Chương 6
That was how I thought.
Not in appearances.
In possibilities.
When I arrived, the receptionist looked surprised to see me so early.
"Morning, Bella."
"Morning, Claire."
She glanced at the elevator behind me.
"Rough night?"
I smiled slightly.
"You could say that."
She looked like she wanted to ask more but decided against it.
That was another thing I respected about people.
Knowing when curiosity became intrusion.
The elevator doors closed.
For thirty-two floors, I stood alone with my reflection.
I looked tired.
Not destroyed.
That mattered.
There had been a time when one bad day could convince me I was failing at everything.
I had learned eventually that exhaustion and failure often felt identical.
They were not.
Daniel was waiting in the conference room when I arrived.
He had three monitors open and a paper cup of coffee beside him that he had clearly forgotten to drink.
"You look terrible," he said.
I put my bag down.
"Good morning to you too."
He almost smiled.
"That was my attempt at concern."
"Your concern needs better wording."
"It does."
That small exchange helped.
Daniel was not a warm person in the traditional sense.
He did not hug people.
He did not give emotional speeches.
If someone cried in his office, he usually handed them tissues and a document explaining their options.
But he showed up.
Some people expressed care through words.
Some through actions.
Daniel had always been the second kind.
I sat across from him.
"What did you find?"
He turned one of the monitors toward me.
The screen showed a list of access logs.
"Someone accessed the acquisition file eighteen hours before the yacht meeting."
I leaned closer.
"From where?"
"That is the problem."
He clicked another window.
"Internal network."
My stomach tightened.
"Employee access?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
He hesitated.
I noticed.
Daniel rarely hesitated.
"Daniel."
He looked at me.
"I don't want you reacting before we have everything."
"Who?"
He turned the screen.
The name appeared.
Marcus Hale.
I stared at it.
For a moment, the name meant nothing.
Then it did.
Marcus was one of Vantage's senior analysts.
He had been with the company for six years.
He was the person who first noticed Harrington Maritime's debt situation.
He was also the person who recommended we examine the acquisition.
"No."
The word came out before I could stop it.
Daniel watched me carefully.
"You know him well?"
"Yes."
That was not exactly true.
I knew his work.
I knew his numbers.
I knew his ability to find opportunities other people ignored.
I knew he stayed late almost every night.
I knew he brought his daughter to the office once during a school emergency because he had nobody else to watch her.
But I did not know everything.
Nobody ever did.
"Do you think he leaked it?"
I looked at the name.
"I don't know."
That answer bothered me.
Because I wanted to know.
I wanted the world to return to simple categories.
Good people.
Bad people.
Trustworthy people.
Dangerous people.
But the older I became, the less those categories worked.
Marcus could have made a mistake.
He could have been pressured.
He could have had a reason.
Or he could have betrayed me.
All possibilities existed at the same time.
"What about the photo?" I asked.
Daniel opened another file.
"We traced the original upload."
"And?"
"It came from a guest's account."
"Whose?"
He looked at me.
"Victoria Harrington."
The room became quiet.
I stared at him.
"She posted it?"
"Not exactly."
He pulled up the timeline.
"She sent it to someone first."
"Who?"
Daniel clicked.
A name appeared.
Liam Harrington.
I looked away from the screen.
That hurt in a completely different way.
Because a stranger betraying you was painful.
Someone you loved betraying you was confusing.
I picked up my coffee.
It was cold.
I drank it anyway.
Daniel noticed.
"You don't have to make yourself suffer just because you are angry."
I looked at him.
"That was not what I was doing."
He raised an eyebrow.
"You are drinking coffee that has been sitting there for twenty minutes."
"That's different."
"How?"
I thought about it.
I didn't have an answer.
He leaned back.
"Bella."
I looked at him.
"You built this company because you are good at seeing patterns."
I waited.
"Do not let the fact that you are emotionally involved make you ignore them."
The sentence stayed with me.
Because he was right.
Emotion did not make me weak.
But pretending emotion was not there could make me careless.
I stood.
"I need to talk to Liam."
Daniel looked concerned.
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Because I needed to know whether the man I loved had made a mistake or a choice.
Because those were not the same thing.
Because if Liam had only been afraid, that was one kind of pain.
If he had helped create the story that made me look like the villain, that was another.
"I need to hear it from him."
Daniel nodded.
"Then hear it."
I stopped at the door.
"That sounded almost like emotional advice."
"It wasn't."
I smiled despite myself.
"Of course not."
When I reached the lobby, my phone buzzed again.
The unknown number.
This time, I opened it.
There was no message.
Only a photograph.
My heart slowed.
It was not from the yacht.
It was older.
A picture of me.
Standing outside a small coffee shop.
I remembered that day immediately.
It was three years earlier.
Before Vantage became what it was.
Before anyone knew my name.
I was holding a paper cup and wearing the same jacket I had worn for six winters because I refused to replace it until it completely fell apart.
Under the picture was one sentence.
You have no idea who started this.
I stared at the screen.
Then another message appeared.
This one changed everything.
Your boyfriend isn't the only person hiding something from you.
I called the number.
May you like
It rang four times before someone answered.
For a second, I heard nothing except breathing.
