Chapter 7 - THE MAN I ALMOST MARRIEDI had once imagined marrying Jason.
That was the humiliating part.
Not because he cheated.
Because even after years of subtle cruelty, I had mistaken familiarity for safety.
The photograph changed that history again.
Jason wasn't simply standing near Raymond Vale.
They were speaking.
A second image showed Vale handing him an envelope.
I called Daniel.
He answered on the first ring.
“Emily?”
“Jason knows Vale.”
Silence.
“Where are you?”
“Bookstore.”
“Stay there.”
“Daniel—”
“I'll explain when I arrive.”
“You knew?”
Another pause.
That was enough.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
I hung up.
Daniel arrived nine minutes later.
I was waiting upstairs in the employee break room.
He entered alone.
“How long?”
“Two days.”
I stared at him.
“You promised no more secrets.”
“I promised you the whole truth about why I approached you. I learned about Jason afterward.”
“That is an impressive technicality.”
“And a bad excuse.”
At least he knew.
Daniel placed a folder on the table.
Jason had worked as a financial analyst for a subsidiary of Vale Holdings three years earlier.
He never told me.
He'd claimed he worked for an independent consulting firm.
“Why would he lie?”
“We believe Vale asked him to get close to you.”
My stomach twisted.
“No.”
“You met Jason four years ago.”
“At a coffee shop.”
“Two weeks after Vale's investigators located your mother.”
I sat down.
Four years.
Our first date.
Our first apartment.
Christmas mornings.
Arguments about dishes.
The stupid yellow couch.
Had any of it been real?
Daniel seemed to understand the question.
“We don't know.”
“I do.”
“How?”
“Because people don't accidentally build four years of their lives around surveillance.”
My voice broke.
Daniel moved closer, then stopped.
He didn't touch me.
He waited.
I closed the distance myself.
For several seconds, I pressed my forehead against his chest.
His arms came around me carefully.
Not possession.
Not rescue.
Just warmth.
“I feel stupid.”
“You aren't.”
“I lived with him.”
“Being deceived isn't evidence of stupidity.”
“I should have noticed.”
“People who manipulate trust depend on that thought afterward.”
I looked up.
“Since when are mafia bosses therapists?”
“I contain multitudes.”
I laughed weakly.
Then someone knocked downstairs.
Marcus called.
“Daniel.”
We descended.
Jason stood outside.
Police officers were with him.
He had surrendered.
His face looked terrible.
“I need to speak to Emily.”
“No,” Daniel said.
I stepped around him.
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at me.
“My decision.”
After a moment, he nodded.
Jason sat across from me in the bookstore café.
Two detectives remained nearby.
Daniel stayed across the room.
Jason looked at his hands.
“Vale hired me.”
The words still hurt.
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand initially.”
I swallowed.
“For what?”
“To get close to you.”
Four years reduced to a number.
“Did you ever love me?”
Jason closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Don't.”
“I did.”
“You were paid.”
“At first.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That phrase is becoming very popular with men in my life.”
Daniel heard.
He looked away.
Jason continued.
“Vale thought your father had contacted you. He wanted me to find out.”
“And when you realized I knew nothing?”
“I should've left.”
“But you stayed.”
“Because I loved you.”
“Then you cheated.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I hated myself around you.”
That wasn't the answer I expected.
“You trusted me. Every day. And every day I knew why I'd entered your life.”
His eyes filled.
“I started destroying the relationship because I was too much of a coward to tell you the truth.”
I felt strangely calm.
“Who was she?”
“Rachel worked for Vale.”
Of course.
“She wasn't an affair?”
“She was.”
Jason looked ashamed.
“But she was also checking whether I'd completed the assignment.”
“And now?”
“Vale ordered me to get your father's ledger.”
“Why surrender?”
Jason looked toward the window.
“Because Vale killed Rachel yesterday.”
The room went silent.
“She tried to leave.”
My anger remained, but something colder joined it.
Fear.
Jason slid a flash drive across the table.
“I copied his financial records.”
Daniel approached.
Jason looked at him.
“There's enough there to connect Vale to the kidnappings, bribery, and Rachel's murder.”
“Why give it to us?”
“Because he's cleaning house.”
Jason looked at me.
“And Emily is next.”
Federal investigators took the drive.
Within hours, warrants were issued.
Vale's properties were searched.
His accounts were frozen.
But Raymond Vale remained missing.
Saturday arrived.
I assumed our date was canceled.
At seven-thirty, Daniel appeared at Maple Street Books anyway.
No convoy.
No Grand Oak.
He carried two paper bags.
“What is that?”
“Dinner.”
“Where?”
He pointed upstairs.
“You said no mafia business.”
“So?”
“Vale is missing.”
“Federal agents are handling Vale.”
“You're actually stepping away?”
“For tonight.”
We ate Italian takeout on the bookstore floor.
My dress cost forty dollars.
Daniel wore a sweater.
No chandeliers.
No spectators.
It was perfect.
“Why aren't you married?” I asked.
“Terrible conversational skills.”
“Seriously.”
He considered.
“Because most people who approached me wanted something.”
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“What did you want?”
“At the Grand Oak?”
“Yes.”
“Information.”
“And now?”
His eyes held mine.
“You.”
My heartbeat stumbled.
“That's alarmingly direct.”
“I've wasted enough time being indirect.”
I looked down.
“I'm not ready for complicated.”
“Neither am I.”
“You are literally the most complicated man I've ever met.”
“Fair.”
He leaned closer.
“Then we'll keep it simple.”
“How?”
“One dinner.”
“We're having one.”
“One tomorrow.”
I smiled.
“And after that?”
“Another.”
His hand rested beside mine.
I turned mine over.
Our fingers touched.
Then the lights went out.
Daniel stood instantly.
“Emily.”
Glass shattered downstairs.
Marcus shouted.
Daniel pulled me behind a bookshelf.
Footsteps thundered up the stairs.
Then a familiar voice came from the darkness.
“Emily Carter.”
Raymond Vale.
Daniel moved in front of me.
Vale laughed.
“You really are your father's daughter.”
A flashlight illuminated his face.
And in his hand was a gun.
He pointed it directly at Daniel.
“Move,” Vale said.
Daniel didn't.
May you like
Vale smiled.
“Then I suppose our little bookstore romance ends here.”
