Chapter 7 - The Woman in the Red Dress Was Never the Target
They moved into a secure apartment overlooking the Chicago River.
Two bedrooms.
Adrian took the smaller one without discussion.
Zara noticed.
She also noticed he knocked before entering every room she occupied.
It should not have mattered.
It did.
At midnight, she found him making coffee.
“You'll never sleep.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
“You look terrible.”
“Thank you.”
“You're welcome.”
She sat at the counter.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then Adrian pushed a mug toward her.
Peach tea.
Zara stared.
“You remembered.”
“Your mother made peach cobbler every August.”
Her eyes lifted.
He shrugged.
“You challenged me to know something about you.”
“So now you're studying?”
“No.”
A pause.
“I'm paying attention out loud.”
That almost broke her.
Instead she drank the tea.
The following morning, they began examining Thomas's files.
Zara found the pattern.
Not Adrian.
Not Marcus.
Not Graham.
Zara.
She had spent years working as a corporate strategy consultant before withdrawing from professional life after the shooting. Numbers had always made sense to her because her father had taught her that dishonest people could manipulate stories more easily than arithmetic.
Hart's companies had moved millions through literacy charities.
Including hers.
“That's why they targeted the center,” she said.
Adrian leaned over the screen.
“They weren't searching for the ledger.”
“No.”
She highlighted a series of transfers.
“They were searching for evidence of current transactions.”
Graham, who had reluctantly joined them, frowned.
“Why use Zara's charity?”
“Because somebody wanted the money discovered.”
Silence.
Adrian understood first.
“A trap.”
Zara nodded.
“For Hart.”
Marcus leaned closer.
The newest transaction was three days old.
Twenty-eight million dollars.
Scheduled to move through a shell corporation at midnight Friday.
Graham smiled slowly.
“Someone is stealing from Hart.”
“And making it look like Zara found it,” Adrian said.
“Who?”
Evan answered from the sofa.
“Me.”
Everyone turned.
Zara stared at her brother.
“What did you do?”
“I've spent seven years dismantling Hart's network.”
“You moved twenty-eight million dollars?”
“Temporarily.”
“Temporarily?”
“I was going to return most of it.”
Adrian almost admired him.
“Most?”
Evan looked embarrassed.
“I funded some libraries.”
Graham laughed.
Adrian did not.
“You used Zara as bait.”
Evan's smile vanished.
“I never intended—”
“You put your sister's name in Hart's financial chain.”
“I needed him exposed.”
“You needed a strategy that didn't involve getting Zara killed.”
Evan stood despite his injuries.
“At least I did something.”
Adrian went cold.
“What does that mean?”
“It means while you were hiding behind security teams, I spent seven years trying to find out who murdered my father.”
Zara stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Both men stopped.
She turned to Evan.
“You don't get to use me.”
“Zee—”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“You disappeared because you decided I couldn't handle the truth. Adrian shut me out because he decided I couldn't handle danger. Dad hid evidence in my necklace because he decided I shouldn't know.”
She looked around the room.
“Every man who claims to love me keeps making decisions for me.”
No one answered.
“That's over.”
Adrian nodded first.
“Agreed.”
Evan looked ashamed.
“Agreed.”
Graham raised both hands.
“I barely know you, so I'm staying out of this.”
Zara almost laughed.
Then Marcus's computer beeped.
The twenty-eight million dollars had moved.
Not Friday.
Now.
Someone had changed the transfer.
The destination account appeared.
Adrian stared.
It belonged to Cross Global Freight.
His company.
Graham whistled.
“That's bad.”
Adrian's phone rang immediately.
Federal investigators had arrived at Cross headquarters.
Within twenty minutes, news stations were reporting allegations of money laundering.
Cross Global stock began collapsing.
Adrian watched billions of dollars evaporate from his company valuation.
Zara studied him.
“You're surprisingly calm.”
“I've lost money before.”
“How much?”
“Not this much.”
She almost smiled.
Then his phone rang again.
His attorney.
Adrian listened.
“What?”
Zara watched his expression change.
He hung up.
“The divorce petition was filed this morning.”
She froze.
“But the papers burned.”
“Copies existed.”
“You said you wouldn't file.”
“I didn't.”
Marcus checked the legal portal.
The filing appeared legitimate.
Zara Cross versus Adrian Cross.
Petitioner:
Zara.
Her face went white.
“I didn't file that.”
Adrian looked at the screen.
Someone wasn't merely trying to destroy his business.
May you like
They were trying to destroy their marriage publicly.
And whoever had done it possessed Zara's authenticated digital signature.
