Chapter 3 — Facts Arranged Like the Truth

“That’s a disgusting thing to say.”

“Then you should have no trouble proving it false.”

I stood in the foyer with my phone against my ear.

Marta remained near the kitchen doorway. She was speaking quietly to a guard, but her eyes never left me.

Vale continued.

“Ask him who contacted your employer yesterday morning.”

“My company was cutting staff.”

“Was it?”

I thought of the office.

My supervisor had called me into a meeting at ten. Human Resources had been waiting with a box.

No one else on my floor had left.

“I don’t discuss my job with strangers.”

“Then look at your screen.”

A message arrived.

I lowered the phone.

The image showed an email with Romano Holdings in the sender’s address.

My name appeared in the subject line.

The body was short.

Terminate Olivia Carter’s employment effective immediately.

I read it twice.

Then I looked for the date.

Yesterday. 8:16 a.m.

“This could be fake.”

“Of course it could,” Vale said. “You should ask Sebastian to verify it.”

I wanted him to become impatient.

A liar getting angry would have given me something to hold on to.

Instead, he sounded pleased that I was checking.

“The building?” I asked.

“Purchased last month by a company registered through his attorney.”

Another message.

A document. A company name. My building’s address.

Then a photograph of my landlord shaking hands with the driver who had offered to take me somewhere warm.

My stomach tightened.

The driver had been standing outside when I woke.

He knew my landlord.

He hadn’t said a word.

“That doesn’t prove Sebastian told him to throw me out.”

“No. Perhaps you should ask about that too.”

“You have a lot of photographs.”

“I’ve learned that people prefer them to warnings.”

“What does Ethan have to do with this?”

Vale waited.

I heard a car door close somewhere beyond the walls.

“Your boyfriend received two hundred thousand dollars three days ago.”

The next photograph showed Ethan outside a bank.

He wore the navy jacket I had bought him for Christmas.

A dark sedan stood at the curb. A man leaned through the open window, passing Ethan an envelope.

The photograph had caught him smiling.

I stared at that smile.

Two nights earlier, I had offered to cover his half of the groceries because he said work had been slow.

He let me.

“How do you know what was in the envelope?”

“A payment record will follow.”

It did.

I could read Ethan’s name, the amount, and a reference number.

My thumb hovered over the screen.

Three years.

I knew how he took his coffee. I knew which side of the bed he wanted. I knew the sound he made when he was pretending to sleep so I would stop asking what was wrong.

I hadn’t known he could look happy accepting an envelope while I counted grocery money.

“What did he get paid to do?”

“That,” Vale said, “is the question Sebastian should answer.”

“Why are you telling me?”

“Because whatever your mother left you does not belong to him.”

My hand went to my backpack.

I stopped before touching the pocket with the key.

“What did she leave me?”

“You tell me.”

“You knew her?”

“Very well.”

“Then what was her name?”

“Evelyn.”

He said it easily.

I wished he hadn’t.

“What did she look like?”

“Brown hair. Brown eyes. A woman who believed cleverness could protect her from powerful men.”

Something in his tone made me cold.

“That’s not an answer about what she looked like.”

“No. It’s an answer about why she died.”

Marta was suddenly beside me.

“End the call.”

I pulled away.

Vale heard her.

“Ah,” he said. “Marta is still there.”

He knew her too.

He knew the house, the driver, my employer, Ethan.

He knew my mother.

“You’re afraid of him,” I said to Marta.

She didn’t deny it.

Vale spoke before she could explain.

“Be careful who you trust, Olivia. Especially a man who makes you dependent on him and calls it protection.”

The line went dead.

I kept the phone against my ear for several seconds.

Then I opened Ethan’s contact.

He answered on the fourth ring.

“Liv?”

The familiar voice nearly broke me.

“Where are you?”

“Why?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“I thought we did that last night.”

“Did someone pay you?”

Silence.

I closed my eyes.

“Ethan.”

“Who told you that?”

I had wanted a denial.

A laugh. Offense. Anything that would let me argue.

His question left nothing to argue with.

“Two hundred thousand dollars?”

“You don’t understand what happened.”

“Then explain it.”

“I can’t do this over the phone.”

“Yesterday you couldn’t do it in person either.”

“Listen to me. Where are you staying?”

“Why do you need to know?”

