Chapter 2 - THE TWELVE NAMES
Nathan pulled me toward the library before Conrad could begin his speech.
Matthias followed.
So did Fiona.
I turned on her.
“No.”
Her expression hardened.
“I need to be there.”
“You’ve done enough.”
Fiona glanced at Matthias.
“Tell her.”
Matthias said nothing.
That silence frightened me more than the affair.
Nathan closed the library doors.
“Start talking.”
Matthias rubbed one hand across his jaw.
“Fiona isn’t just communications.”
“I figured that out somewhere between the hotel suite and my stolen marriage.”
Fiona flinched.
Good.
Matthias exhaled.
“Three months ago, Dre Capital discovered irregular payments connected to the Hensley acquisition.”
Nathan asked, “How irregular?”
“Twenty-eight million dollars.”
My stomach tightened.
Matthias continued.
“The payments were hidden through contractors, consultants, and land companies.”
“And Fiona?”
“She was helping investigate.”
I laughed once.
“From hotel rooms?”
Neither answered.
That told me the affair was real even if the business explanation was also true.
Nathan laid the anonymous list on the desk.
Twelve names.
Conrad Dre.
Matthias.
Two board members.
Three investors.
Nathan.
Four others I recognized from the party.
My name was not there.
“Why not me?” I asked.
Nathan looked at my stomach.
“Maybe because whoever sent the warning wants you alive.”
The thought was not comforting.
Outside the library, applause erupted.
Conrad had apparently continued his speech without us.
Then Fiona noticed something.
“The dates.”
Beside every name was a number.
Nathan assumed they were account references.
Fiona disagreed.
“They’re seating assignments.”
We stared at her.
Tonight’s dinner used assigned tables.
She grabbed the printed seating chart from a side table.
Every number matched.
The twelve names had been deliberately distributed across four tables in the glass conservatory.
Four tables positioned directly beneath the estate’s suspended heating fixtures.
Matthias’s face changed.
He pulled out his phone.
“No service.”
Mine had none either.
Nathan opened the library door.
A man in a catering uniform stood in the hallway.
Not one of the regular Dre staff.
He smiled.
“Dinner is being served.”
Something about his voice made my skin crawl.
Nathan shut the door again.
“We need to evacuate quietly.”
Matthias reached for me.
I stepped away.
“Don’t.”
His hand dropped.
Then Fiona whispered,
“Serena.”
She was staring at the estate blueprint from my original envelope.
One section had been circled so faintly I had missed it.
The conservatory.
Below it was a notation.
Gas line access.
Matthias looked at me.
“You need to leave.”
“No. Sixty people need to leave.”
Then the library door handle slowly began to turn.
And Fiona revealed a secret that changed everything again.
“I know who designed that gas system.”
May you like
She swallowed.
“My father.”
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