My heart accelerated.
“To Rachel?”
“To a consulting company registered at her office address.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
Rachel had been my closest friend for sixteen years.
She stood beside me at my wedding.
She sat with me at my mother’s funeral.
When I found Nathan’s hotel receipt, she was the first person I called.
“No.”
Celeste lowered her voice.
“There could be an explanation.”
“You’re telling me she took a quarter of a million dollars from the same shell company involved in transferring my shares.”
“I’m telling you a payment exists.
I don’t know why.”
My phone began ringing.
Rachel.
Celeste and I stared at the screen.
I answered.
“Hello?”
Rachel spoke quickly.
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
A brief pause.
“Your house?”
“Yes.”
Another pause.
Then her voice became quieter.
“No, you aren’t.”
My blood chilled.
I glanced toward the window.
Across the street, headlights suddenly came on.
Rachel continued.
“You’re at your mother’s old house.”
I couldn’t answer.
Her tone changed.
“Claire, listen to me very carefully.
Go out through the back door.
Right now.”
“Why?”
“Nathan is coming.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he called me.”
“Why would Nathan call you?”
Silence.
Celeste stared at me.
Finally Rachel spoke.
“Because I asked him to.”
My knees nearly gave way.
“What?”
“I can explain, but I can’t explain it over the phone.”
“You work for Northstead.”
Another silence.
I didn’t need more.
I ended the call.
Celeste grabbed my arm.
“Back door.”
We ran.
Nathan missed us by less than a minute.
At least that was what I believed afterward.
Celeste and I rushed through the backyard, climbed over the low garden wall, and crossed into the neighboring alley.
My heart was pounding so violently that the pulse inside my ears drowned out almost every other sound.
We didn’t stop until we reached Celeste’s car, parked several blocks away.
She unlocked it.
“Get in.”
I stayed where I was.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere Thomas won’t immediately look.”
“I’m not getting into that car until you tell me what you actually know.”
She glanced behind us.
“Fine.
Two minutes.”
I crossed my arms.
Celeste exhaled.
“Thomas hired me eight months ago to investigate Nathan because somebody was shifting ownership interests into shell entities.
He believed Nathan was behind it.”
“Why Nathan?”
“He had the access.”
“And because he was Thomas’s son?”
“I don’t think that made Thomas suspicious.
I think it made him scared.”
“Scared of what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop saying you don’t know.”
“I don’t know everything!”
Her frustration sounded genuine.
She continued.
“I got close to Nathan because that was the job.
Business dinners.
Drinks.
Making him believe I might be interested.
He flirted with me.
I allowed it.”
“The apartment building?”
“My apartment.”
“So he did go there.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To use my computer.”
I stared at her.
“That is your explanation?”
“He believed I still had access to restricted financial databases through my former employer.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“And the photographs?”
“Thomas had someone tracking us.
Nathan didn’t know.”
“So Nathan wasn’t actually sleeping with you?”
Celeste hesitated.
“He wanted to.”
That hurt in a different way.
“He kissed me once.”
I looked away.
“I stopped him.
After that, I kept things deliberately unclear because I needed him to continue talking to me.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That he believed someone was trying to take control of Langford & Bell.”
I turned back.
“He believed that?”
“Yes.”
“He was the one transferring shares.”
“Because he thought he was protecting them.”
“By putting them into Northstead?”
“Yes.”
“That’s insane.”
“He told me there was a hidden emergency provision in the original trust.
If a hostile takeover threatened the company, shares could temporarily be transferred into a protected holding structure.”
“Northstead.”
“Yes.”
“Who told him?”
Celeste hesitated.
“Rachel.”
I went still.
“Rachel told Nathan to forge my signature?”
“No.
Nathan says he didn’t forge anything.”
“I saw my signature.”
“He said the paperwork already had it.”
“From Rachel?”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Why not?”
“Because he had started suspecting I was spying on him.”
“That suspicion was correct.”
She gave me an exhausted look.
“Claire, I think several different people have been using Nathan.”
“Including you.”
“Yes.”
At least she didn’t try to deny it.
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
If Celeste is with you, ask her what happened in Prague.
I held the screen up.
Her face turned white.
“What happened in Prague?”
She shook her head.
“Nothing.”
I stepped backward.
“What happened?”
“Claire—”
“What happened in Prague?”
Celeste closed her eyes.
“When I was twenty-three, I worked for a private investigations company.”
“And?”
“Thomas was one of our clients.”
“And?”
“I found your father.”
The world seemed to vanish around us.
Cars were passing somewhere beyond the alley.
A dog barked behind a nearby fence.
Wind moved through the branches overhead.
I barely heard any of it.
“You found him.”
She nodded.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
My voice broke.
“When?”
“Eleven years ago.”
I stared at her.
“Where?”
“Prague.”
“And nobody told me?”
“I reported it to Thomas.”
“Not me?”
“I didn’t know you personally.”
“But you knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“My father was alive.”
“Yes.”
“And Thomas knew.”
“Yes.”
“For eleven years.”
“Yes.”
I turned away because nausea rolled through me.
My father had been alive while I finished college.
Alive when I married Nathan.
Alive when my mother became sick.
Alive when she died.
Alive through every birthday when I stared at his photograph and still whispered goodnight.
I faced her again.
“Why didn’t he come home?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you speak to him?”
“No.
I only observed him.”
“Where?”
“Leaving a medical clinic.”
“Was he alone?”
“No.”
“Who was with him?”
“A woman.”
“My mother?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“I was never able to identify her.”
“How old was she?”
“Around his age.”
“Did Thomas go see him?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened after you gave Thomas the report?”
“He shut down the assignment.
Paid the company.
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