Chapter 9 - Why Daniel Chose Her.
Elizabeth spent the afternoon telling herself Vivian's final sentence was another attempt to control the story.
By six o'clock, she still could not stop hearing it.
Ask him who gave him your name.
Daniel had told Elizabeth they first met by chance at a university alumni reception.
He had spilled sparkling water near her notebook, apologized, and spent twenty minutes asking about the forecasting model she was sketching for a nonprofit client.
At the time, the coincidence had seemed almost romantic.
Now Elizabeth questioned every part of it.
Maya insisted she stay away from Daniel until the audit was finished.
Elizabeth agreed.
Then Daniel called eleven times.
She ignored the first ten.
On the eleventh, he left a voicemail.
"Please meet me somewhere public."
His voice sounded tired.
"I will answer everything."
Elizabeth listened twice.
She chose a busy hotel coffee shop near Bryant Park and asked Maya to sit at another table.
Daniel arrived twenty minutes early.
He looked nothing like the man who had entered the gala the previous night.
No tuxedo.
No executive pin.
No polished confidence.
He wore a plain gray sweater and held a paper cup he never drank from.
Elizabeth sat across from him.
"Who gave you my name?"
Daniel closed his eyes briefly.
"Marcus."
She had expected the answer.
It still hurt.
"Why?"
"He saw a paper you wrote."
"What paper?"
"A supply chain resilience paper from grad school."
Elizabeth stared at him.
She had published it in an academic journal with almost no readership outside the field.
"Marcus told me you were smart and underused."
"So you approached me?"
Daniel nodded.
"He said Northstar was failing."
"It wasn't Northstar yet."
Daniel looked down.
"Lantern."
The fact that he remembered now made her angry.
"You couldn't answer that in the boardroom."
"I panicked."
"You remembered enough to find me before we were dating."
Daniel's eyes lifted.
"At first, yes. I approached you because Marcus suggested it."
Elizabeth's hands remained flat on the table.
"At first?"
"I did fall in love with you."
She almost laughed.
"Don't use that sentence to clean up the first one."
Daniel looked away.
"I was under pressure."
"So was I."
"You don't understand what Marcus is like."
"Then explain it."
Daniel lowered his voice.
"He wanted Northstar to succeed without Arthur controlling it."
"Why?"
"Because he wanted the board to see him as the person driving the turnaround."
Elizabeth leaned back.
"So he put you in front of it."
"Yes."
"And put me behind you."
Daniel did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Elizabeth felt something inside her finally detach from the version of Daniel she had loved.
He had not merely taken too much credit after a successful project.
He had approached her because a vice chairman identified her as useful.
Even if his feelings later became real, the beginning had been strategic.
"Did your mother know?"
Daniel hesitated again.
"Not at first."
"When did she know?"
"After Northstar started working."
"And the fake assignment?"
Daniel's face tightened.
"I never asked anyone to fake your signature."
"That's not what I asked."
"I knew there was an assignment document."
Elizabeth looked at him for a long moment.
"Did you know I hadn't signed it?"
Daniel's silence lasted too long.
Maya shifted at the other table.
Elizabeth's voice became quieter.
"Did you know?"
"I knew you hadn't signed that version."
The coffee shop noise seemed to disappear.
"And you submitted it anyway?"
"Marcus said legal would fix the paperwork later."
Elizabeth stared at him.
"You let a document with my name go into corporate records knowing I hadn't signed it."
"I was trying to protect the project."
"You were protecting yourself."
Daniel's eyes reddened, but Elizabeth felt no urge to comfort him.
"I made terrible choices."
"Yes."
"But last night with my mother, that wasn't planned."
Elizabeth looked at him.
"Does that make it better?"
"No."
He swallowed.
"I am sorry."
Elizabeth believed he was sorry.
She also understood that regret did not restore trust.
"Why did Vivian confront me at the gala?"
Daniel's gaze shifted toward the window.
"Because Marcus told her the audit committee had received your drafts."
Elizabeth frowned.
"How would Marcus know before Arthur announced it?"
Daniel looked back at her.
"He has someone inside the audit office."
Maya stopped pretending not to listen.
Elizabeth leaned forward.
"Who?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know."
"Then why are you telling me this now?"
"Because Marcus is going to remove Arthur."
Elizabeth stared at him.
Daniel continued.
"There's an emergency board vote tomorrow."
"About what?"
"Chairman Hale's judgment."
"Because he opened an audit?"
"Because Marcus is going to say Arthur let a personal incident at the gala influence governance decisions."
Elizabeth almost could not believe the strategy.
Marcus had helped create the conflict, then planned to use the conflict as evidence that Arthur was unfit to lead.
Daniel reached into his pocket and placed a small flash drive on the table.
Elizabeth did not touch it.
"What's that?"
"Emails Marcus told me to delete."
Maya stood immediately.
Daniel looked toward her.
"I didn't delete all of them."
Elizabeth stared at the drive.
"Why give this to me?"
Daniel's answer came quietly.
"Because tomorrow Marcus is going to say you planned the gala confrontation to destroy me."
Elizabeth felt cold.
"On what evidence?"
May you like
Daniel looked at her.
"A video."
