Chapter 5 - The Secret Tessa Buried Seven Years Ago
Tessa Morgan had lied to Rafe Calder for seven years.
Not about everything.
Only about the one thing that could make him stop trusting her.
Her mother hadn't died in a random car accident.
Evelyn Morgan had been investigating missing freight payments shortly before the crash.
And Tessa had found her mother's private records three months afterward.
She'd hidden them.
At nineteen, she'd been terrified.
At twenty-six, she was still terrified.
Now she stood in Rafe's office, staring at the newspaper article on his desk.
“Where did you get that?”
“Sloane found it.”
Tessa looked up sharply.
“Your wife?”
Rafe's expression remained unreadable.
“Yes.”
“She shouldn't be investigating this.”
“Why?”
“Because she doesn't understand what she's walking into.”
Rafe leaned forward.
“Then explain it.”
Tessa stared at him.
Finally, she sat.
“My mother worked in Calder Maritime's accounting department. She discovered someone was creating fake shipping invoices.”
“Who?”
“She never told me.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That she'd made a mistake trusting someone powerful.”
Rafe's jaw tightened.
“Why didn't you come to me?”
“Because I didn't know whether your father was involved.”
The words landed heavily.
Rafe's father had built the Calder shipping business through ruthless negotiations and alliances nobody discussed openly.
He had died five years earlier.
Rafe had inherited both the company and the enemies.
Tessa wiped her eyes.
“My mother left a box of records in a storage locker. I kept them hidden.”
“Where?”
“In Queens.”
Rafe stood.
“Take me there.”
Tessa shook her head.
“No.”
“Tessa.”
“Somebody has already been inside.”
A silence followed.
“When?” Rafe asked.
“Last month.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“I thought I could handle it.”
Rafe let out a bitter breath.
The words sounded horribly familiar.
He had used the same excuse with Sloane.
He'd convinced himself that secrecy was protection.
Now he was seeing what it actually cost.
“Tessa, no more half-truths.”
She stared at him.
“Are you going to abandon me?”
His expression softened.
“No.”
Relief crossed her face.
Then he continued.
“But I can't keep treating every problem in your life as more important than my wife.”
Tessa lowered her eyes.
For once, she didn't argue.
That evening, Rafe received a secure email from Sloane.
No greeting.
No emotional appeal.
Just six pages of financial analysis.
She had traced Northbridge Holdings through a series of shell companies.
At the bottom, she'd written:
The person controlling these accounts is moving money through your legitimate business to finance something happening next Friday.
Rafe read the attachment.
A scheduled freight transfer.
Warehouse Twelve.
Eleven forty-five p.m.
The amount was staggering.
Forty-eight million dollars.
But the final page contained something even more disturbing.
The destination was listed as a private medical foundation.
One Rafe recognized immediately.
May you like
It was the foundation funding the hospital where Sloane planned to deliver their daughter.
And the account had been opened under their unborn child's name.
