CHAPTER THREE

Chapter Three 

Piper’s POV

My heart seized in my chest as Ethan’s voice echoed faintly from the hallway.

No, shit, he wasn’t supposed to be here. He had a dinner meeting, in the up part of town and Cameron confirmed it. I double-checked it myself.

So why—Why was he here?

I froze, standing in the middle of his office like a thief caught red-handed. The only sound was my own ragged breathing, the quiet hum of the laptop still open behind me, and the unmistakable cadence of Ethan Miller’s voice growing closer.

I had seconds or even maybe less.

I yanked the flash drive free, shoved it into my pocket, and scanned the office in a blur of panic. There was no time to backtrack and no way I’d make it down the executive elevator without crossing him in the hall, I had only one option.

The adjoining door leads to his private conference room. I bolted for it and slipped inside, closing the door gently but firmly behind me just as the main office door creaked open.

My back was pressed to the cool wood as I tried to steady my breathing. Through the thin walls, I could hear him.

“…I don’t care how late it is, she’s not picking up. Keep trying.” His voice was sharp, irritated. 

I inched away from the door and crouched low beneath the long conference table. My fingers trembled as I clutched the flash drive like it might vanish from my grasp.

“You said she was handled,” Ethan snapped, his footsteps pacing the room. “So why is she sniffing around my schedule?”

He paused, then laughed—cold and joyless.

“Yeah. Let’s just hope she’s still dumb enough to believe I’m the victim in all this.”

My chest constricted.

I shouldn’t have come here. I needed to know, but hearing him like this, so unfiltered, so casually cruel, was like acid dripping into an old wound. What the hell was I even married to?

My phone buzzed softly in my pocket. I silenced it in a heartbeat, praying he hadn’t heard.

Ethan kept talking, this time quieter. “If Piper finds out what I did, it could lead to a lot of troubles from the press.”

My blood ran cold.

I bit my lip hard enough to taste blood. Whatever this was, it was bigger than I thought. No wonder Selena was back. No wonder Ethan had been pushing me out, gaslighting me, humiliating me.

Just then I heard the door and another voice spoke up—someone else had entered the office.

“You think she suspects anything?” It was Selena.

I had to stop myself from gasping aloud.

“My team saw her ………..She was crying in Central Park last night,” Ethan said with a smirk in his tone. “She’s unraveling, the more she panics, the easier it’ll be to paint her as unstable.”

“That’s risky,” Selena murmured. “What if she talks to someone who listens?”

“She won’t. Piper’s too proud to beg for help.”

It was like listening to my own obituary.

I squeezed my eyes shut. My knees ached from crouching, my fingers numb around the flash drive, but I didn’t move, I couldn’t.

Selena scoffed. “You better hope you’re right, Ethan. If she figures out who C.H. is, this whole thing implodes and it is including you.”

“I’ve got it under control,” he snapped.

No, you don’t, I thought—--”You have no idea who you married.”

They moved toward the door again, and I strained to hear.

“Dinner?” Ethan asked casually.

“With you?” Selena replied, laughing. “Of course, my love.” They pressed there lips together and kissed each other. Watching was as painful as it could get. 

Then the office door slammed and silence returned like a vacuum.

I waited a full minute before crawling out from the door. My legs shook as I stood and every sound felt amplified—my heartbeat in my ears, the creak of the floorboards beneath me, the faint hum of city traffic outside.

I peered out through the small slit in the blinds. The hallway was empty, it was now or never.

I crept out of the conference room, slipped down the emergency staircase, and exited through the underground garage. My breath came out in short bursts, fogging in the chill night air as I leaned against a concrete pillar, shaking from the adrenaline crash.

I couldn’t trust the police—not yet and not without solid proof than what was on this flash drive and I sure as hell couldn’t confront Ethan. ………Not alone.

Cameron……….. I needed to get this to Cameron.

I made my way back to the Lower East Side, every shadow on the street suddenly suspicious. I kept glancing behind me, expecting Ethan’s car to pull up, or worse—expecting him to.

By the time I made it to Cameron’s office, it was past midnight.

The building was dark.

I banged on the glass door. “Cam! It’s me—open up!”

A shadow shifted inside. The door opened a crack. “Piper? Are you crazy? Do you know what time it is—”

“I found something.” My voice cracked. “I heard Ethan. He is trying to get something done and Selena is helping him but he doesn't want me to know.” 

He didn’t ask any more questions, he opened the door and let me in.

We plugged the flash drive into his secure laptop and the messages from the email appeared. It wasn’t everything, but it was enough to tell me that he was onto something. 

“You were right,” I whispered, eyes glued to the screen. “Selena didn’t come back because she needed a job, Ethan brought her back and she is here to take him back also.” 

Cam leaned back in his chair, exhaling sharply. “This is serious, Piper. If what you say is true, they could be watching you right now and listening, even.”

I nodded. “That’s why I need to find out who C.H. is. That name kept coming up. He’s the one Ethan’s sending the money to.”

Cam typed quickly, running the initials through every connection he could think of.

Then he stopped.

A name blinked on the screen……..Christopher Hale.

My stomach dropped.