Chapter 11 - The Threat That Changed the Rules
I showed Sophie the message.
Not because I wanted to.
Because Maya was right.
For two years, I had tried to protect my daughter by controlling what she knew. I had confused silence with safety.
Sophie read the threat and turned pale.
“Are they going to hurt me?”
“No.”
“You don't know that.”
She was right again.
So I changed the answer.
“I'm going to do everything I can to make sure they don't.”
“I should leave,” she said.
“No.”
“They're using me to get to you.”
“They were coming after you before you met Sophie.”
She looked toward the staircase. “She's eight.”
“So was I when my father taught me that running from bullies only makes them choose the next person.”
Maya raised an eyebrow. “Did your father also have six security guards?”
“Five.”
For the first time, she smiled.
The next morning, Evan located Priya Shah.
She refused to speak on the phone.
We drove to Milwaukee that afternoon.
Priya met us in a small coffee shop near the lake. She looked exhausted before we even sat down.
“I told Claire to let it go,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because the numbers led outside Lakeview.”
“To Nolan?”
Her eyes snapped to mine.
“You know.”
“Not enough.”
Priya stirred coffee she never drank.
“Nolan created FuturePath with Whitmore and two vendors. Lakeview sent scholarship money to FuturePath for 'student support services.' FuturePath paid consulting companies. Those companies sent money back into private investment vehicles.”
“Whose vehicles?”
“One belonged to Whitmore. One belonged to Nolan.”
My stomach turned.
“Do you have proof?”
Priya looked at Maya.
“I had it.”
“Had?”
“My apartment was broken into after I resigned. My laptop vanished.”
Maya closed her eyes.
Priya reached into her purse.
“But Claire taught me something.”
She placed a tiny storage card on the table.
“Never keep only one copy.”
Before I could touch it, a chair crashed behind us.
A man in a gray coat grabbed Priya's purse and ran.
Evan shot up after him.
May you like
I reached for the storage card.
It was gone.
