOE WASN'T RUNNING AWAY WITH MY HUSBAND
At 8:17 a.m., Chloe called me from a blocked number.
I answered before the first ring finished.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Are you with Daniel?”
“No.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
“Then explain the airport photo.”
She started crying.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
“I was pretending.”
I looked at my mother.
Everyone in the conference room was listening.
“Pretending what?”
“That I was leaving with him.”
“Why?”
“Because he finally agreed to take me to the vault.”
My pulse jumped.
“The Swiss vault?”
“Yes.”
“You knew about it?”
“I knew something was there.”
“How?”
“My mother.”
That stopped me.
“Who was your mother?”
“Gabrielle Ruiz.”
I knew the name.
A former Sterling Global legal analyst who died eight years ago.
Officially from ovarian cancer.
“Did Dad have a relationship with Gabrielle?”
“Yes.”
Chloe’s voice hardened.
“And your mother paid her to disappear.”
Evelyn flinched.
“That is not what happened.”
Chloe laughed bitterly.
“You’re listening?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Good.”
Mom leaned toward the phone.
“Gabrielle was paid because Michael wanted to protect Chloe privately.”
“You wanted to protect yourself publicly.”
My mother said nothing.
I interrupted.
“Enough history. Why did you go with Daniel?”
“Because my mother left me letters.”
“What did they say?”
“That Daniel knew where the original Meridian designation was stored.”
“And the bracelet?”
“Key.”
“Yes.”
“Why wear it in the photo?”
“Daniel wanted you to see it.”
My skin prickled.
“He deliberately showed me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So you would panic and call Evelyn.”
I looked at Mom.
Daniel had used me to force hidden information into motion.
“He knew Mom would reveal Meridian.”
Chloe said:
“He needed to confirm she still knew where the backup records were.”
“What backup?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then what happened at the airport?”
Chloe breathed shakily.
“Two men approached us.”
“Security?”
“They looked like it.”
“Were they?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Who were they?”
“One called Daniel by his old name.”
Carver.
“What did they want?”
“The bracelet.”
“And Daniel gave it to them?”
“No.”
“Then where is the key?”
Chloe went silent.
“Chloe.”
“I took it first.”
Everyone in the conference room leaned forward.
“You have it?”
“Not anymore.”
“Where is it?”
“I gave it to someone.”
“Who?”
She hesitated.
“Your father’s former assistant.”
“My father’s assistant is dead.”
“No.”
I stared at my mother.
She looked confused.
“Which assistant?”
Chloe answered:
“Thomas Reed.”
Rebecca stood so quickly her chair moved backward.
“No.”
“What?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Thomas Reed died in the same week as your father.”
I remembered.
My father’s executive assistant had supposedly suffered a fatal car accident while traveling home from the funeral.
Two deaths.
Five days apart.
Chloe continued:
“He’s alive.”
My skin went cold.
“How do you know?”
“He contacted me six months ago.”
“What did he want?”
“To stop Daniel.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel wasn’t stealing the money for himself.”
I felt the story shift again.
“Then who?”
Chloe whispered:
“He’s been sending it to someone inside Sterling Global.”
Rebecca immediately opened the forensic transfer map.
“Who?”
“I don’t know the real name.”
“Give me anything.”
Chloe hesitated.
“Account code E.S.-17.”
My mother went white.
I noticed.
“Mom?”
She said nothing.
I stepped closer.
“What is E.S.-17?”
Her lips parted.
Rebecca stared at her too.
Finally Evelyn whispered:
“It was my husband’s emergency authorization code.”
My father.
May you like
Dead for twelve years.
Sterling Global had been sending money into an account identified by the credentials of a dead man.
