Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN WHO HIRED HERSELF BACK
Vivienne offered me a job.
Chief financial controls manager for her legitimate real-estate company.
Real salary.
Benefits.
No burner phones.
No suspicious plastic sheeting.
I laughed when I saw the offer.
Then asked for twenty percent more.
She gave me fifteen.
I accepted.
My first day, I wore navy.
Not gray.
Not the black gala armor either.
Just me.
I kept the espresso bob.
That part stayed.
My student debt remained.
I created a five-year payoff plan.
Boring.
Predictable.
Beautiful.
Meanwhile, Larkin’s world changed.
His legitimate companies entered monitorship.
Several businesses survived.
Others closed.
He faced investigations tied to racketeering, tax issues, and violent associates.
He did not magically become innocent because Thomas betrayed him.
I respected that.
He began cooperating selectively through counsel.
Enough to dismantle some criminal operations.
Not enough to erase his past.
We stopped speaking for three months.
Then he appeared in Vivienne’s lobby.
Reception called.
“Mr. Steves is here.”
I stared at the phone.
“Does he have an appointment?”
“No.”
“Then tell him to make one.”
The receptionist went silent.
Probably thought I had lost my mind.
Ten minutes later, an email arrived.
LARKIN:
Appointment request. Coffee. Twenty minutes.
I smiled.
Progress.
I scheduled him for Friday.
He arrived on time.
No security inside.
Black coat.
Tired eyes.
He looked less like a king.
More like a man.
“Your office is smaller.”
“Your criminal empire is smaller.”
His mouth twitched.
“Fair.”
We sat.
“What do you want?”
“To apologize.”
I waited.
“For what?”
“Using you as bait at the gala.”
“Yes.”
“Allowing Thomas access to systems he used against you.”
“Yes.”
“Building a workplace where everyone believed fear was normal.”
That one surprised me.
He continued:
“For calling you my secretary when I knew you were the person keeping half the operation financially coherent.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Half?”
“Fine. Most.”
Better.
Then he said:
“And for assuming protecting you meant deciding things for you.”
I looked at him.
“You’re learning.”
“Painfully.”
“Good.”
He almost smiled.
Then:
“I also have something for you.”
I immediately shook my head.
“No money.”
“It isn’t.”
He handed me a letter.
From Daniel Vale.
Daniel had entered witness protection after extensive cooperation.
The letter read:
Penelope,
I used your invisibility because I thought invisible meant safe.
I was wrong.
Invisible people are often easiest to exploit because nobody notices when something is taken from them.
I’m sorry.
Inside was a legal transfer.
Not money.
Ownership.
P. Woods Consulting.
The fraudulent shell had been frozen.
After forfeitures and restitution, almost nothing remained.
But Daniel had assigned whatever lawful residual rights existed to me.
I laughed.
“I don’t want this company.”
Larkin said:
“Then dissolve it.”
I looked at the name.
P. Woods Consulting.
The thing built to frame me.
Then I had another idea.
I kept it.
Changed the business purpose.
Compliance consulting.
Identity-control audits.
Internal fraud prevention.
A side company.
Small.
Mine.
I registered it legally under my own signature.
For the first time.
Three months later, my first client called.
A family-owned shipping company whose controller suspected someone had been using employee credentials.
I nearly laughed at the universe.
Then another surprise.
The federal restitution process returned the $18,000 Thomas had paid toward my student loans as disputed benefit accounting.
Legally complex.
Eventually, after counsel worked it out, I chose to repay that amount into the restitution pool rather than keep the advantage.
Vivienne called me insane.
Maybe.
But I wanted my debt balance to reflect my money.
Not Thomas’s.
That mattered to me.
Then Larkin sent one text:
Dinner?
I replied:
Professional?
He wrote:
No.
I stared at it for a long time.
Then:
Not yet.
His response:
May you like
Understood.
That was why I eventually said yes.
