CHAPTER 9

The words Victor had spoken kept replaying in my head.

No. I didn't believe it, not for a second.

Because I knew Brent. I knew the man better than anyone. Or at least I thought I did.

Brent wasn't the type to vanish after winning. He wasn't the type to walk away from applause. He craved attention and validation. He wanted people watching him and he wanted them talking about him.

If he had succeeded in destroying me, he would be standing on every news channel in the country enjoying it. He would be smiling while my reputation burned.

Which meant one thing; Something had happened to Brent.

The realization sat heavily in my chest as morning sunlight poured through the penthouse windows. I stood by the glass, staring out over the city.

For the first time in years, I had absolutely no control over my own life. My company was slipping away. My marriage was over. My child was gone. And somehow, the only people around me were Victor and the man who had disappeared from my life eight years ago.

A knock sounded behind me. I didn't need to turn around to respond. "Come in." I said.

The door opened and Victor stepped inside carrying a laptop under one arm. His expression immediately caught my attention.

He looked excited which was strange considering the circumstances.

"I found something." He said.

My heart skipped. "What?" I asked instantly.

Victor set the laptop on the dining table.

Jarrett looked up from where he'd been standing near the kitchen. "What did you find?"

Victor sat down. "I found the security footage."

My stomach tightened. "What about it?"

"It wasn't deleted."

I surged forward. "What?"

Victor looked pleased with himself. "The backups weren't erased."

My pulse quickened. "They were hidden?" It came out like a question but it wasn't.

A dangerous flicker of hope sparked inside me. After days of bad news, it was the first positive thing I'd heard.

Victor opened the laptop. "I spent all night tracing archive folders." He shook his head. "Whoever did this knew what they were doing."

When the screen lit up, rows of security footage, dates, locations and time appeared.

This was real evidence. For the first time since everything fell apart, I felt like I could breathe.

"Show it to me." I said.

Victor nodded and placed the screen in front of him. The three of us gathered around the screen and began watching.

Hours passed as the footage rolled endlessly. It was just regular boring routines at first then things started getting strange.

Victor paused the footage. "There."

I leaned forward as a man appeared on screen in dark suit with no employee badge and no means of identification.

There was no record of entering through the main reception desk. Yet there he was, walking confidently through restricted areas.

My frown deepened. "Who is that?"

Victor shook his head. "No idea."

The footage continued into a few days later, another unknown visitor appeared then some others. None of them existed in company records yet every single visitor had somehow bypassed security.

My unease grew. This wasn't random at all. It looked carefully organized.

Then my blood ran cold. The screen switched to another date.

It was another meeting room and a secret gathering.

The silver-haired man—the same man from the photograph, the one from my parents' funeral who had spent years convincing me wolves weren't real, was there.

I froze. "Stop."

Victor immediately paused the video. My pulse hammered painfully. There was no mistake. It was him. I would recognize that face anywhere.

The room suddenly felt smaller as I glanced toward Jarrett. The expression on his face had become unreadable.

The footage resumed.

I watched as the man entered another room.

Every few days he appeared somewhere different. Always meeting with Brent. Sometimes Vanessa, sometimes both.

But that wasn't what caught my attention. It was what happened afterward.

I stared at the screen, confused. Then leaned closer. "Wait."

Victor paused. "What?"

I pointed. "Go back."

The footage rewound. The silver-haired man entered the room, just five seconds later the camera flickered, static burst across the screen as the image became distorted, then suddenly, it returned.

My heart skipped. "Again."

Victor rewound another recording. The same thing happened, as soon as The man appeared, the camera glitched, there was a static interference before the normal footage resumed.

The room went silent then Victor frowned. "That's weird."

I swallowed. "Check another."

We did. We checked multiple times and every time the man would appear, the same thing always happened.

Something always happened to the camera as soon as the man entered.

My skin prickled. "What the hell is that?"

Nobody answered. I slowly turned toward Jarrett. His jaw was clenched with his posture rigid.

He looked furious and worried at the same time.

Then suddenly he reached forward and shut the laptop. The screen went black.

"What are you doing?" The question slipped out before I could stop it.

Jarrett stood. "We're done for today."

My eyebrows shot upward. "What?"

His expression remained unreadable. "It's enough."

Victor looked equally surprised. "We were making progress."

"No." Jarrett's voice hardened. "We're finished."

Something about the speed of his reaction bothered me a lot because he hadn't looked surprised, he'd looked like someone whose fears had just been confirmed.

My stomach twisted. "What aren't you telling me?"

His eyes met mine. A flash of emotion appeared. Gone so quickly I almost missed it. "Nothing." He uttered.

That night the penthouse was silent. Victor had left hours ago. Jarrett locked himself inside his office. And I couldn't stop thinking about the funeral man I saw in the footage.

Eventually frustration got the better of me. I climbed out of bed and saw the clock read 1:43 a.m.

The entire penthouse was dark and quiet.

I moved carefully through the hallways, my pulse quickening with every step.

What was I doing? Snooping around.

My instincts told me that Jarrett was hiding important things.

I was surprised to find his office door unlocked. I quickly slipped inside.

Immediately, I began searching the entire office. I searched the drawers, shelves, and cabinets but I couldn't find anything.

Then I opened the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet and froze.

A photograph of me when I was eight years old, standing between my parents with a wide smile stared back at me.

My breath caught in my throat as the picture trembled in my hands. Why the hell would Jarrett have this?

My heart pounded as I searched deeper and found more.

There were dozens of old letters. Every single one written by me. They were the letters I had sent after he disappeared, the same letters he never answered and made me think he had vanished forever.

My throat tightened. What the hell?

Under the letters were stacks of newspaper articles that had news of my name,my business success and every of my public appearances.

The realization hit me like a punch to the throat. Jarrett had been following my life and watching me for years. He never disappeared.

My pulse roared in my ears. Then I found the file. A thick black folder with one word printed across the front. "HELENA."

My stomach dropped. Slowly I opened it. And the world stopped.

I flipped through the pages faster with desperation and anger.

Then something slipped free from the bottom of the file. The paper landed on the desk, face up.

My eyes immediately found the bold heading. And every drop of blood drained from my face.

'SUBJECT SHOWING DELAYED AWAKENING SIGNS'

'HELENA CALLAHAN.'