Chapter 2 - The Question Ryan Couldn’t Escape
Ryan did not enter his waiting limousine.
He stood outside O’Hare until Emily’s Bentley disappeared into traffic.
David approached carefully.
“Sir?”
Ryan turned.
“Find out where she’s staying.”
David hesitated.
“Ms. Parker?”
“And don’t invade her privacy.”
Ryan rubbed a hand across his face.
“Just tell me whether she’s in Chicago temporarily or permanently.”
David nodded.
Ryan finally entered the car.
His phone immediately began ringing.
Board members.
Executives.
Investors.
He ignored them all.
Four years old.
The thought repeated inside his head.
Four years old.
Ryan remembered the final months of his marriage.
Emily sleeping beside him.
Emily laughing in their kitchen.
Emily standing barefoot on the balcony of their Manhattan apartment.
Emily telling him she loved him.
Then the messages appeared.
A contact saved as J.C.
Meet me tomorrow.
Don’t tell Ryan until we know more.
I hate lying to him.
Another message followed.
The hotel is safer.
Come alone.
Ryan had confronted her that same evening.
She denied having an affair.
She begged him to listen.
He had been too furious.
Too humiliated.
Too certain.
Now one detail returned with painful clarity.
Emily had repeatedly placed a hand over her stomach during their final argument.
At the time, he had assumed she was nervous.
What if she had already suspected?
Ryan closed his eyes.
His phone rang again.
This time the name on the screen made him stare.
ADRIAN HARRISON.
Ryan answered.
“Where are you?”
Adrian sounded irritated.
“The board has been waiting twenty minutes.”
“I’m not coming.”
Silence.
“You flew to Chicago for this meeting.”
“Something happened.”
“What?”
Ryan looked through the darkened window.
He remembered Emily’s words.
The one your attorney said you refused to read.
“Did Emily ever send me a letter after we separated?”
The silence lasted one second too long.
Ryan noticed.
Then Adrian laughed.
“A letter?”
“Yes.”
“Five years ago?”
“Yes.”
“I handled hundreds of documents during that disaster.”
Ryan’s voice became colder.
“She says she sent something personally.”
“I don’t remember.”
Ryan looked down at his hand.
It was trembling.
Adrian continued.
“Ryan, don’t let her drag you into old drama.”
“How do you know I saw her?”
Another silence.
Ryan’s eyes narrowed.
“I didn’t tell you I saw Emily.”
Adrian recovered quickly.
“You’re in Chicago.”
“So?”
“She lives there now.”
Ryan sat straighter.
“How do you know that?”
Adrian exhaled.
“Because I keep track of potential legal risks to the company.”
Emily had not worked for Harrison Energy in nearly five years.
She had signed every separation document.
Waived nearly every financial claim.
There was no reason for Adrian to track her.
Unless there was.
Ryan ended the call without another word.
David looked at him from the opposite seat.
“Problem?”
Ryan stared at the phone.
“Yes.”
His mind was no longer only on the children.
Something else had begun to take shape.
A memory.
A pattern.
A possibility he did not want to believe.
“David.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Get me every internal record connected to my divorce.”
“All of it?”
“Everything.”
May you like
Ryan’s voice dropped.
“Especially anything Adrian touched.”
