Chapter 2 - DEREK HAD DONE THIS BEFORE
Harper locked herself inside her sister Maya’s bathroom before calling Elise back.
She did not want Maya to hear.
Not yet.
Elise spoke quickly, like someone terrified the courage might disappear.
She had worked as Derek’s executive assistant four years earlier.
At first, he had been charming.
Then controlling.
Then violent.
Exactly like Harper’s relationship.
“There was another woman,” Elise said.
“His girlfriend?”
“Fiancée.”
Harper closed her eyes.
Derek had told her he had never been engaged.
“What was her name?”
“Natalie Price.”
Elise paused.
“Natalie vanished.”
Harper’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“What do you mean vanished?”
“She left work one Friday. Nobody saw her again. Derek said she moved to Arizona.”
“Police?”
“Her family filed a missing-person report.”
Harper felt sick.
“Was Derek investigated?”
“Yes. But Natalie had emailed her mother saying she was leaving the country.”
“Then maybe she did.”
Elise became silent.
Finally she said, “Harper, Natalie hated flying.”
The next morning Harper went to the police.
She brought photographs of bruises.
Saved text messages.
Voicemails.
The restaurant threat.
For once, she did not minimize anything.
An officer helped her begin a restraining-order request.
Then Harper went to work.
Her boss, Martin Cole, asked why she looked exhausted.
Harper told him she had a personal emergency.
His eyes lingered on the fading marks around her wrist.
“I can give you a few days.”
“No.”
She surprised herself with how firm her voice sounded.
“I need to work.”
Numbers made sense.
Numbers did not lie unless people forced them to.
By noon, Harper was reviewing an audit for one of the firm’s newer clients.
Bellmont Development.
A holding company with a strangely complicated ownership structure.
She opened the payment ledger.
Then stopped.
One vendor appeared repeatedly.
D. Kessler Consulting.
Derek Kessler.
Her Derek.
Harper stared at the screen.
Derek had always told her he worked in corporate acquisitions.
Why was he receiving six-figure payments from a real-estate holding company?
She traced the transactions.
Bellmont Development was partially owned by Falco Hospitality Group.
Roman’s company.
Harper’s pulse quickened.
Maybe Roman had not been sitting beside them by accident.
Maybe he already knew Derek.
She printed the ledger.
At 4:12 p.m., the elevator doors opened.
Roman Falco stepped into her accounting office.
Every conversation stopped.
Martin hurried toward him.
“Mr. Falco. We weren’t expecting you until Thursday.”
Harper went still.
Roman’s gaze found hers.
He looked surprised too.
Martin smiled nervously.
“Harper, you’ll be assisting Mr. Falco with the internal review.”
Roman looked down at the file in her hand.
Then at the name visible on top.
DEREK KESSLER.
His expression hardened.
“Where did you get that?”
Harper held his gaze.
“Your books.”
Roman said nothing.
Harper lowered her voice.
“You knew him before last night, didn’t you?”
Roman’s silence answered first.
Then he revealed the secret.
“I knew his name.”
“Why?”
“Because someone has been stealing from my family for three years.”
May you like
Roman looked at Derek’s payment records.
“And now I think your boyfriend was helping them.”
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