“Because I’m worried about you.”

I looked around the foyer.

A guard stood by the front door. Another waited near the stairs.

Marta’s hands were clasped so tightly that the knuckles looked white.

“Were you worried when you packed my toothbrush into a backpack?”

“Olivia—”

“Were you worried when you wouldn’t let me stay one more night?”

“I told you we weren’t working.”

“Did the money help you decide?”

His breathing changed.

“You need to stop asking questions until you know who’s listening.”

There it was.

Not an explanation.

Fear.

I took a screenshot of the payment record and sent it to him.

“Is that yours?”

“Delete it.”

I swallowed.

“So it is.”

“Liv, please. You have no idea what these people can do.”

“These people?”

“Where are you?”

I ended the call.

He rang back immediately.

I declined it.

Then I saved Vale’s messages and the payment image to my email. If someone took my phone, I wanted another copy.

Marta watched me do it.

“Good,” she said quietly.

I looked at her.

“Don’t.”

Her face tightened.

“Don’t say that as though you’re helping me.”

“I’m trying.”

“Then tell me something true.”

She looked toward the front door.

It opened before she answered.

Sebastian came in with rain on his coat.

The guard began to speak.

Sebastian lifted a hand, silencing him.

His eyes found the phone in my hand.

“You answered Vale.”

“He told me your name.”

“He knew you’d answer if Marta asked you not to.”

“So now it’s her fault?”

“No.”

“He showed me an email.”

“I know.”

That stopped me.

“How?”

“He sent it to my office too.”

I walked toward him.

No one moved to stop me.

“The building?”

His expression became very still.

“Olivia—”

I slapped him.

The sound carried up the staircase.

My palm burned.

Sebastian’s head turned with the blow. When he looked back at me, the mark of my hand was already appearing along his cheek.

A guard took one step.

Sebastian stopped him without looking away from me.

“Leave us.”

“Sir—”

“Outside.”

The guards withdrew to the other side of the doors.

Marta stayed.

I didn’t ask her to go.

I needed someone else to hear him answer.

“Tell me he lied.”

Sebastian glanced at the screen.

“He showed you facts arranged to resemble the truth.”

“That sounds like something an attorney says when he can’t deny the evidence.”

“I’m not denying the evidence.”

My chest hurt.

“Did someone from your company contact my boss yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“Before I was fired?”

“Yes.”

I held up the property document.

“Did you buy my building?”

“Yes.”

“And your driver knows my landlord?”

“He does.”

I turned the phone so he could see Ethan’s name.

“Did Ethan receive this money?”

Sebastian’s mouth hardened.

“Yes.”

Marta made a small sound behind me.

I couldn’t turn around.

If I moved, I thought I might fall.

“All three,” I said.

“Yes.”

I remembered my supervisor refusing to meet my eyes.

The landlord standing in the hall while I tried to fit my clothes into one bag.

Ethan telling me he didn’t know where I should go.

Then Sebastian, finding me on the bench.

A guest room.

A driver.

A note with my name already written on it.

“Were you following me?”

“We were looking for you.”

“Who is we?”

“My people.”

“Since when?”

“Since we realized you hadn’t gone where we expected.”

I stared at him.

“You expected me to go somewhere?”

He drew a breath.

I stepped closer.

“No. You don’t get another minute to decide which part I’m allowed to hear.”

“You’re right.”

“Did you know who I was before you touched my bag at the bus stop?”

“Yes.”

“Did you know my mother?”

“Yes.”

“Did she ask you to do this to me?”

Something in his face broke.

Only briefly.

Long enough for me to see it.

“She asked me to keep you safe.”

I laughed once.

I couldn’t help it.

“Safe?”

My voice rose.

“I spent last night wondering whether I could sleep without someone stealing the only things I had left. I had eleven dollars. Eleven. And you’re standing here telling me that was protection?”

“I’m telling you there’s more than what Vale showed you.”

“Then stop telling me there’s more.”

I pushed the phone against his chest.

He caught it before it fell.

“Your company contacted my boss. You bought my building. Ethan took the money. You admit all of it.”

“Yes.”

“Then explain it.”

He looked toward Marta.

I caught his sleeve before he could turn away.

“No. Look at me.”

He did.

“Tell me why the three people who destroyed my life all lead back to you.”