Chapter 2 - FIRED BEFORE MIDNIGHT
Leah read the termination email three times.
The words never changed.
Effective immediately.
Violation of professional conduct.
Inappropriate physical contact with a guest.
Damage to client reputation.
No severance.
No reference.
She looked at the timestamp.
9:17 p.m.
Vanessa had left the ballroom at 9:14.
Three minutes.
That was all it had taken to erase four years of Leah’s career.
Alexander held out his hand.
“May I?”
Leah gave him the phone.
He read the email.
His jaw tightened.
“Who owns Brightwell?”
“Martin Crane.”
Alexander looked toward his chief of staff.
“Find him.”
The chief of staff nodded.
Leah shook her head.
“You don’t have to do that.”
Alexander looked at her.
“You were fired because you protected my mother.”
“I made the decision.”
“And they retaliated.”
“I’ll handle it.”
Alexander’s mother smiled.
“I like her.”
Leah almost laughed despite everything.
Alexander didn’t.
His attention remained on the transfer records.
“What does Brightwell do for the foundation?”
Leah answered carefully.
“Event planning.”
“Nothing else?”
“Not that I know of.”
Alexander showed her the page.
“Then why did the foundation pay your employer $2.4 million?”
Leah stared at the figure.
“That can’t be right.”
“Why?”
“Our entire annual contract wasn’t even worth one-tenth of that.”
Alexander’s eyes sharpened.
“How much?”
“About two hundred thousand.”
His mother nodded.
“Exactly.”
Leah looked at her.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
Alexander turned toward his mother.
“How long?”
“Six months.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I tried.”
Alexander’s expression hardened.
His mother continued.
“Three messages disappeared.”
“What messages?”
“Messages I sent to your office.”
Alexander looked toward his chief of staff.
The man looked confused.
“I never received them.”
“That’s because someone didn’t want you to.”
A terrible silence followed.
Leah realized this was no longer a charity scandal.
Someone close to Alexander was controlling what reached him.
His mother touched his hand.
“That is why I came tonight without telling anyone.”
Alexander stared at her.
“You deliberately came alone?”
“Yes.”
“That was reckless.”
“I’m eighty-one, Alexander.”
She smiled.
“I’m allowed to be reckless occasionally.”
He didn’t smile back.
“You could have been hurt.”
“But I wasn’t.”
She looked at Leah.
“Because someone with far less power than everyone else in this room had more courage than all of them.”
Leah looked away.
The compliment made her uncomfortable.
Alexander’s chief of staff returned.
“Mr. Bellgrave.”
“What?”
“Martin Crane isn’t here.”
“Call him.”
“We tried.”
“And?”
“His phone is disconnected.”
Leah frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
The chief of staff looked at her.
“When did you last see him?”
“About an hour ago.”
“Where?”
“Backstage.”
“Was he alone?”
Leah thought.
Then remembered.
“No.”
Alexander stepped closer.
“Who was with him?”
Leah hesitated.
“Vanessa.”
Nobody spoke.
Alexander’s mother closed her eyes.
“Of course.”
Leah suddenly remembered something else.
“They were arguing.”
Alexander looked at her.
“About what?”
“I couldn’t hear everything.”
“What did you hear?”
Leah searched her memory.
Martin’s frightened expression.
Vanessa gripping his arm.
One sentence.
A strange sentence that hadn’t made sense at the time.
Leah looked at Alexander.
“She said, ‘You were supposed to destroy the originals.’”
Alexander went completely still.
His mother whispered.
“Oh, God.”
The chief of staff immediately pulled out his phone.
“Lock down Brightwell’s office.”
Alexander nodded.
“Send our investigators.”
Leah stared at them.
“What originals?”
Alexander folded the transfer documents.
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
Leah’s phone vibrated again.
Unknown number.
A text message.
She opened it.
There was no greeting.
No name.
Only a photograph.
Leah’s breath caught.
It was a picture of her apartment building.
Taken tonight.
Beneath it were six words.
WALK AWAY WHILE YOU STILL CAN.
Alexander saw her face.
“What is it?”
Leah showed him.
His expression became ice.
His mother whispered.
“They’re already watching her.”
Alexander turned toward security.
“Ms. Morgan does not leave this palace alone.”
Leah immediately shook her head.
“I don’t need protection.”
“Yes, you do.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“No.”
Alexander looked at the photograph again.
“But whoever sent this does.”
Leah’s stomach twisted.
Then another message appeared.
This one contained a video.
Eight seconds long.
Leah pressed play.
Martin Crane stood in what appeared to be an underground parking garage.
His face was bruised.
He looked terrified.
He stared directly into the camera.
“Leah.”
Her blood turned cold.
“If you’re seeing this, they know you heard us.”
He looked over his shoulder.
“Don’t trust anyone from Bellgrave.”
The video ended.
Leah slowly raised her eyes.
May you like
Alexander was standing directly in front of her.
And suddenly Martin’s warning changed everything.
