Chapter 6 - The Price of Leaving.
Maya stared at the cashier’s check for a long time without touching it.
Two hundred thousand dollars was more money than she had ever seen connected to her name.
It was also enough to make her feel insulted before she felt afraid.
Adrian sat across the study from her.
Mason had already photographed the check, the envelope, and the note.
The attorney wanted a forensic accountant to trace the issuing bank.
Maya wanted to tear it in half.
“Don’t,” Mason said.
“It’s evidence.”
Maya looked at him.
“Of what?”
“Bribery?”
“Intimidation?”
“Or someone making me look guilty?”
Adrian said nothing.
Maya turned toward him.
“That silence is getting old.”
Adrian’s expression tightened.
“I’m thinking.”
“No.”
“You’re deciding whether this changes how you see me.”
He met her eyes.
“It doesn’t.”
“Then say it faster.”
The words landed harder than she intended.
Adrian looked down at the check.
“You didn’t ask for this.”
“I know that.”
“I’m saying I know it too.”
Maya’s shoulders lowered slightly.
Mason cleared his throat.
“The larger problem is timing.”
“The board meets tomorrow afternoon.”
“If Maya leaves now, Grant can claim she was paid to disappear.”
“If she stays, he can claim she is influencing Adrian.”
Maya gave a humorless laugh.
“So every door leads to the same hallway.”
Adrian looked toward the window.
“Not every door.”
He had spent years running a company by assuming every opponent preferred obvious choices.
Grant’s mistake might be believing Adrian had become too tired to look for a third option.
Adrian instructed Mason to deposit the check into a legal escrow account and document every step.
Then he asked Maya to remain in the house until the hearing.
Not as staff.
As a witness.
Maya studied him carefully.
“You trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Even after this?”
“Especially after this.”
For the first time since the storage unit, some of the distance between them eased.
That evening, Lily found the adults in the dining room surrounded by files.
She wore pajamas covered in tiny stars and carried her red bowl like a badge of office.
“Why is everybody mad?”
Maya pulled her onto a chair.
“Nobody’s mad at you.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Adrian looked at Maya.
Maya sighed.
“She gets that from me.”
Lily looked at Adrian.
“Are you mad?”
He considered lying.
He did not.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Someone is trying to take something that belongs to me.”
Lily thought about that.
“Did you put your name on it?”
Mason turned away to hide a smile.
Adrian almost laughed.
“Several times.”
“Then tell them no.”
The simplicity of it hit him unexpectedly.
For months, everyone around him had discussed his limitations, his recovery, his risk, his fatigue, and his future.
Lily discussed only what he wanted.
He realized how rarely anyone had asked him that directly.
The next morning, Adrian attended physical therapy at seven.
He usually treated the exercises like punishment.
This time he pushed through every repetition.
Maya stood in the doorway while Lily counted loudly and incorrectly.
“Six.”
“Seven.”
“Nine.”
“You skipped eight,” Adrian said through clenched teeth.
“I don’t like eight.”
He laughed once despite the strain.
The therapist looked at Maya as if asking what had changed.
Maya simply nodded toward Lily.
After therapy, Mason arrived with news about the check.
The issuing account belonged to a private holding company.
The holding company had one authorized officer.
Grant’s executive assistant, Celeste Rowe.
Maya’s anger sharpened.
“That’s enough.”
Mason shook his head.
“It links Celeste.”
“Not Grant.”
Adrian wheeled toward the desk.
“Then we make Celeste choose.”
Mason looked concerned.
“Choose what?”
“Whether she wants to protect her employer or protect herself.”
They sent Celeste a formal legal notice requesting preservation of all records tied to Harbor North, the security logs, and the cashier’s check.
The response came thirty minutes later.
Celeste resigned from Vale Group.
Then she disappeared from her apartment.
Her phone went straight to voicemail.
Grant immediately issued a statement to the board blaming her for unauthorized financial activity.
It was fast.
Too fast.
Mason read the statement aloud.
“Mr. Vale had no knowledge of Ms. Rowe’s independent actions.”
Adrian leaned back.
“He’s cutting her loose.”
Maya looked toward Daniel’s recorder.
“And she knows it.”
The board hearing was now four hours away.
Mason’s phone buzzed again.
This time the message came from an unknown number.
There was no text.
Only a photograph.
Celeste stood in front of a bus station locker wall holding a blue folder.
May you like
A handwritten sign beside her contained three words.
ASK MAYA ABOUT DANIEL.
