Chương 3
“No.”
Kline’s eyes lowered.
Elena went rigid.
Adrian took his hands from his pockets.
“I mean no, we are not pretending this didn’t happen.”
“I have spent six years learning that pretending is one of your company’s core competencies.”
Vanessa flinched as if the remark had struck her too.
Adrian ignored it.
“Where is Mara?”
Elena said nothing.
“Is she alive?”
Something shifted in Elena’s expression.
Adrian saw it.
His voice changed.
“Is she alive?”
Lily looked over from the fireplace.
Elena lowered hers.
“She’s alive.”
The breath left Adrian so visibly that Vanessa turned toward him.
For a moment, he looked older.
Not dramatically older. Just less defended.
“Where?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
“I need to speak to her.”
“You need a lot of things.”
He took one step toward her.
She took one backward.
He stopped.
That tiny movement wounded him more than he showed.
Vanessa saw that too.
“You’re afraid of him,” she said.
Elena glanced at her.
“I’m afraid of what happens when people like him decide they’re entitled to an answer.”
Adrian’s mouth flattened.
Vanessa stood.
“I would very much like to know whether the man I’m supposed to marry has a child.”
Elena looked at her for a long second.
“I’m sorry.”
It was the first kindness anyone had offered Vanessa since the ring box hit the floor.
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“Please don’t be.”
“I mean it.”
“That makes it worse.”
Elena nodded.
“Yeah.”
Lily blew carefully across her cocoa.
The room was quiet except for snow against the glass.
Adrian walked to the conference table and pressed his palm against a dark panel embedded in its edge.
The surface illuminated.
Elena’s head lifted.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking up Mara’s employment file.”
“You think they left you the truth in a folder?”
“I think I can start somewhere.”
The system requested biometric verification.
He placed his thumb against the sensor.
A moment later, employee archives populated the glass.
Adrian typed MARA HART.
No result.
He typed again.
Nothing.
Elena’s laugh was quiet and bitter.
Adrian looked at the empty search field.
“Impossible.”
“Is it?”
“She worked here.”
“You just said that.”
“Employee records are retained.”
“Apparently not all of them.”
He changed databases.
Vanessa stood behind him now, arms folded tightly over her ribs.
Adrian searched payroll.
No Mara Hart.
Security access.
No Mara Hart.
Contractor history.
Nothing.
His jaw tightened.
Elena watched him watching absence become evidence.
“Now you understand the word disappear,” she said.
Adrian did not answer.
He moved into a legacy archive that required a second authentication factor. His phone vibrated in his pocket.
He ignored it.
The archive opened.
Mara’s name appeared.
Not as an employee.
As a restricted legal matter.
Vanessa leaned closer.
Elena went still.
Adrian touched the file.
ACCESS LIMITED.
GENERAL COUNSEL AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
He stared at the message.
Vanessa said, “You own the company.”
“I founded the company.”
“That is not what I asked.”
He looked at her.
“No. I cannot unilaterally open privileged legal files.”
“Can somebody?”
“Yes.”
“Call them.”
Adrian took out his phone.
Seven missed calls.
Two from his chief operating officer. Three from the wedding planner. One from his driver. One from Leonard Pierce.
He stared at the last name.
Elena noticed.
Her face changed.
“Who is that?”
Adrian did not answer.
“Who?”
“My general counsel.”
“Was he your general counsel six years ago?”
“Yes.”
Elena’s lips parted.
Something close to panic crossed her face.
Adrian saw it.
“You know Leonard?”
“I know his voice.”
Vanessa moved away from the table.
“How?”
Elena looked toward Lily.
The child had dipped one sleeve of her white coat into the cocoa and was trying to wipe it with the towel.
Elena closed her eyes briefly.
“Mara got three calls after she left here. The first was from HR. The second was from a lawyer. The third was from that lawyer again because she wouldn’t sign what they sent.”
Adrian said, “What did they send?”
“A settlement.”
His face hardened.
“For what?”
Elena stared at him.
“You really don’t know.”
It was not a question.
Adrian called Leonard.
The lawyer answered on the second ring.
“Adrian.”
Leonard sounded irritated before he sounded concerned.
Adrian put the call on speaker.
“Where are you?”
“Denver. Why?”
“Do you remember Mara Hart?”
Silence.
It lasted perhaps two seconds.
It was enough.
Vanessa looked at Adrian.
Elena stopped breathing.
Leonard said, “I’m not sure that’s a conversation you should be having on an open line.”
Adrian’s eyes became very still.
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I remember the matter.”
“What matter?”
“Adrian.”
“What matter?”
Leonard sighed.
“You’re at the observatory, correct?”
Adrian’s gaze shifted to the dark windows.
“How do you know that?”
“Your security team reports—”
“No. My security team reports to the site director.”
“Who reports through operations.”
Elena whispered, “Of course.”
Adrian heard her.
“So you know I’m here,” he said. “Do you know who else is here?”
Another pause.
This one was longer.
Leonard said, “I suggest you stop whatever conversation you’re having until I arrive in the morning.”
Adrian disconnected.
Vanessa stared at the phone.
“Well.”
Nobody had to explain what the pause meant.
Adrian called the site director.
When the man answered, Adrian told him to suspend all outbound reporting from the private lounge except emergency and mountain-safety communications.
Then he looked at both guards.
“Your phones.”
Kline removed his immediately.
The other guard hesitated.
That hesitation drew everyone’s attention.
Adrian looked at him.
“Name.”
“Marcus Hale.”
“How long have you worked here, Marcus?”
“Eight years.”
Elena turned.
Marcus looked at the floor.
Adrian saw it.
“You knew Mara.”
Marcus’s throat moved.
“I knew who she was.”
“What happened?”
“I’m not comfortable answering that without counsel.”
Adrian almost smiled.
It was a terrible expression.
“Neither am I.”
Marcus’s face reddened.
“I was a junior officer.”
“What happened?”
Marcus glanced at Lily.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“Take her into the adjacent room.”
Elena shook her head.
May you like
“She stays with me.”
“Then you go with her.”
