Chapter 10 - The Other Woman
The photograph was dated two years earlier.
Daniel stood on a yacht in Miami with his arm around a dark-haired woman in a red dress.
Kelly watched Claire study the image.
"Her name is Sabrina Cole."
Claire looked up.
"Who is she?"
"She used to handle private investments for Daniel."
"Used to?"
Kelly nodded.
"She disappeared from the company about eighteen months ago."
Claire remembered the name vaguely.
Sabrina had been listed as a consultant on several board packets.
Daniel had said she moved overseas.
Kelly placed her phone on the table.
"I found messages from her when I started using the Miami condo."
"Daniel forgot to wipe an old tablet."
Claire's jaw tightened.
"You knew he had another affair?"
"Not at first."
"Later, yes."
"And you stayed?"
Kelly looked away.
"I told myself he was leaving you."
"I told myself everything ugly had an expiration date."
Claire's voice stayed cold.
"Convenient."
Kelly accepted the insult.
"Sabrina was not just an affair."
"She helped him build Blue Harbor."
That caught Claire's attention.
Kelly opened a folder of screenshots.
Sabrina had warned Daniel that the structure would be vulnerable without Claire's genuine consent.
Daniel replied that genuine consent was a luxury.
Then the messages stopped.
"What happened to her?"
Claire asked.
"I don't know."
"But the Miami condo was originally leased for Sabrina."
"After she left, Daniel moved me into it."
Claire felt a wave of disgust.
Kelly had believed she was being chosen.
In reality, she had been placed into a vacancy.
"Why bring this now?"
Kelly's eyes filled, but she did not cry.
"Because he told me something on the island."
"He said if the board came after him, he would prove I created the fake approvals."
Claire glanced at Maya.
Kelly continued.
"He has emails drafted from my account."
"He has approval logs using my credentials."
"Some are real."
"Some are not."
Maya asked, "Can you prove that?"
Kelly nodded.
"The tablet can."
"Where is it?"
Kelly looked at the keycard.
"Miami."
The next morning, Leon sent an investigator to secure the device with Kelly's consent.
Before he reached the condominium, the building manager called.
Someone had entered the unit during the night.
The old tablet was gone.
Nothing else had been taken.
Claire felt the familiar cold settle over her.
Daniel had arrived in New York only hours earlier.
He could not have been in Miami.
That meant someone else was helping him.
Maya pulled the access records.
The door had been opened with a maintenance master key.
The building manager identified the employee assigned that code.
His name was Victor Hale.
Claire stared at the name.
She knew it.
Victor Hale was Daniel's personal security consultant.
Her phone vibrated again.
Anonymous sender.
Victor has the tablet.
Do not let Daniel know you know.
Claire typed a reply for the first time.
Who are you?
Three dots appeared.
Then vanished.
May you like
A minute later, the answer arrived.
Someone Daniel already tried to erase.
