Pier of Secrets

I couldn’t breathe.

The voicemail kept replaying in my mind like a curse on loop. It was low voice, calm threat, that final demand:

// “Come alone. Pier 14. Ten o’clock.” I checked the time.

9:07 p.m. The city outside my window sparkled like it always did, romantic from a distance, merciless up close. I shouldn’t go. But I couldn’t not go, not yet, because whoever left that message didn’t sound like they were bluffing. And I couldn’t afford another secret unraveling. Not after what Daniel did. Not with Luca gone. Not with my entire life dangling between grief, lust, and shame. I slipped on a black trench coat and tied my hair back into a loose bun. No makeup. No heels. Just soft boots and clean pockets.

I needed no weapons, and no lies. Of course, except the lie I was telling myself — that I had this under control.

*********

The cab ride was short. Too short. The driver dropped me off three blocks from the pier, and the cold wind whipped against my skin as I walked the rest of the way. My hands shook, but not from the weather.

I passed a man playing jazz on a battered saxophone. He smiled like he knew where I was headed. The pier loomed ahead, wet with drizzle, fog covering low over the water like it was trying to hide something. The time says, 10:01 p.m. now. 

I scanned the shadows. Nothing. Then I saw him. A man in a gray hoodie leaning against the edge, staring out at the water like he’d lost something out there.

I stepped closer, heart pounding. He didn’t turn.

“You left me a message,” I said carefully.

He finally looked. And I felt the air leave my lungs. No. Not him... not again. “Hello, Ariana,” he said.

My voice cracked. “Nathan?”

He gave a half-smile, sad and dark. “You didn’t think I’d stay buried, did you?”

My knees almost buckled. Nathan James was my ex. The one who left a hole in me I thought Luca had filled. The man who vanished four years without a single goodbye just before my relationship with Luca.. Just… gone. I blinked, trying to steady my thoughts. “You’re supposed to be dead.” 

His eyes narrowed. “That’s what you wanted, right?”

“I mourned you,” I snapped. “You left without warning. No contact, no closure.”

“I had my reasons.” he replies. 

“Don’t do that,” I said. “You don't get to come back in with cryptic words like a ghost from a soap opera.”

He pulled something from his pocket, a flash drive. “I know about Daniel’s company. About the off-shore accounts. The shell mergers. I know you signed off on deals you never read.”

My stomach sank. “What do you want?”

He stepped closer, his breath warm and bitter. “The truth. Starting with why you married him.”

My jaw clenched. “Because he made me feel safe. Because I needed someone after you...”

“After I what?” he challenged. “After I tried to expose your boss and got burned? After I disappeared so you wouldn’t go down with me?”

“You could’ve told me,” I hissed. “You think I wouldn’t have followed you?” 

He stared at me for a long beat. “That’s why I did not.”

The silence between us was thick, years of unfinished conversations building into something unbearable. He handed me the flash drive.

“What’s on it?” I asked.

“Proof that Daniel isn’t just a corporate snake. He’s laundering money through his legal firm for a group that doesn’t just handle lawsuits. This group... they handle people.”

I stared at the drive like it might burn my fingers. “You think I had a choice?” I whispered. “You think I wanted this life?”

Nathan’s voice softened. “I think you stopped asking what you wanted a long time ago.”

********

I made it back to my hotel with the flash drive held so tightly it left marks on my palm. My hands were shaking. My heart was screaming. Daniel had secrets. Luca had scars. Nathan had evidence.

And me? I had nothing but questions. I plugged the drive into my laptop. Files appeared. Folders labeled in strings of numbers and strange code. I opened one and froze. It contains photos, documents, wire transfers, names I recognized and names I didn’t. And one video file dated six months ago. I clicked. The screen lit up.

|| Daniel sat at a table in a glass office, across from him was a woman in a red dress, not just any woman. Vanessa. They weren’t talking about law. They were talking about me. 

// “She’s emotionally volatile,” Daniel was saying. “We’ll let her spiral. Keep the image clean. I just need to get full control of her shares before she files.”

My blood ran cold.

// “And if she starts digging?” Vanessa asked.

Daniel smiled.

// “Then we bury her in the past.”||

The video ended.

I sat there, heart beating so fast I thought it might explode. My ears rang, my eyes stung, he was never trying to fix us, he was building my cage.

*******

I was still trembling when my phone buzzed again. This time, it was Luca. A text.

// “You lied to me. You said you left him. But you're still wearing the ring.”

I looked down at my hand. Damn it. The ring I had not taken off — not because I loved Daniel, but because I hadn’t figured out how to let go of the woman I was when I said “I do.”

I typed quickly. “It’s over. I swear. I just… I needed time to clean up the mess.” A few seconds passed.

// “Come to Paris. Tonight.”

I blinked. Was he serious? Before I could answer, another text followed.

// “Or don’t. But if you stay in New York, be careful who you trust. Not everyone who says they love you actually does.”

The irony hit hard, because Luca never said he loved me. But somehow, he always meant it more than Daniel ever did.

*******

I didn’t sleep. I just stared out the window, watching the city until dawn. And for the first time in a long, long time… I wasn’t afraid of losing everything. 

I was ready to burn it all down.