What Her Lover Had Done

Audrey asked about the records before they reached the car.

Julian opened the door for her, then waited while she stood facing him beneath the entrance lights.

"You said my father's name."

"I did."

"Why did Ryan look like that?"

Julian glanced toward the building.

"Let's talk at home."

She remained where she was.

"You keep asking me to trust you. Don't make me spend the drive inventing an answer."

He took a slow breath.

"We've found inconsistencies in the documents used against your father's company. Ryan had access to the originals."

Her fingers tightened around her clutch.

"You think he knows what happened?"

"I think he may know more than he's admitted."

She got into the car without another question.

At home, they checked on Poppy before going to Julian's office. Audrey slipped off her shoes and sat on the sofa, still wearing the black dress.

He brought water and explained what his investigators had found: altered records, unexplained access, links between people employed by Renshaw and the material used in the old case.

Nothing had been resolved yet. There was enough to pursue.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I didn't want to give you hope before I had something solid."

"Hope belongs to me, too, Julian. You don't get to ration it."

He sat beside her.

"Then I'll tell you what happens next. As it happens."

She looked at him.

"Promise me that one properly."

"I promise."

Audrey rested her head against his shoulder. For once, his body didn't distract her from the problem. It gave her a place to endure it.

Ryan requested a meeting the next morning.

He came to Mercer Group frightened, angry, and carrying nothing he could afford to lose. He told Julian he had copies of the documents he'd stolen from Lane Construction, recordings of Renshaw's instructions, and versions showing what had been altered.

He had kept them as insurance.

Now Renshaw suspected him of keeping more than a subordinate should.

"You helped destroy her family," Julian said.

Ryan looked away.

"I didn't decide the whole thing."

"That isn't a denial."

"No."

There had been resentment, Ryan explained. Edward hadn't considered him suitable for Audrey. Renshaw had offered money and advancement, told him the firm would fall with or without his help.

Ryan had chosen to profit from it.

He now wanted protection for himself and his family while he supplied evidence. Julian directed him through lawyers and investigators rather than promising that a private agreement could erase a crime.

Ryan also described the name Renshaw had used for his outside contacts.

Black Feather.

Julian went still.

It was a name connected to the old investigation his own father had been pursuing before the crash that killed both his parents. Thomas had kept much of it from the boy he'd raised afterward.

Julian had recently learned that some questions remained unanswered.

He did not know whether the same network had targeted Audrey's family because of him. The possibility was enough to keep him awake.

He demanded copies that could be preserved and authenticated. Ryan agreed to deliver the first archive through his lawyer, then left with the expression of a man who disliked every available way to stay alive.

Julian told Audrey that afternoon, keeping the promise he'd made on the sofa.

She listened without interrupting until he said Ryan had admitted taking the records.

Then she stood.

"He knew?"

"He knew they would be used."

She walked to the window. The city below continued moving as if nothing had changed.

"My mother died," she said.

Julian came near, not touching her yet.

"Audrey."

"I defended him to her. I kept telling her she didn't know him the way I did."

Her voice broke on the last word.

"She was right. Dad was right. And I kept fighting them for him."

He caught her when she turned, and this time she didn't ask him to wait.

She gripped his jacket and cried with a force that frightened her. It wasn't grief made new. It was old grief finally given another name.

"I brought him into our lives."

"He chose what he did."

"I helped him get the job."

"You helped someone you trusted. He betrayed that trust. Those are different things."

She shook her head against him.

Julian held her more tightly.

"Look at me."

She couldn't.

He waited until she could.

"You're not the person who altered the records. You're not the person who sold them. Don't let him hand you his guilt because you've always been better at carrying pain than he is."

She stared at him through tears.

"I want my father back."

"That's what we're working toward."

"Not just punishment. Not a business deal. Dad."

"I understand."

She drew a shaky breath and asked for the lawyers' names, the investigator's contact details, and a description of what surviving family documents might help.

Julian gave her all three.

That night, she emptied the last boxes from her mother's house onto the study floor. He sat beside her, sorting envelopes while she recognized handwriting she hadn't seen in years.

They found correspondence, employment dates, and invoices that could help place people inside the company at specific times.

None was a miracle. All was worth preserving.

At two in the morning, Audrey fell asleep against Julian with an unopened envelope in her hand.

He took it gently, set it beside the others, and carried her upstairs.

She woke enough to realize he had brought her to their bedroom.

"Julian."

He stopped beside the bed.

"Do you want the other room?"

She looked at his face, then shook her head.

"Stay with me."

He lay beside her without asking for anything else.

Audrey held his hand beneath the blanket and slept.

Before dawn, Miles called.

Renshaw had instructed Ryan to leave the country permanently. His family's safety had been mentioned with enough emphasis to make the meaning clear.

Audrey heard the call from her pillow.

She sat up.

"Tell him to deliver the evidence now," she said. "Before someone decides there won't be another morning."