CHAPTER 15

I stared at the screen for so long that Maya finally leaned over my shoulder. "What is it?"

I didn't answer. I was looking at Liam's bank records. More specifically, I was looking at a transfer dated nearly five months before I had ever suspected he was cheating on me. The amount wasn't enormous by Vance standards, but it was far too large to ignore.

$75,000.

"That's Liam's account?" Maya asked.

"Yes." My stomach tightened.

The transfer had been made directly into Liam's personal account. The sender wasn't a person. It was a company I'd never heard of.

MERIDIAN HOLDINGS.

"What the hell is Meridian Holdings?" Maya whispered.

"I don't know."

I scrolled back through the records. There was another transfer. Smaller. Then another. Three payments in total, all from the same company, all before Liam started sleeping with Zoe.

I swallowed hard. "This doesn't make sense."

Maya pulled a chair closer. "Maybe it's a business payment."

"Liam wasn't running a business."

"Then an investment?"

"He didn't have investments."

I remembered Liam complaining about money during those months. He had told me his bonus was delayed. He had complained about rent, car payments, and how the company wasn't paying him enough. Yet someone had been quietly putting money into his account. And he had never told me.

I clicked on the first transaction. The description was almost meaningless.

*Consulting services.*

I laughed under my breath. It wasn't a happy laugh.

"Consulting?"

Maya frowned. "What?"

"He couldn't even explain half the reports I was preparing for him. What exactly was he consulting anyone about?"

She didn't answer. Neither did I. A cold feeling had started crawling up my spine.

For weeks, I'd been trying to understand why everything around me seemed connected — the photographs, the anonymous threat, the boardroom attack, the altered security records, Liam's sudden legal campaign. And now this. Money had reached Liam long before the affair became public. Long before Zoe. Long before my life fell apart.

I opened another document. "Wait."

Maya leaned closer. "What?"

"The transfer came from an account registered to Meridian Holdings, but the bank information is different from the one used for the other payments."

"So?"

"So someone moved the money through different accounts." I looked at her. "That means they didn't want it to be easy to trace."

Maya's expression changed. "You think Liam was being paid?"

"I don't know what I think." That was the truth.

I wanted to believe Liam had simply been an idiot — a selfish, cruel idiot who cheated on me because he wanted someone younger and prettier. That explanation had been painful enough. But this? This suggested there had been something happening behind my back long before I knew about Zoe.

I called Adrian. He answered almost immediately.

"Chloe?"

"Can you come upstairs?"

There was a pause. "What happened?"

"I found something."

His voice hardened. "Are you safe?"

"Yes. Just come."

Twenty minutes later, Adrian walked into the room with his jacket still on. His eyes went straight to me. "What did you find?"

I turned the laptop toward him. He read the transaction. His expression barely changed, but I saw something flicker in his eyes.

"What is it?"

"Money."

"I can see that."

"From Meridian Holdings."

His gaze returned to the screen. "How much?"

"Seventy-five thousand on the first transfer. There were two more after that."

"When?"

I pointed to the dates. "Months before Liam and Zoe started their affair."

Adrian went silent. Maya folded her arms. "That means the money can't be connected to the affair."

"Not directly," Adrian said.

I looked at him. "Then what was Liam being paid for?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he picked up his phone. "I'll have my investigator trace the company."

"I already tried."

Adrian looked at me. "Chloe, your access won't get you far enough."

"I know."

His thumb moved across his screen. Then he stopped.

"What?"

He was staring at something.

"What did you find?"

"I haven't found anything."

"That doesn't look like nothing."

His jaw tightened. "The company has almost no public footprint."

Maya frowned. "That's possible."

"Not for a company moving this kind of money." Adrian looked back at the laptop. "Meridian Holdings exists on paper. But there's no obvious executive team, no meaningful business activity, and no clear connection to Liam."

A chill ran through me. "So it's a shell company."

"Looks that way."

I stared at the name again. Meridian Holdings. It suddenly felt less like a company and more like a door. And I had just found the handle.

Adrian reached for my hand. "Don't dig any deeper tonight."

I looked at him. "You know that's impossible."

"I know." His fingers tightened around mine. "That's what worries me."

My phone buzzed. I almost ignored it. Then another notification appeared. The investigator had sent a message.

*We found the registration trail.*

My heart jumped. I opened it. There was only one attachment. I tapped it. A company registration document appeared on the screen. I scanned the details. Then stopped breathing.

The registered owner wasn't Liam. It wasn't Robert. It wasn't anyone whose name I recognized.

At the bottom of the document was another name. A name that meant absolutely nothing to me.

I looked at Adrian. "Do you know this person?"

He shook his head. "No."

Maya leaned toward the screen. "Then who owns Meridian?"

I looked at the company name again.

MERIDIAN HOLDINGS.

For the first time, I understood that we hadn't discovered an answer. We had discovered the beginning of a much bigger question. And neither Adrian nor I had ever heard of the name behind it.

Meridian Holdings.