Chapter 7
I set my phone facedown on the table.
The threat had come from an unknown number. That didn’t make the words harmless, and it didn’t make the sender Cole. I wasn’t going to let either fear or anger decide what I did next.
Daniel was still on the line. “Don’t reply. Can you read me the number?”
I did. He checked it against the contact information he had, then paused.
“It isn’t one of Cole’s known numbers,” he said. “That doesn’t tell us who controls it.”
“So it could still be him.”
“Yes.”
The babies shifted in their carriers. Noah made a small, congested sound; Lily’s fists opened and closed against her blanket. I moved closer, listening for the uneven breathing that had kept me awake through the night, then looked back at the phone.
A second message arrived.
This time it held an image.
I didn’t open it immediately. I photographed the screen showing the message and its time, then sent the image to Daniel without replying to the sender.
“Preserve it,” I said.
“I will. Don’t forward anything to anyone else yet.”
Then I opened the attachment.
It was an invoice on a plain white page. Northwind Advisory Group was printed across the top, with Blue Heron Client Solutions beneath it. The description read client-relations strategy and vendor support. At the bottom, beside a line marked Prepared by, was Sierra Vaughn’s signature.
I stared at her name until the letters seemed to press into the screen.
The hotel image came back to me: white sheets, champagne, Cole’s hand at her waist. The necklace in its box. The receipt with those four words written across it. I felt anger rise so quickly it almost became relief. Here, finally, was something that didn’t ask me to interpret a touch or explain why his smile had gone cold.
But an invoice wasn’t the whole story. It didn’t prove who had submitted the trust request, or what Sierra knew.
“I recognize her signature from the company dinner programs,” I said. “But anyone could send this.”
“That’s right,” Daniel said. “Don’t let a document tell you more than it can.”
I wanted to ask who would send it if not Sierra. Instead, I searched my wallet for the business card she’d given me at a company event months earlier. I found it tucked behind my medical cards, her name printed under the company logo. The number on it was different from the one texting me.
Daniel stayed on the phone while I called the company’s main line from the card. I asked to be connected to Sierra Vaughn. A receptionist transferred me. It rang twice.
“Hello?”
The voice was familiar. I had heard it over clinking glasses and Cole’s smooth introductions, always bright, always composed.
“Sierra, it’s Lauren Bennett.”
Silence.
“Lauren,” she said at last.
“I’m calling the number on your company card. I’m not replying to the texts I received.”
Another pause. I could hear voices in the background, distant and indistinct.
“Did you see the invoice?” she asked.
“I saw an invoice with your name on it. I haven’t decided what it proves.”
“It proves I prepared paperwork for Northwind.”
The admission landed with a quiet weight. My fingers tightened around the phone.
“What paperwork?”
“The vendor paperwork. The invoices. Some of the supporting documents for the distribution request.”
“For the request made in my name?”
“I didn’t submit it.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
She let out a breath. “I helped prepare it.”
Noah whimpered. I rested my hand on the edge of his blanket, feeling the warmth of him through the fabric.
“Why?”
“Cole said it was already approved. He said you’d signed off and the trust was just slow to process it.”
“You expected me to believe that?”
“I expected him to handle it.”
Her answer came too quickly, as if she’d practiced it. The signature on the invoice blurred for a moment, and I blinked until it sharpened again.
“You knew the money was coming from my trust.”
“I knew it was a distribution request. Cole told me the details were settled.”
“You helped build the paperwork.”
“I know what it looks like.”
“You don’t get to tell me what it looks like.”
Her voice lowered. “I’m not asking you to like me.”
“Then what are you asking?”
She hesitated. Beneath the polished tone, I heard something raw—fear, maybe, or the first crack in the story she had been telling herself.
“Don’t expose me,” she said. “Please. If Cole finds out I gave you anything, he’ll say I did this alone. He’ll make sure I’m the only one who gets blamed.”
The request stirred a bitter laugh in my throat, though none came out. She had been beside him in that hotel bed. She had taken the necklace. Now she wanted me to protect her from the man she’d helped.
“I’m not going to lie for you,” I said. “And I won’t decide what happened just because you’re scared.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t know me.”
The line went quiet. I heard Lily fuss, then settle as I rubbed her back through her blanket.
“Send the original invoice through a channel Daniel can preserve,” I said. “Don’t alter it. Don’t ask me to hide your part in this.”
“Okay.”
“And I need to know what you mean when you say Cole told you it was approved. Did you see anything that made you think I’d authorized it?”
“I saw a file.”
“What file?”
“The original authorization file.”
My palm went cold against the phone.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
A faint rustle came through the call. When Sierra spoke again, the polished edge was gone.
“Cole has it. He took it from your old tablet.”
