Chapter 2 - SYLVIA WAS NOT THE WOMAN VICTOR THOUGHT SHE WAS
Victor called Sylvia at 5:41.
She answered on the fourth ring.
Sleepy.
Then alert the moment she heard his voice.
“Victor?”
“Where are you?”
“My apartment.”
“Stay there.”
Silence.
Then:
“Is Nora okay?”
He nearly laughed.
“You knew she knew.”
Sylvia said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Victor’s voice became colder.
“How long?”
“Two weeks.”
He closed his eyes.
“And you said nothing.”
“What was I supposed to say?”
“The truth would’ve been interesting.”
“You weren’t telling it either.”
Fair.
He hated that.
Then:
“Why is your name on a Rinaldi Medical Logistics payment?”
Silence.
Different silence.
Fear.
“What payment?”
Victor sent her the line item.
$48,000.
Consulting fee.
Recipient:
S. MARLOWE CREATIVE.
Sylvia’s company.
She worked in luxury-brand marketing.
Not medical logistics.
“I never received that.”
“Your company did.”
“No.”
He heard movement.
Laptop opening.
Keyboard.
Then:
“Oh my God.”
Her business account showed the deposit.
And a withdrawal forty-eight hours later.
Almost the entire amount transferred to a vendor called North Harbor Clinical Supply.
Sylvia sounded panicked.
“I didn’t authorize that.”
Victor believed panic before he believed innocence.
“Who has access to your accounts?”
“My accountant.”
“Name.”
“Daniel Mercer.”
Victor went still.
Daniel Mercer.
Rinaldi Holdings finance director.
One of Victor’s most trusted legitimate executives.
A man who attended the twins’ baptism.
A man who knew Nora’s hospital schedule.
Sylvia whispered:
“Victor, I met Daniel through you.”
He knew.
That was the part he disliked.
Victor asked:
“Did Daniel introduce us?”
“No.”
“Think.”
They had met at a charity gala.
Sylvia approached Victor first.
But why was she there?
Her firm had been hired to manage branding.
Who approved the contract?
Daniel.
Victor stared at the screen.
Maybe coincidence.
Maybe not.
Then Sylvia said:
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Daniel asked me about Nora.”
Victor’s body went still.
“When?”
“Before we…”
She stopped.
“Before we started sleeping together?”
“Yes.”
The words sounded uglier spoken aloud.
“What did he ask?”
Whether Victor’s marriage was happy.
Whether Nora attended business dinners.
Whether the premature birth had changed their relationship.
Victor felt something poisonous settle in his stomach.
“Why?”
“I thought he was gossiping.”
“You thought my finance director was gossiping about my wife with a marketing consultant?”
“When you say it like that—”
“That’s because I’m saying it accurately.”
Then Sylvia said:
“He told me you felt trapped.”
Victor stopped breathing.
He had never told Daniel that.
Not directly.
But one night after Leo and Mia came home, Victor had snapped at Nora in the kitchen.
Said he could not breathe inside his own house.
Daniel had been in the dining room afterward for a meeting.
He may have heard.
Or someone repeated it.
Either way, Daniel had taken Victor’s weakness and placed Sylvia near it.
That did not excuse Victor.
He knew that immediately.
No one made him cheat.
But someone may have noticed he was willing to.
Then Victor received a security alert.
Someone had accessed the penthouse garage twenty minutes earlier.
Used Nora’s old household credential.
The credential she had left behind.
Meaning Nora was not using it.
Someone else was.
Victor opened the garage feed.
A hooded figure entered.
Walked directly toward Nora’s SUV.
Then stopped.
Not searching for her.
Searching the vehicle.
Victor called security.
“Do not confront.”
His men went silent.
That was not his usual order.
“Track. Preserve video. Police if needed.”
Another silence.
Then:
“Yes, boss.”
The figure opened the rear cargo panel.
Removed a small black case.
Victor’s heart dropped.
He recognized it.
The twins’ portable oxygen-monitor backup kit.
But Nora had taken the active equipment.
Why would someone steal the spare case?
Then the figure opened it.
Inside was no medical device.
There was a second USB drive.
May you like
Nora had planted a decoy.
And someone inside Victor’s organization had just proven they were looking for the same evidence she found.
