Chapter 2

The next day, I started working in the administrative department at Ethan's company, Apex Tech.

Admin was on the seventeenth floor. Accounting was on the sixteenth.

Every morning, I arrived forty minutes early, taking the quiet stairwell down with a coffee in hand.

The copy machine sat around the corner from the finance room. Whenever no one was watching, I plugged in a flash drive, downloading quarterly financial reports one by one.

With my phone hidden beneath a manila folder, I recorded every phone call the chief financial officer made.

On the afternoon of the fifth day, as I was slipping the flash drive back into my purse, Valerie stepped out from the corner.

"Chloe?"

She tilted her head, eyeing the documents in my hands. "Taking an interest in our balance sheets?"

"Ethan asked me to help organize some expense receipts."

I smiled, holding the folder out toward her.

"Do you want to double-check them?"

She didn't take it. Her gaze slid from my face down to my bag, then back up.

"You're so hardworking. But these are internal finance files. It's really not good for an outsider to touch them."

She patted my shoulder, her long acrylic nails scratching against my collarbone.

"I'm only telling you this for your own good."

That night, Ethan came home earlier than usual.

He slammed his keys onto the entryway table and smashed a glass against the tiled floor, sending shards flying past my ankles.

"Chloe, have you lost your damn mind?"

He jabbed a finger in my face.

"The CFO called me directly! He said you're hanging around the finance department every single day! What the hell do you even know about accounting?"

I crouched down to pick up the shattered glass. A sharp edge sliced my finger, and a bead of blood welled up.

"I just wanted to learn."

"Learn? Learn what? You can't even read a basic spreadsheet!"

He snatched the glass shard from my hand and threw it into the bin.

"I gave you an admin desk so you wouldn't embarrass me in public, and you think you can audit my books?"

"Valerie was right. You're just bored out of your mind and looking for trouble!"

"Valerie told you that?"

"I would've figured it out even if she didn't!"

He breathed heavily, furious. "Keep your head down and stay in your lane. If I hear about you stepping foot into finance again, you're fired, and you can rot at home."

I stood up, hiding my bloody hand behind my back.

"Okay," I whispered softly. "I won't go down there anymore."

He froze, clearly taken aback by how easily I surrendered.

He scoffed, turned around, and stormed into the study, slamming the door shut behind him.

Through the door, I heard his voice turn instantly tender on the phone.

"Hey, Valerie, it's fine now. She's just a clueless homemaker..."

I stood in the dark hallway for a long time.

Then I walked into the bathroom, rinsed the blood from my finger, and wrapped a bandage around the cut.

My phone screen lit up, displaying a contact I had saved two weeks ago.

Alexander Hayes. Label: "CEO of Hayes Enterprises."

In my previous life, while I was rotting in prison, I received an anonymous care package every single month.

A few books, a tube of soothing hand cream, some nourishing dried fruits.

It was only much later that I found out he was the one sending them.

I dialed the number.

It rang twice before connecting.

"Who is this?"

"Mr. Hayes."

I tightened my grip on the phone. "This is Chloe Vance. Ethan's girlfriend."

Silence on the other end.

"I know what happened to your mother,"

I said, my voice rock-solid. "I know who was behind it."

His breath hitched slightly through the receiver.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I want to meet."

I looked out the window into the night. Far in the distance, the city skyline flickered out, one tower at a time.

"Tomorrow morning at ten. The coffee shop right beneath your headquarters."