Chương 6
I studied the numbers.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying someone may have been using Flynn’s position.”
I leaned back.
For a moment, relief almost appeared.
A part of me wanted the simplest version.
Flynn was responsible.
Flynn was the villain.
Flynn caused the damage.
It would have been easier.
But life rarely gave people the comfort of simple stories.
“Do you think he was framed?”
Phoebe shook her head.
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
“I think he was careless.”
She tapped the document.
“And someone smarter took advantage of that.”
The room became quiet.
“Who?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
The investigation changed after that.
Not because Flynn suddenly became innocent.
He wasn’t.
He had still betrayed me.
He had still hidden a relationship.
He had still allowed company resources to be abused.
But the question became larger.
Who else benefited from his mistakes?
Two days later, Selina requested a meeting.
I almost refused.
Then I agreed.
Not because I wanted to hear her explanation.
Because I needed to know what role she played.
We met at a small restaurant away from downtown.
Not because we were hiding.
Because neither of us wanted cameras or employees nearby.
Selina arrived ten minutes late.
That surprised me.
She had always been known as precise.
Controlled.
The woman who never entered a room looking uncertain.
Now she looked exhausted.
Her confidence had cracks.
“I didn’t expect you to come,” she said.
I placed my hands around my coffee cup.
“I didn’t expect you to ask.”
She looked down.
“I need to explain.”
“Do you?”
The question made her uncomfortable.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked at me.
“Because I know what you think.”
“I don’t think you know.”
Her expression changed.
For the first time, she looked less like an opponent.
More like someone who had also lost control of her life.
“I loved him.”
The words sat between us.
I waited.
She looked frustrated by my silence.
“You’re not going to yell?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because yelling won’t change what happened.”
She looked away.
“I thought he was leaving.”
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was familiar.
Everyone who gets involved with someone unavailable seems to believe they are the exception.
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“Did he promise you that?”
Her silence answered.
I looked out the window.
People walked past carrying shopping bags.
A delivery driver unloaded boxes.
The world continued.
“He told me the marriage was over.”
I looked back at her.
“And you believed him.”
Her eyes became defensive.
“Yes.”
The answer was immediate.
Then slower.
“Maybe I wanted to.”
That honesty surprised me.
“What about the money?”
Her face changed.
“What money?”
I watched carefully.
Either she was a very good liar.
Or she truly did not know.
“Payments from Vance Global.”
She frowned.
“I thought those were legitimate consulting fees.”
“Your apartment?”
“My contract.”
“The car?”
She looked confused.
Then scared.
“Flynn said the company approved everything.”
That was the moment the story changed again.
Because suddenly, I was not sitting across from a woman who stole my husband.
I was sitting across from someone who might have been used by him.
Or by someone else.
Selina reached into her bag and removed her phone.
“I have something.”
She unlocked it with shaking fingers.
“What?”
“A message Flynn sent me three months ago.”
She turned the screen toward me.
The message was short.
Only six words.
But those six words changed everything.
I never said Claire would disappear.
I said she would never know.
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
Because sometimes the most dangerous evidence is not a confession.
It is a sentence that reveals what someone believed they could get away with.
I read it again.
The message was from Flynn.
Not a confession.
Not an apology.
Not even an explanation.
Just six words that revealed a level of confidence I had never seen written down before.
I never said Claire would disappear.
I said she would never know.
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
Not because I was surprised Flynn had lied.
I already knew that.
What unsettled me was the possibility that I had misunderstood the size of the betrayal.
For years, I thought I was fighting against one man’s selfishness.
Now I wondered if I had been standing in the middle of something much larger.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
Selina pulled her phone back slightly.
“He sent it to me.”
“When?”
She looked at the screen.
“Three months ago.”
Three months.
That was before the envelope arrived.
Before I hired Phoebe.
Before Flynn knew I was watching.
“Why did you keep it?”
Her fingers tightened around the phone.
“Because I wasn’t sure what it meant.”
“You weren’t sure?”
She looked embarrassed.
“I thought he meant you would eventually accept it.”
I stared at her.
“Accept what?”
She looked away.
“Us.”
The answer should have made me angry.
Maybe part of me wanted to be angry.
It would have been easier if Selina was exactly the person I imagined.
But the woman sitting across from me looked like someone who had built an entire future around a promise that was never real.
That did not make her innocent.
It only made her human.
“Did Flynn tell you about the trust?” I asked.
She frowned.
“What trust?”
That answer mattered.
“Did he ever talk about my shares in the company?”
“No.”
“Did he ever mention that I could remove him as CEO?”
Her face changed.
Slowly.
“No.”
I leaned back.
That was the first clear sign that Flynn had not been honest with her either.
He had not built a relationship with Selina based on truth.
He had built two separate realities and convinced himself he could maintain both.
“Why are you showing me this now?” I asked.
Her eyes filled slightly.
“I had the baby yesterday.”
The words were quiet.
Not dramatic.
May you like
Just exhausted.
“I thought when the baby came, everything would finally be clear.”
