Chapter 4
I woke up at four in the morning.
The apartment was too quiet.
Too big.
Too empty.
I made coffee and sat at the kitchen table.
The sun was just starting to come up over Central Park.
Ten years of memories played behind my eyes like a movie I couldn’t turn off.
Our first date.
Our wedding.
The night he’d held me when my mother died.
All of it felt tainted now.
Every sweet moment had a lie underneath it.
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I almost didn’t answer.
“Hello?”
“Emily.”
Madison.
Her voice was tight.
Scared.
“We need to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Ethan’s been calling me all night. He’s talking about cutting a deal. He’s going to tell the police I planned everything. That I forged the documents. That I manipulated him.”
I laughed.
It was a harsh, ugly sound.
“And you think I care?”
“You should care. Because if he goes down, he’s taking you with him.”
That got my attention.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ethan kept records. Everything. Every email. Every meeting. Every time your father pulled strings to get him promoted. If the FBI gets those records, Charles Whitmore goes down for influence peddling. Your family name gets dragged through every newspaper in the country.”
I gripped the phone tighter.
“You’re lying.”
“Am I? Ask yourself—would Ethan really let himself be the only one who burns? He’s already drafting his statement. He’s going to say he was just a pawn in the Whitmore family’s corporate takeover. That your father used him as a front man for years. That you knew everything and helped cover it up.”
The coffee went sour in my stomach.
She was right.
Ethan would do exactly that.
He’d spent ten years taking credit for things he hadn’t done.
He’d spend the next ten blaming other people for things he had.
“What do you want, Madison?”
“Five million dollars. Cash. Wire it to an account in the Caymans by Friday. In exchange, I give you every record Ethan kept. Every email. Every document. I also sign a statement saying I acted alone. Ethan goes to prison. Your father stays clean. Your name stays out of the papers.”
“Five million dollars you stole from my family wasn’t enough?”
“I earned every penny of that,” she snapped. “I worked eighteen-hour days while you sat at home spending your father’s money. I made Ethan look good. I wrote his speeches. I closed his deals. I was the real brains behind everything.”
“You were his accomplice.”
“I was his partner. Until you and your father decided to rewrite history.”
She paused.
“You have until Friday, Emily. Five p.m. Eastern time. If the money isn’t in the account, I send everything to the FBI. And to the New York Times. And to every business news network in the country. Your father’s legacy dies. Your family’s company loses billions. And you get to watch it all happen because you were too proud to pay for the truth.”
She hung up.
I sat there with the phone in my hand.
The sun was fully up now.
A beautiful August morning.
The kind of day Ethan and I used to spend walking through the park, talking about the future.
I called my father.
He answered on the first ring.
“Madison just called,” I said. “She wants five million by Friday. She says Ethan has records that could take you down.”
My father was quiet for a long moment.
“I was afraid of this,” he said finally. “She’s not bluffing. Ethan kept a private server. We found references to it in the company emails last night. IT is trying to access it now, but it’s heavily encrypted. He could have anything on there.”
“Then we pay her?”
“Absolutely not. We don’t negotiate with criminals. If we pay once, she’ll come back for more. And more. Until there’s nothing left.”
“Dad, if she releases those records—”
“Let her. I’ve done nothing illegal. Every connection I made for Ethan was above board. I called in favors from old friends. That’s not influence peddling. That’s business. Ethan’s the one who forged my signature on guarantees I never gave. Ethan’s the one who siphoned money into offshore accounts. Ethan’s the one who committed fraud.”
He paused.
“But Madison doesn’t know that. She thinks those records are her insurance policy. Let’s use that.”
“What’s the plan?”
“Meet with her. Tell her you’ll pay. But you need to see the records first. Verify they’re real. We’ll record the conversation. We’ll get her to admit she’s extorting you. Then we arrest her.”
“I don’t want to be alone with her.”
“You won’t be. Two plainclothes officers will be in the next booth. My security team will be outside. She’ll never get within ten feet of you without us knowing.”
I thought about it.
Madison thought she was the smartest person in every room.
She’d spent ten years underestimating me.
Everyone had.
The quiet wife.
The rich man’s daughter.
The trophy who never said anything.
They thought I was weak because I was kind.
They thought I was stupid because I stayed in the background.
May you like
They were about to learn how wrong they’d been.
“Set it up,” I said.
