Chapter 3 - A Friend Answers Too Quickly
Ethan laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“That’s ridiculous.”
Gabriel did not move.
“Is it?”
“Of course it is.”
Ethan set down his napkin with deliberate care. “I review hundreds of Foundation transactions. My initials could be on anything.”
Sarah watched him closely.
The problem was that Ethan had answered before Gabriel asked whether his initials were involved.
Gabriel noticed too.
“I never said your initials were on the page.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
Victoria stepped in immediately.
“She told him with her eyes.”
Gabriel turned toward her with disbelief. “That is your explanation?”
Sarah felt the room spinning.
The Sterling penthouse sat fifty-seven floors above Manhattan, all glass walls, white stone, and soft gold light. Normally the place felt unreal to her, like a hotel she had accidentally wandered into.
Tonight, it felt like a locked room.
Gabriel picked up his phone.
“I’m calling Dr. Reeves.”
Sarah shook her head. “I don’t need—”
“You need someone to look at your hand.”
His tone softened when he spoke to her.
“And you need to stop protecting people who hurt you.”
Victoria’s expression sharpened.
Sarah looked away.
That sentence cut deeper than Gabriel knew.
Protecting people had been how Sarah survived most of her life.
Her father had disappeared when she was twelve. Her mother had worked double shifts at a nursing home until illness took her. Sarah learned early that powerful people preferred quiet employees and grateful poor people.
So she became both.
Quiet.
Grateful.
Invisible.
Until she saw the folder.
Gabriel called his private physician, then sent the remaining dinner staff home.
Ethan stood.
“I should leave too.”
“No.”
The single word stopped him.
Gabriel pointed toward the sitting area.
“You’re staying until I understand what happened.”
Ethan’s eyes cooled.
“Careful, Gabe.”
It was the first time all night he used the old nickname.
“We’ve known each other twenty years.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“That should make this easier.”
Ethan’s mouth hardened.
Sarah’s hand throbbed.
Gabriel noticed and guided her toward the sofa without touching the injured wrist.
“Sit.”
Victoria watched them with open resentment.
Sarah lowered herself carefully.
That was when Gabriel saw something else.
A faint red mark circled Sarah’s left forearm.
Not from the closet door.
Fingers.
Someone had grabbed her.
His eyes lifted.
“Was that Victoria too?”
Sarah instinctively covered the mark.
Victoria scoffed. “For God’s sake.”
Gabriel stood.
“What did you do to her?”
Victoria’s composure fractured.
“I stopped her from stealing.”
Sarah stared at her.
Gabriel turned.
“Stealing what?”
“The folder,” Victoria said.
Sarah shot to her feet. “I didn’t steal anything.”
“You took photographs.”
The room went silent.
Gabriel looked at Sarah.
“Did you?”
Sarah hesitated.
“Yes.”
Victoria smiled, relieved to finally have something she could use.
“See?”
But Gabriel only asked, “Where are they?”
Sarah slowly reached into the hidden pocket of her apron.
Her phone was gone.
She searched again, panic rising.
“I had it before dinner.”
Victoria’s smile became almost invisible.
Sarah understood.
The struggle in the service hallway.
Victoria grabbing her wrist.
The closet door slamming.
Her apron catching.
A hand reaching near her waist.
“My phone,” Sarah whispered. “She took my phone.”
Victoria folded her arms.
“That’s insane.”
Gabriel stepped toward her.
“Empty your pockets.”
Victoria stared at him.
“You cannot be serious.”
“Empty them.”
For the first time, fear replaced anger on Victoria’s face.
Then Ethan spoke.
“Gabriel.”
Everyone turned.
He was standing beside the bar.
And in his hand was Sarah’s phone.
“I found this under the dining table.”
Sarah knew immediately he was lying.
Because the corner of the case was still wet.
With water.
The same water that covered the floor of the service sink where Victoria had trapped her earlier.
Gabriel looked at the phone.
May you like
Then at Ethan.
And the betrayal in his eyes deepened.
