Chapter 2 - The Name She Was Never Supposed to Know
Ethan read the message again in his mind as Maya slipped her phone into her coat pocket.
“Do you know someone named Mercer?” she asked suddenly.
The question struck like a bullet.
“Why?”
“Because the person who sent that message seems to think you do.”
Ethan could have lied. It would have been easy. One sentence, one reassuring smile, and he might have kept the morning exactly as it was.
Instead, he looked at her and said, “There are things about my work I haven't told you.”
Maya's face changed.
“Is that because they're private, or because you think I wouldn't want to know?”
Before he could answer, a black SUV pulled up at the curb. His executive assistant, Daniel Price, stepped out, pale and visibly shaken.
“Mr. Mercer, we have a problem.”
Maya stared at Ethan.
“Mr. Mercer?”
Daniel seemed to realize his mistake too late. “I'm sorry. I didn't know you were—”
“Daniel,” Ethan interrupted, his voice dangerously calm. “Not here.”
But the damage was done.
Maya took one step backward. “You told me your name was Ethan.”
“It is.”
“That's not what I asked.”
He reached for an explanation, but his phone rang. The caller ID displayed the name of his company's chief legal officer.
Ethan declined the call.
Maya noticed.
“You're used to deciding which truths people are allowed to hear, aren't you?”
“No,” he said. “I'm used to people wanting something from me before they know me.”
“And you decided I was safer if I knew nothing.”
He had no answer that could make that sound better.
Maya took Lily's hand and started walking away. Lily turned back, holding the little paper cup Ethan had bought her.
“Are you coming to see us again?”
Ethan looked at Maya, who didn't turn around.
“I hope so, sweetheart.”
That evening, Daniel arrived at Ethan's penthouse carrying a folder marked CONFIDENTIAL. Inside was an old photograph of a woman standing beside a younger Ethan at the opening of Mercer Dynamics.
Someone had circled the woman's face in red.
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Beneath it, a handwritten note read:
SHE DIDN'T LEAVE THE COMPANY. SHE WAS FORCED OUT. AND MAYA COLLINS'S FATHER KNEW WHY.
