Chapter 5 - The Page Everyone Was Willing to Kill For
Ryan surrendered the page to federal investigators that afternoon.
I didn't see him.
I saw the evidence.
The page documented seventeen payments.
Bribes.
Kickbacks.
Illegal acquisitions.
And one payment that made my stomach turn.
L.M. — $300,000 — Hartwell access.
Linda.
Three hundred thousand dollars.
Hartwell access.
Below it:
R.M. placement successful.
I felt sick.
Ryan had been placed inside my company.
But according to him, he hadn't known.
Linda had manipulated her own son into becoming a doorway.
Four years earlier, Ryan lost his job.
Linda told him I needed operations help.
She separately convinced me Ryan desperately needed purpose.
I hired him.
We both believed we were helping the other.
Meanwhile, Linda collected $300,000 from Voss.
That was the first time I understood the true nature of her.
Linda wasn't simply greedy.
She was strategic.
She had spent years turning relationships into transactions.
And I had financed her while she sold pieces of my life.
Federal investigators froze several accounts.
Voss disappeared.
His private jet never left the country, but nobody could find him.
Linda disappeared too.
Then something happened that changed everything.
Project Bluebird's announcement moved forward.
Bellamy International publicly named Hartwell its preferred North American design supplier.
Forty-six million dollars over five years.
Employees cheered.
Reporters called.
Our valuation nearly doubled overnight.
The sabotage had failed.
But success created another problem.
Now everyone knew exactly what Hartwell was worth.
That evening, I returned home under police protection.
Sophie was asleep upstairs.
Dad made coffee.
I sat at the kitchen table staring at nothing.
"You okay?" he asked.
"No."
"Good."
I looked at him.
He shrugged.
"If you said yes, I'd worry."
I smiled weakly.
Then he asked the question I had avoided.
"Do you still love Ryan?"
I looked down.
"Yes."
Dad nodded.
"I hate that."
"Love doesn't disappear just because someone deserves your anger."
"I know."
"But I'm not taking him back."
"Good."
That answer came very quickly.
I laughed.
Dad smiled.
Then the security alarm sounded.
Back door.
Police moved immediately.
Someone was outside.
But it wasn't Linda.
It was Ryan.
Hands raised.
Bruised face.
Blood on his shirt.
An officer brought him inside after searching him.
Sophie woke and ran downstairs.
"Dad!"
Ryan dropped to his knees.
She stopped before reaching him.
She remembered the slap.
He saw it.
His face broke.
"It's okay," he whispered. "You don't have to hug me."
Sophie began crying.
So did he.
I sent her upstairs with Dad.
Then faced my husband.
"What happened?"
"Voss's people found me."
"Why come here?"
"Because Linda called me."
My stomach tightened.
"What did she say?"
"She wants the page."
"It's with federal investigators."
"I told her."
"And?"
Ryan looked toward the stairs.
"She said the page wasn't what she really wanted."
"What does she want?"
"You."
I stared.
"Why?"
He reached into his jacket slowly.
Police tensed.
He pulled out an old photograph.
Me.
Age twenty-four.
Standing beside my mother.
I hadn't seen that photograph in fifteen years.
"Where did you get this?"
"Linda."
"Why does she have it?"
Ryan swallowed.
"Emily, my mother knew your mother."
The room seemed to tilt.
"My mother died when I was twenty-six."
"I know."
"Linda told me they'd never met."
"She lied."
Of course she did.
"What does this have to do with Hartwell?"
Ryan placed another photograph on the table.
Our mothers together.
Young.
Smiling.
Standing in front of a building.
A sign behind them read:
HARTWELL-MERCER TEXTILES
I stared at the name.
Mercer.
My husband's family name.
Ryan whispered:
"Hartwell wasn't originally your family's company."
My heartbeat pounded.
"What are you saying?"
He looked at me.
"I'm saying our families were business partners before either of us was born."
I stared at him.
"And Linda believes your mother stole everything from hers."
Suddenly the entire story changed.
The money.
The hatred.
The obsession with my company.
May you like
Maybe Linda hadn't entered my life when I married Ryan.
Maybe she had been waiting for me long before that.
