Chapter 3: Thirty Minutes

Vivienne

Lucian did not invite me to sit, which told me almost as much about him as the two security men stationed beyond the glass doors.

“You have four minutes left,” he said. “You should use them wisely.”

“I came here offering information that could save you hundreds of millions.”

“Then start offering.”

I placed my phone on his desk without sliding it toward him.

“Tomorrow at 2:40, Grant Mercer will contact your acquisition team and claim the Al-Masri family has reconsidered the terms of the deal. He will request a private renegotiation at the Bellmont because he has represented the family before.”

Lucian folded his arms. “What happens at the meeting?”

“Damien has paid two men inside the advisory group to produce altered projections showing undisclosed debt attached to the acquisition.”

“That information is false.”

“I know.”

“How?”

“Because Vale Capital discovers the manipulation after you withdraw from the deal. Three weeks later, Damien steps in through a subsidiary and acquires the same assets at a lower valuation. You spend six months repairing the damage to your reputation.”

“You expect me to believe you know the outcome of a negotiation that has not happened.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

I had told my father the truth and watched him reach for the nearest rational explanation. Lucian had even less reason to indulge me.

“You would not believe the answer.”

“Try me.”

“I would rather give you something you can verify.”

He studied me. “Grant Mercer, a Cyprus account, the Bellmont Hotel, tomorrow at 2:40.”

“The payment reaches the account tonight between eleven and midnight.”

“How much?”

“Eight million dollars.”

Lucian picked up the office phone.

“Elias, I want every account tied to Grant Mercer reviewed before midnight. Cross-check Cyprus, Luxembourg, and the Emirates. Do not tell the acquisition team why.”

A male voice answered, “Understood.”

Lucian ended the call. “Now we wait.”

“I will not be here when you do.”

“Why not?”

“Because you have not earned anything else.”

His brows lifted slightly. “Earned?”

“You do not trust me, and I do not trust you. That makes us even.”

“You came to me.”

“Because you hate Damien.”

“I dislike many people.”

“You hate him.”

Lucian came around the desk and stopped far enough away that the distance could not be mistaken for intimidation.

“You know a great deal about men you claim not to know.”

“I know enough.”

“Then tell me what I am going to do next.”

“You are going to test me.”

He waited for me to continue.

“You will give me false information and watch to see whether it reaches Damien.”

His mouth curved without warmth. “Perhaps you should run my security division.”

“I am not looking for a job.”

“What are you looking for?”

“An ally against the man trying to destroy both our families.”

“Both?”

“You will understand that later.”

He poured himself water from a bottle on the side table.

“Vale Capital is finalizing a shipping acquisition in Singapore next week. The closing has been moved forward because another bidder appeared yesterday, and Damien is connected to that bidder.”

“No, he is not.”

Lucian lowered the glass.

“The Singapore acquisition does not exist.”

“I know.”

He watched me more carefully.

“You planted it,” I said. “Your purpose was to see whether confidential information would be leaked. Mine is to tell you that there was no Singapore acquisition in the future I remember because there is no acquisition now.”

“Who told you?”

“No one.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I have already lived through the next five years.”

He did not laugh.

“I know what Damien does to Sterling Holdings and what he eventually does to your company. I know who betrays you, which deals you lose, and which people around him end up in prison.”

“You expect me to believe you are from the future.”

“I expect you to believe whatever your evidence tells you.”

“And what should my evidence tell me?”

“That tomorrow Damien attacks your acquisition exactly as I described.”

Lucian rested one hand on the edge of his desk. “Suppose nothing happens.”

“Then you never have to see me again.”

“And if it does?”

“Then you call me.”

“What do you want when I call?”

“Protection for my father’s company.”

“That is expensive.”

“I am offering expensive information.”

“What else?”

“Resources.”

“To do what?”

“Destroy Damien before he destroys us.”

His attention lingered on the last word. “You keep including me.”

“You do not know it yet, but you are already part of this.”

“That is convenient.”

“It was not convenient when I watched him ruin you.”

I regretted the sentence as soon as I saw how still he became.

“Watched him ruin me?”

I picked up my phone. “My five minutes are over.”

He moved between me and the door without touching me.

“Who ruins me?”

“Damien.”

“How?”

“That comes after you call.”

“You seem certain I will.”

“I am.”

“Why?”

“Because at 2:40 tomorrow afternoon, Grant Mercer is going to repeat almost every word I just said to you.”

Lucian considered me for a moment.

“And if I change the meeting?”

That question reached the weakness I had been avoiding.

If he changed the meeting, then the future changed with it. My memories had felt like a map since I woke, but a map was useful only while the roads remained where I remembered them.

“Then we find out whether the future can be rewritten.”

I walked around him.

“Miss Sterling.”

I looked back.

“Do not mistake curiosity for trust.”

“I would never make that mistake.”

The elevator doors closed between us.

I watched the numbers descend and wondered whether I had just handed a stranger the first weapon capable of changing my future. There was no way to take the warning back now.

I had to consider what would happen when my own choices destroyed the sequence of events I depended upon. I knew where Damien had gone because I had watched him go there once.

******

The next afternoon, Lucian learned the answer before I did.

At 2:37 p.m., Grant Mercer walked into the Bellmont Hotel. At 2:40, he placed a forged debt report on the table.

At 2:42, Lucian Vale called me.

“You were right.”

I sat straighter. “Now do you believe me?”

“I believe you know something you should not.”

“That is progress.”

“Come back to my office immediately.”

His tone erased the small satisfaction I had allowed myself.

“Why?”

“Because Adrian Keller, the man Mercer was supposed to meet, disappeared from his London apartment last night.”

I knew Keller. In the first life, he had been alive years from now.

“That did not happen before.”

Lucian did not answer immediately.

When he did, his voice had lost its skepticism.

“You have thirty minutes.”

The call ended.

I stared at the screen, trying to find a reasonable explanation for an event that had changed before Lucian and I interfered with the meeting.