Chapter 1 - THE FLIGHT LOG HE NEVER EXPECTED ME TO READ
Camden’s confidence cracked the moment Nora opened the black folder.
He looked at her.
Then at me.
“What exactly is this?”
I finally turned toward him.
“The question you should be asking is why aircraft N719AM departed Teterboro at 6:12 yesterday morning for Palm Beach, filed Boston as its business destination, and returned with an unauthorized passenger.”
Lila’s fingers touched my scarf.
Camden recovered quickly.
“You’re auditing my travel now?”
“No.”
I looked at the maintenance supervisor.
“I’m auditing mine.”
Silence.
Camden laughed once.
“Vivian, the company is ours.”
“No.”
That word landed differently when I said it in front of employees.
“Pierce Aero carries your surname because I agreed to rebrand after our marriage. Alden Meridian Aviation owns sixty-eight percent of the holding company. My family trust owns the aircraft. You have executive access, not ownership.”
Lila slowly removed her sunglasses.
Camden’s face hardened.
“You’re embarrassing yourself.”
Interesting choice of words.
I glanced at the scarf around Lila’s throat.
“No. I think that part happened before I arrived.”
Someone behind us inhaled sharply.
Camden stepped closer.
“Come home. We’ll discuss this privately.”
“I’m not going home with you.”
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
Then Nora placed a printed flight log on the table.
Seven private flights over eleven weeks.
Palm Beach.
Nassau.
Montreal.
Two unlisted passengers.
Three invoices marked “medical board travel.”
One of those flights had occurred on the night Camden told me his mother was in the hospital.
She had been at dinner with me.
I pointed to the last page.
“This is what I’ve been waiting for.”
Camden did not look.
“What?”
“The answer from Zurich.”
That got him.
His eyes snapped toward mine.
Lila looked between us.
“What’s in Zurich?”
Camden said too quickly:
“Nothing.”
Nora opened another page.
A wire transfer.
Fourteen million dollars.
From a Pierce Aero reserve account into a Swiss aviation-leasing company.
The authorization carried Camden’s digital signature.
And mine.
Except I had never signed it.
Lila took one step away from him.
“Camden?”
He stared at me.
“This is ridiculous.”
“Is it?”
“You think I forged your signature?”
“I think someone did.”
I looked toward the archived camera terminal.
“And whoever did it used your executive credentials at 2:14 a.m. on March third.”
The color left his face.
That date mattered.
Our anniversary.
The night he gave me the scarf.
The scarf now around Lila’s neck.
Then Captain Rhodes spoke from beside the aircraft.
“Mrs. Pierce.”
Everyone turned.
He looked uncomfortable.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The Palm Beach flight wasn’t the only unauthorized leg.”
My stomach tightened.
“How many?”
He swallowed.
“Fourteen.”
Camden went completely still.
Then Rhodes added:
“And one of them carried sealed documents from your father’s estate.”
That was the first moment I stopped thinking about adultery.
May you like
My father had been dead for six years.
And someone had been moving his papers without my permission.
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