Chapter 3 - Anna Finds a Second Ticket
Nora called three times before Jessica finally accepted.
“Jess, where are you?” Nora asked immediately.
Too immediately.
Jessica looked at Daniel.
He was watching her with the kind of stillness people used when every word could destroy them.
“I’m at the airport.”
There was a pause.
Then Nora laughed lightly.
“Oh. Daniel’s back, right? I forgot that was today.”
Jessica closed her eyes.
Nora had reminded her about Daniel’s return two nights earlier.
She had even texted: Don’t forget flowers. Emilee will want to make a big deal out of it.
Now she had forgotten?
Jessica forced her voice to remain calm.
“I need you to freeze every outgoing company payment.”
“What happened?”
“Just do it.”
Another pause.
“Jess, I can’t freeze everything without a reason. We have payroll clearing tomorrow.”
Jessica stared at the boarding pass in Anna’s hand.
“Then freeze anything involving Northstar Meridian.”
Silence.
Not surprise.
Silence.
Nora spoke carefully.
“Where did you hear that name?”
Jessica’s fingers tightened around the phone.
There it was.
The first crack.
“You know it?”
“No. I mean—it sounds familiar. Maybe Daniel mentioned it.”
Daniel shook his head violently at Jessica, silently warning her.
Jessica turned away from him.
“I’ll call you later.”
“Wait.”
Jessica hung up.
Anna exhaled.
“She knows.”
“I know.”
Daniel finally stepped forward.
“Nora handles outside acquisition proposals. That’s it.”
Jessica looked at him.
“You just told me it wasn’t what it looked like.”
“It isn’t.”
“Then explain the forged signature.”
“I didn’t forge anything.”
“Explain the transfer.”
“I can.”
“Explain Lisbon.”
Daniel’s jaw hardened.
For a moment, the frightened husband disappeared and the executive Jessica knew from boardrooms replaced him.
“You’re making a scene in public with our daughter standing right there.”
Jessica glanced at Emilee.
The six-year-old was silent, her face pale.
Shame hit Jessica immediately.
Not because Daniel was right about the betrayal.
Because Emilee should never have been standing in the middle of it.
Jessica knelt.
“Sweetheart, I need you to go with Aunt Rachel for a little while.”
Rachel was Jessica’s older cousin and lived fifteen minutes from the airport.
Emilee shook her head hard.
“No.”
“Baby—”
“No. Dad lied.”
Her small voice cracked.
“And you’re sad.”
Jessica hugged her.
“I am sad. But I’m still your mom, and I’m still okay.”
That was only half true.
Her marriage had just broken open in an airport terminal.
Her company might be under attack.
Her closest friend might be involved.
But her daughter needed one solid thing in the world, so Jessica became it.
Anna quietly handed Emilee the handmade sign.
One corner had torn.
The blue glitter on the word DAD was smudged from the suitcase.
“I’m sorry,” Anna said.
Emilee looked at her for several seconds.
“Did you know he was married?”
Anna’s eyes filled.
“No.”
“Okay.”
That single word nearly broke Anna.
Rachel arrived twenty minutes later.
After Emilee left, Jessica called her attorney, Marcus Hale, who had represented Carter & Bloom since its second year.
He did not tell her to confront Daniel.
He told her to document everything.
“Photograph the contents of the suitcase before anyone moves another item.”
Daniel scoffed.
“This is ridiculous.”
Marcus heard him through the phone.
“Daniel, do not remove any company documents from that terminal.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
Anna crouched beside the open suitcase.
Beneath two dress shirts, she found another envelope.
Inside was a copy of a private lending agreement between Northstar Meridian Holdings and an unfamiliar institution in Delaware.
The collateral was not cash.
It was Jessica’s shares.
Forty-one percent of them.
“Can someone do this?” Anna asked.
Marcus answered over speakerphone.
“Not legally without Jessica’s authorization.”
Jessica studied the pages.
A notary seal appeared beside her forged signature.
The notary was in Maryland.
Jessica had not been in Maryland in over a year.
Then Anna found the second boarding pass.
Daniel lunged.
Airport security, already watching the confrontation from nearby, stepped between them.
Anna unfolded it.
This one was not partially covered.
NORA BLAKE.
Lisbon.
Seat 3A.
One-way.
Jessica stared at it until the letters blurred.
Daniel said nothing.
Neither did Anna.
Marcus broke the silence.
“Jessica, photograph that ticket.”
She did.
Then her phone chimed.
A new email had arrived from Nora.
Subject: Emergency Board Meeting.
Jessica opened it.
The meeting was scheduled for eleven that morning.
The stated purpose was to determine whether Jessica Carter remained capable of serving as chief executive officer.
Attached was a recommendation signed by Daniel.
And the first paragraph claimed Jessica had been showing “increasing emotional instability” for months.
Jessica read it twice.
Then she looked at Daniel.
“This was never just about stealing my money.”
May you like
Daniel’s face gave her the answer.
The plan was to take her company too.
