Chapter 3 - Veronica’s Second Life
Veronica did not wait until Damian reached the penthouse.
She disappeared before the car crossed Midtown.
One minute she was beside him.
The next, she was ordering the driver to stop.
“Where are you going?”
“I need air.”
“You need air?”
Damian stared at her.
“My company just collapsed.”
“Our company.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You were never part of my company.”
The words landed harder than he intended.
Veronica’s expression changed.
Something cold replaced her fear.
“Right.”
She opened the door.
“That’s what you always said.”
Damian grabbed her wrist.
“Where are you going?”
She looked at his hand until he released her.
“Somewhere I can think.”
“About what?”
Veronica stepped onto the sidewalk.
“About whether I want to drown beside you.”
The door slammed.
Damian watched her disappear into the crowd.
What he did not know was that Veronica had rented a private apartment six blocks away nearly two years earlier.
Damian had never seen it.
Nobody from his company knew it existed.
Inside the apartment was no designer furniture.
No photographs.
No expensive clothes.
Only a desk.
A laptop.
And a locked steel cabinet.
Veronica opened the cabinet with trembling fingers.
Folders filled every shelf.
Cross Capital.
Voss Infrastructure.
Merritt Acquisition.
Northstar Advisory.
She pulled out a black notebook.
Every payment Damian had asked her to move was listed by date.
Every account.
Every shell company.
Every executive who had agreed to look the other way.
Veronica had begun keeping records after the first million dollars.
Not because she planned to expose Damian.
Because she stopped trusting him.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She ignored it.
It rang again.
Finally, she answered.
“Hello?”
“Elena knows about Northstar.”
Veronica stopped breathing.
The voice belonged to Thomas Keene, one of Damian’s attorneys.
“How?”
“The audit.”
Veronica closed her eyes.
“What did they find?”
“Enough to start asking questions.”
“Does she know I’m the registered representative?”
“Yes.”
Veronica’s grip tightened around the phone.
“Does Damian know?”
“Not yet.”
“Keep it that way.”
Thomas lowered his voice.
“You promised me protection.”
“And you’ll have it.”
“From Damian?”
Veronica looked at the cabinet.
“No.”
“From Elena.”
Thomas went silent.
Veronica opened the black notebook again.
There was one page Damian had never seen.
At the top was a name.
ELIAS GRANT.
Beneath it was a number.
$42,000,000.
Veronica whispered to herself.
“You think seventeen million is missing.”
May you like
Her eyes moved down the page.
“You haven’t found the real money yet.”
