Chương 3
“Of what?”
“Of being wrong.”
Mara looked back at the laptop.
“About me?”
“About everything.”
That answer bothered her more.
Because Daniel sounded like someone standing near a cliff, unsure whether the ground beneath him was stable.
“What exactly did you see?”
“I saw Victor come out of the archive area.”
“At what time?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“It was late.”
“Makes sense.”
“Mara.”
“No, I’m sorry.”
She rubbed her forehead.
“I’m not angry at you because you’re uncertain.”
“I know.”
“I’m angry because uncertainty is the luxury everyone else gets.”
Daniel went quiet.
She regretted saying it almost immediately.
Not because it was untrue.
Because she knew it had landed.
“I’ll find out what happened,” he said.
“That’s not enough.”
“I know.”
“And if you find something?”
Another pause.
“Then I’ll tell you.”
Mara closed her eyes.
It was the promise she wanted.
It was also the promise people made before breaking them.
After they hung up, she did something she had avoided since leaving the firm.
She drove back downtown.
The building lobby was almost empty.
The security guard at the front desk recognized her and looked away.
That hurt more than if he had stared.
Mara walked toward the elevators.
The doors opened before she pressed the button.
Victor stood inside.
For a second, neither of them moved.
He looked different without the courtroom version of himself.
No jacket.
No careful expression.
Just a tired man holding a folder under one arm.
“You followed me?” he asked.
“No.”
“Good.”
“I came here because I need answers.”
Victor stepped out of the elevator.
“Not here.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re angry.”
“I’m accused of stealing evidence.”
“I know.”
“And you know more than you’re telling me.”
His jaw tightened.
The reaction was small.
Most people would miss it.
Mara did not.
“You should leave,” he said.
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s advice.”
“I don’t take advice from people who might be involved.”
Victor looked around the lobby.
The security desk was twenty feet away.
Two employees walked past them without paying attention.
“You think I did this?”
“I think you know something.”
“That’s different.”
“Is it?”
He looked at her for a long moment.
Then he handed her the folder.
Mara did not take it immediately.
“What is that?”
“A copy of the original settlement agreement.”
“I already have that.”
“No.”
His voice lowered.
“You have the version everyone thinks exists.”
Her hand moved toward the folder.
Then stopped.
“What does that mean?”
Victor looked exhausted.
“It means the document you’re accused of stealing was not the only version.”
The hallway suddenly felt colder.
Mara took the folder.
Inside were printed pages marked with handwritten notes.
She recognized the handwriting.
Not Victor’s.
Not hers.
The notes belonged to someone who had reviewed the agreement before it reached the final stage.
At the bottom of the first page was a signature.
A signature she had seen hundreds of times.
Evelyn Cross.
The managing partner of Halden & Pierce.
The woman who had personally recommended Mara for partnership two years earlier.
The woman who had called her family after her father died.
The woman who now had not returned a single call.
Mara looked up.
“What does Evelyn have to do with this?”
Victor did not answer immediately.
That hesitation told her more than the words would have.
“Mara.”
She waited.
“The person who removed the document from the archive wasn’t trying to steal the settlement.”
“Then what were they trying to do?”
Victor looked toward the glass entrance doors.
Outside, people moved through the city like nothing had changed.
“They were trying to find what was hidden inside it.”
Mara looked down at the pages again.
The handwritten notes were not random.
They were corrections.
Warnings.
Questions.
And one sentence written in the margin that made her stomach tighten.
Do not let this version reach the board.
Mara read the sentence three times.
Each time, the meaning became heavier.
Do not let this version reach the board.
She looked at Victor.
“What version?”
He did not answer immediately.
That bothered her more than if he had denied knowing anything.
Victor Hale was not a man who struggled to find words.
He chose them.
Carefully.
Sometimes cruelly.
“You need to understand something before you look at the rest of those pages,” he said.
Mara held the folder against her chest.
“I’m already past needing explanations.”
“No, you’re not.”
The confidence in his voice irritated her.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“I’m trying to keep you from making the same mistake I made.”
The words stopped her.
Not because they made sense.
Because they sounded like something he had not intended to say.
“What mistake?”
Victor looked away.
For the first time since she had known him, he seemed less like an opponent and more like someone carrying something he did not know how to put down.
“I trusted the wrong person.”
“That’s not specific.”
“It’s not supposed to be.”
Mara almost handed the folder back.
Almost.
Then she remembered her badge opening the archive.
Her fingerprints on the cabinet.
Daniel avoiding her eyes.
Evelyn refusing her calls.
Too many people had pieces of the story.
She was the only person being denied the whole thing.
“Where did you get this?”
Victor’s expression changed slightly.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because evidence has a history.”
He gave a small, humorless smile.
“You really are a lawyer even when you’re terrified.”
Mara ignored the comment.
“Where did you get it?”
Victor looked toward the elevators.
“Not here.”
“You said that already.”
“And you ignored me.”
“That tends to happen when people refuse to answer basic questions.”
He took a breath.
Then he lowered his voice.
“I found it in my client’s internal files.”
Mara froze.
“Your client?”
“Yes.”
“The pharmaceutical company?”
“Yes.”
The folder suddenly felt heavier.
“You had access to this?”
“No.”
“Then how did you find it?”
May you like
Victor looked at her.
“That’s the part I’m still trying to understand.”
