Chapter 8 - What Dean Didn't Tell Me
Dean left the hospital room to call Detective Nia Brooks, the officer assigned to the assault. While he was gone, I looked at the small white sock the NICU nurse had placed on my bedside table. It was so tiny I could fit it over one thumb.
Celia noticed. "She's beautiful," she said.
"She's never even been outside. And people are already using her to bargain with me."
Celia's face crumpled. "I knew something was wrong with Owen. I just couldn't admit how wrong."
We sat together until Dean returned. He said the detective had located the security guard, Jonah Pike, but Pike claimed he'd only carried my purse to the coatroom for safekeeping. He denied having my phone. He also claimed the hotel's camera system had failed during a routine update.
"Dalia says there was no scheduled update," Dean said. "Brooks is getting the system logs."
I watched his face. "You knew Maren was in trouble before the wedding."
He stared at me.
"You kept asking me to wait until after Owen got married," I continued. "You told me not to bring work to a family event. Why?"
He sat down slowly. "Two months ago Maren asked me to co-sign a bridge loan for Harbor House. I refused. She said a donor pledge was delayed and everyone was panicking. I thought she was exaggerating."
"What else?"
"She asked whether you still kept a work laptop in the study."
Cold settled between my shoulder blades.
"And you answered her?"
"I said yes." He rubbed his face. "I didn't think she meant to break into anything. She's my sister."
"And I'm your wife."
He accepted that without defending himself. "You're right. I should have told you."
An alert appeared on the hospital tablet I used to check email. Someone had attempted to reset the password to my professional cloud account from a device at the Mercer family office.
Then another alert followed: A recovery code had been used successfully.
May you like
Dean was already reaching for his phone when a third message arrived.
Your account backup files are being deleted.
