Chapter 12 - The Man in the Gray Coat
“Did he take it?” Priya asked.
“The card was on the table.”
Maya looked under cups, napkins, chairs.
Nothing.
Priya covered her face.
“I knew this was a mistake.”
Then Sophie bent down.
“Is this it?”
She held up a tiny black memory card between two fingers.
It had fallen into the cuff of her coat.
Priya laughed once, almost hysterically.
“Yes.”
Five minutes later, Evan called.
The thief had escaped into a car.
But not before a traffic camera caught the plate.
The vehicle was leased to a contractor owned by FuturePath Chicago.
By the time we returned home, federal investigators had been contacted by my legal team. I wanted arrests immediately. My attorney wanted evidence handled properly.
For once, I listened.
The storage card contained bank statements, invoices, internal Lakeview ledgers, and emails.
One email made the room go silent.
FROM: Nolan Price
TO: Charles Whitmore
SUBJECT: BENNETT
She's a kid. Isolate her, discredit her, and the problem ends.
Maya stared at the screen.
“I told you.”
Her voice was not triumphant.
It was broken.
Another email referred to me.
DH is barely functional. Approvals won't be an issue for months.
I read it twice.
They had used my grief as a business opportunity.
I felt rage rise hot behind my eyes.
Then shame followed it.
Because they had not been completely wrong.
I had been barely functional.
I had also kept pretending I was fine.
Sophie came close and slipped her hand into mine.
“Dad?”
“I'm okay.”
Maya gave me a look.
I corrected myself.
“No. I'm furious. And embarrassed. And I miss your mom so much I still wake up angry that the other side of the bed is cold.”
Sophie started crying.
So did I.
We stood there, surrounded by evidence of betrayal, and for the first time since Claire died, I stopped hiding my grief from my child.
Then Evan's phone rang.
His face changed.
“What?” I asked.
He put the call on speaker.
Our office security chief sounded breathless.
“Mr. Harrison, Nolan Price entered headquarters twenty minutes ago using an old access credential. He's in the executive server room.”
“What is he doing?”
“We think he's wiping data.”
A crash sounded over the line.
May you like
Then the security chief shouted.
“Nolan has a gun.”
