Chapter 13. What He Never Told Me

The safe house was an apartment on the floor of a building owned by Ethan. He owned it through a company with a name that couldn't be traced back to him.

My mother and Grace were in one room. Daven was in another room with two of Ethan's security team outside his door. He wasn't a prisoner. He wasn't free either.

Ethan and I were in the room. We were alone. For the time since all this started there were no contracts between us, no audience, no event to perform for. Just the two of us. Everything that had been said and unsaid since I walked into his office.

I sat on the couch. Looked at Ethan.

"Tell me what happened to the person before me, " I said.

He was standing by the window. He didn't turn around.

"Ethan, " I said.

He turned.

"Her name was Nadia, " he said. "She worked for your fathers company seven years ago. She was an accountant. She was sharp and careful. She noticed some things in the books that nobody else had caught and she started asking questions."

I said nothing. I just waited.

"Your uncle found out she was asking questions, " he said. "He acted fast. Within two weeks she was fired. Her professional reputation was ruined. People made up complaints about her and falsified records. It was the kind of damage that follows someone forever. She couldn't find work in her field again."

"That is terrible, " I said. ". Grace said to keep me alive. That is different."

Ethan looked at me for a time.

"Nadia didn't stop asking questions, " he said. "Even after she lost everything. She kept digging. She found the will. The actual document. Not a picture of it.. She went to a journalist with it."

My stomach dropped.

"What happened? " I asked.

"She had an accident, " Ethan said. The way he said the accident told me everything about how much of an accident it was.

"She survived.. She spent four months in the hospital. By the time she recovered the journalist had been paid off the document. There was nothing left to prove anything."

I sat still.

So this was what Grace had meant. This was why she had spent four years being careful. Why she had moved slowly? Stayed hidden. Because the last person who moved fast had almost died.

"How do you know about Nadia? " I asked.

Ethan was quiet for a moment.

"Because she came to me, " he said. "Three years ago. After she recovered. She knew about the partnership negotiations between my company and your fathers. She warned me that something was wrong. That someone was trying to sabotage the deal from the inside. I started my investigation then."

Three years. He had known something was wrong for three years before I ever walked into his office.

"So when I showed up, " I said slowly.

"You already knew who I was, " I said.

"I knew your name, " he said.

"I knew you were connected to the company. I knew you were being used without knowing it. When Claire brought you to me I already had most of the picture."

I looked at him.

"The contract " I said.

"Was it ever really about your board? About your image?"

He held my gaze.

"No, " he said.

Just that. One word. No apology attached to it. No explanation.

I stood up.

"You brought me in because you needed me close " I said.

"Not to protect me. To use me the way everyone else has."

"To protect you, " he said. His voice was sharp for the time.

"If I had left you there alone not knowing what was coming he would have reached you before I could. Nadia acted alone. Look what happened to her. I wasn't going to let that happen to you."

I stared at him. 

The anger was still there.. Underneath it something else was happening. Something I didn't have a name for yet. The realization that this man had known about me watched over a situation I didn't even know I was in and when the moment came he had chosen to pull me in rather than leave me exposed.

That was not nothing.

I didn't say that out loud.

"Where is Nadia now? " I asked.

Something crossed his face.. Gone.

"She is safe, " he said.

"I made sure of that."

I looked at him for a moment. This man who never did anything without a reason. Who was always three steps ahead. Who had just admitted that the contract, the arrangement all of it had been built around keeping me alive.

The way he was looking at me right now had nothing to do with contracts or business or three steps ahead.

He took one step toward me.

My phone rang.

We both stopped.

I looked at the screen.

Unknown number. Not the one Grace had been using. Not any number I had seen before.

I picked up.

Silence, in the end. Then a voice. Male. Calm. Almost warm.

"Hello Sofia. I think it is time we had a conversation. Just the two of us. Without Mr Voss listening."

My blood went cold.

I looked at Ethan.

Mouthed two words.

It's him.