Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Knew Too Much
"Tell me you didn't do this."
Lauren stared at Ethan across his desk.
"Do what?"
He rotated the monitor.
Her face changed.
That was enough.
Ethan stood.
"Two point eight million dollars."
"I can explain."
"Then explain."
Lauren locked the office door.
"The money isn't gone."
"Where is it?"
"It's being repositioned."
"That's called stealing."
"No. It's called protecting the deal."
Ethan laughed once.
"You used my credentials."
"You gave me access."
"For due diligence."
"And you never read half the documents I put in front of you."
The words hit harder because they were true.
Ethan had been reckless for months.
He had become intoxicated by expansion, status, and Lauren's constant admiration.
Grace asked questions.
Lauren applauded.
Grace reminded him of risk.
Lauren told him he was brilliant.
He had mistaken flattery for loyalty.
"Put it back."
"I can't."
"Why?"
Lauren's silence terrified him.
"Lauren."
"The Southgate numbers aren't real."
Ethan froze.
She explained.
The projected tenant commitments had been inflated. Two letters of intent were fabricated. A consulting company receiving hundreds of thousands in fees was controlled by Lauren's former husband.
Ethan's name appeared on approvals because Lauren had buried them among legitimate documents.
"You set me up."
"I was fixing it."
"You were robbing me."
"I was buying time."
"For whom?"
Lauren looked toward the door.
That was when Ethan understood.
There was someone else.
Meanwhile, Grace sat in an obstetrician's examination room with Daniel beside her.
The doctor smiled after studying the monitor.
"Baby looks good."
Grace released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
Daniel squeezed her hand.
The heartbeat filled the room.
Fast.
Steady.
Alive.
Grace cried.
This time, happily.
Afterward, she walked into the parking lot and found Michael leaning against his car.
"You could've come inside."
"Daniel already looked like he was prepared to buy the hospital."
Grace smiled.
"That sounds like him."
Michael handed her a coffee—decaf, exactly the way she liked it.
Then his expression became serious.
"Ethan's company contacted our legal department."
Grace stopped.
"Why?"
"Southgate."
He told her about the missing money.
Grace listened without interruption.
"Do you think Ethan stole it?"
"We don't know."
"Do you?"
Michael hesitated.
"No."
Grace looked surprised.
"Why?"
"Because he's arrogant, selfish, and apparently capable of hitting my sister."
"Michael."
"But financial fraud? The pattern doesn't look like him."
Grace stared across the parking lot.
She hated herself for knowing the same thing.
Ethan could be vain.
He could be weak.
He had betrayed her.
But during the years when Walker Development had nearly failed, she had watched him return a twenty-dollar overpayment to a supplier because it wasn't his.
People changed.
Still, some patterns mattered.
"Lauren," Grace said.
Michael nodded.
"That's where we're looking."
That afternoon Grace returned to the Myers Park house with her brothers to collect clothing.
Ethan wasn't there.
She was grateful.
In the bedroom, she opened his closet.
His shirts hung in perfect rows.
She remembered ironing them before his first investor meetings because they couldn't afford dry cleaning.
Five years reduced to fabric and memories.
Grace removed her wedding ring.
She placed it on the dresser.
Then she noticed something beneath Ethan's side of the bed.
A folder.
Southgate.
She almost ignored it.
Then she saw Lauren's handwriting.
Grace opened it.
Inside were printouts, property maps, and handwritten notes.
One address appeared repeatedly.
A warehouse near Gastonia.
Grace photographed everything.
Luke appeared in the doorway.
"You okay?"
"No."
"Want me to accidentally drop his television down the stairs?"
She laughed despite herself.
"You're thirty-four."
"I can still be immature when circumstances demand it."
She hugged him.
For the first time in years, Grace realized how much she had missed her brothers.
That evening, Michael's investigators traced the warehouse.
It belonged to Pierce Strategic Holdings.
Lauren's company.
But another name appeared on its original registration.
Richard Vale.
Daniel stared at the screen.
"I know him."
Grace looked over.
"Who?"
"Former vice president at Mercer Holdings."
Michael's jaw tightened.
"Fired eight years ago for manipulating acquisition bids."
Grace's skin prickled.
"Why would Lauren be working with him?"
Daniel leaned back.
"Southgate isn't about Ethan."
Grace understood before he finished.
"It's about us."
Daniel nodded.
"Mercer Holdings is bidding on the adjacent transit development. If Walker's Southgate project collapses under allegations of fraud, it damages every linked investor—including us."
Michael added quietly, "Someone may have been using Ethan to get close enough to Mercer financing."
Grace thought about Lauren entering her home.
Her confidence.
Her strange smile.
Maybe the affair hadn't begun accidentally.
Maybe Lauren had chosen Ethan.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Grace stopped breathing.
It showed Ethan entering the Gastonia warehouse.
Timestamped twenty minutes earlier.
Beneath it was a message.
Your husband knows more than you think. Ask him what he traded for Southgate.
Then another message arrived.
And Grace? Your brothers can't protect you from everything.
Luke read over her shoulder.
His expression hardened.
Daniel reached for his phone.
Grace stopped him.
"No."
All three brothers looked at her.
For years they had protected her.
Solved things for her.
Built walls around her whenever danger approached.
But Grace was no longer the little sister who needed someone else to enter the room first.
She picked up her coat.
"Where are you going?" Daniel asked.
May you like
Grace looked at the photograph.
"To find out whether my husband betrayed more than our marriage."
