FAMILY MEETING

"Who is this?"

I typed the words again, my thumb hovering over send, my whole body still humming with the strange cold shock of a stranger knowing more about my marriage than I did.

The reply came instantly, almost too fast, like they'd been waiting.

Ask Ryker about Northgate Holdings. Ask him why his cousin's name keeps showing up on transfers nobody in that family has bothered to notice yet.

"Why should I trust you?" I typed back.

You don't have to. You just have to look.

Then nothing. The number went dead, no further replies, like whoever it was had said exactly what they needed to and vanished back into wherever they'd come from, leaving me alone on that terrace with a warning I had no idea what to do with yet.

"Selene." Elise's voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. "You've gone pale. What is it?"

I hesitated, then handed her the phone.

She read it twice, her expression unreadable in the low terrace light. "Northgate," she said slowly. "That name means something to me. I just can't place it yet."

"Should I tell Ryker?"

"Not tonight. Tonight was hard enough on both of you." She handed the phone back, her sharp eyes steady on my face. "But soon, Selene. Whoever sent that wanted you to know for a reason, and reasons like that rarely stay quiet for long."

"What if telling him just makes things worse between us?"

"Things are already fairly bad between the two of you, dear. I don't think there's much room left for worse." She said it gently, not unkindly, but it still landed somewhere tender. "The only real question is whether you want him finding this out from you, or from someone with far less reason to protect either of you."

The reason found me three days later, at a fitting for the formal portrait gown Ryker's family insisted on for the official press photos, of all places.

"We'll need to let out the side seams here," the seamstress murmured to her assistant, not quite quiet enough, pinning fabric at my hip like it had personally wronged her. "And here."

"I can hear you," I said flatly, my voice carrying more edge than I usually allowed myself in public.

"Oh! Of course, ma'am, I just meant..."

"I know exactly what you meant." I held perfectly still while she finished pinning, refusing to give her the satisfaction of watching me flinch. "Just do your job."

My mother, seated in the corner scrolling through wedding announcement drafts, didn't even look up. "The dress will be fine, Selene. Stop making it a whole conversation."

"I'm not the one who made it a conversation."

"You could try being a little less sensitive about this. It's just fabric."

"It's not about the fabric, Mom. It never was." I met her eyes in the mirror, tired of pretending the conversation was about anything else. "But I've been saying that for twenty-four years, so I don't expect it to land any differently today."

She sighed the sigh I'd known my whole life, and I let it slide off me the way I'd trained myself to for years, though it never quite stopped costing me something each time.

My phone buzzed. Julian.

Emergency. Meet me for coffee. It's about the thing you told me.

I excused myself before the fitting even finished, ignoring my mother's protest, and found Julian already waiting in a corner booth twenty minutes later, two coffees going cold in front of him, an expression on his face I didn't like the look of.

"I did some digging," he said, sliding a folded printout across the table. "Northgate Holdings. It's a shell company. Registered eight months ago, right around the time Vivian's accident happened."

"Registered by who?"

"That's the part that's going to make your stomach turn." He tapped the paper. "One of the listed directors is Marcus Kane."

I stared at the name, my pulse picking up. "Ryker's cousin."

"Ryker's cousin, who's been suspiciously close to the company's finances ever since Ryker got distracted by grief and a scandal wedding." Julian leaned forward, lowering his voice. "Selene, I think someone's been quietly bleeding Kane Corporation dry, and I think whoever texted you wants you to catch it before it's too late."

"Why would a stranger want to help me?"

"Maybe they're not helping you. Maybe they're using you." Julian's expression turned serious. "Have you considered that whoever sent that text might have their own reasons for wanting Marcus exposed? That doesn't make them your friend."

"So what, I just ignore it?"

"I didn't say that. I said be careful. There's a difference between someone handing you the truth and someone handing you a weapon they want you to use for them."

I hadn't considered that. The thought settled cold and uneasy in my chest.

"I need to show this to Ryker."

"You need to be careful how you show it to him. If Marcus finds out you're onto him before you have real proof, you're not just risking the company. You're risking yourself."

I found Ryker in his study that night, the same room, the same fireplace, though the memory of the last time I'd stood in it made my skin crawl slightly every time I crossed the threshold now.

"I need to show you something," I said, setting the folder on his desk.

He looked up, wary. "What is it?"

"Northgate Holdings. Someone anonymous texted me about it three days ago. Julian dug up the paperwork today."

Ryker opened the folder, and I watched his face change as he read, the color draining slowly from his jaw.

"This is Marcus's handwriting," he said quietly, tracing a signature at the bottom of one page. "I'd know it anywhere."

"Ryker..."

"How long have you known?"

"Three days. I wanted proof before I brought it to you."

He looked up at me then, something sharp and searching in his expression, the same look he'd given me the night he first asked about the lake. "Why would a stranger send this to you? What do they want in exchange?"

"I don't know."

"Everyone wants something, Selene." His voice was low, dangerous. "What is it you're not telling me?"

"Nothing. I told you everything the second I had proof worth showing you."

"You've been keeping secrets since the day I met you. Forgive me for finding that hard to believe."

"That's not fair."

"Nothing about this marriage was ever fair. I stopped expecting it to be." He said it without heat, which somehow made it land colder than if he'd shouted it.

The words landed harder than I wanted them to, sharp enough that I had to look away for a second before I trusted my voice again.

Before I could answer, the study door swung open without a knock, and Marcus stepped inside, smiling the same easy smile he always wore, his eyes flicking once to the folder open on the desk between us.

"Family meeting?" he said lightly. "You could have invited me."

His eyes lingered on the open folder a beat too long, and for the first time since I'd met him, the easy charm slipped just enough for me to catch a flicker of something else underneath it.