The man didn’t answer.
Victoria Strand appeared behind me.
Preston recognized her at once.
“Ms. Strand. I was just looking for you to talk about Altair.”
Victoria ignored the folder he was holding.
“Mr. Lyle, you’ve spent four years trying to find out who really owns Altair.”
Preston frowned.
Victoria rested a hand on the back of my chair.
“Allow me to introduce you.”
I watched the blood drain from my husband’s face.
“No…”
“Reese Sutherland controls Altair Capital.”
Preston looked at me as if I had become a different person right before his eyes.
“That’s impossible.”
“No,” I answered. “What’s impossible is that for four years you never asked who was actually paying for your miracles.”
The investors began to murmur.
I went on:
“Your first round of capital was mine. The credit line that saved your company two years ago was mine. The acquisition that tripled your valuation was financed by me.”
Sabrina grabbed his arm.
“Preston, let’s go.”
But he was already broken.
“You deceived me!”
I smiled without humor.
“You tried to sterilize me while I was pregnant. Let’s not talk about deception.”
I ordered security to remove them.
Hours later, Lyle Holdings collapsed.
But my victory was short-lived.
We went to Preston’s offices to recover documents related to my investments. Inside a safe, we found an encrypted disk.
Calvin managed to open it.
On the screen appeared blueprints of military installations and technology development centers belonging to the Sutherland Group.
I froze.
This was no longer a simple marital betrayal.
“How did he get this?”
Before Calvin could answer, red dots of light appeared across his chest.
A federal team swept into the office.
At the front walked a tall man dressed in black.
I recognized him before my mind accepted what I was seeing.
“Everett…”
Everett Stone.
The man I was supposed to marry before a mission overseas ended, supposedly, in his death.
The man whose funeral had destroyed me.
The man whose absence had left me vulnerable just before I met Preston.
Everett stepped closer.
“Forgive me, Reese.”
“You’re dead.”
“That’s what we needed everyone to believe.”
He told me the truth.
Preston had been recruited years earlier by an international organization dedicated to trafficking military technology.
His marriage to me had been no coincidence.
And Sabrina wasn’t simply his mistress.
She was his handler.
I was the target.
Everett had spent years tracking the operation from the inside.
I felt sick.
“So my whole marriage was a mission?”
“Yes.”
“And you knew?”
Everett lowered his eyes.
“I knew part of it.”
I had no time to answer.
Calvin’s phone buzzed.
A video appeared.
Preston was inside an old industrial warehouse.
Beside him, tied to a chair, was Mabel, the woman who had worked in our home and who for years had been the only person to treat me with real tenderness.
Preston raised a wrench in front of the camera.
“Pier 7. One hour, Reese. Alone. If the police show up, Mabel doesn’t leave alive.”
Everett shook his head.
“You’re not going.”
I watched the video.
Then I looked at Calvin.
“Get everything ready.”
Everett grabbed my arm.
“Reese, Sabrina activated her men.”
I slowly pulled free.
“That’s exactly what I’m counting on.”
PART 3
I arrived alone at an old cargo terminal at the Port of Baltimore shortly after midnight.
I had traded heels for boots and the gala dress for black pants and a plain shirt.
The enormous industrial building was nearly empty.
Nearly.
Preston waited under a lamp.
Mabel was tied up behind him.
And from beside the columns, armed men appeared.
More than twenty.
Sabrina stepped out from among them.
She no longer wore jewelry or a designer gown.
She wore tactical clothing.
She was holding a pistol.
“At last we meet the real Reese Sutherland,” she said.
Preston looked at me with a mix of hatred and desperation.
“You took everything from me.”
“Your company was built with my money.”
“It was mine!”
“Then you should have learned to keep it without trying to murder the person who funded it.”
He walked over to Mabel and rested the wrench on her shoulder.
“Hand over the Sutherland access codes and this ends.”
“You have no idea what you stole, Preston.”
“I know exactly what it’s worth.”
Sabrina raised the gun.
“Enough.”
She aimed at my chest.
“Your pregnancy threw off the timeline. Preston was supposed to keep you close until we had full access to your family’s systems. When we found out you were pregnant, you started to become a problem.”
I stared at her.
“That’s why the operation.”
“That’s why everything.”
Preston swallowed.
For the first time, he seemed to understand something.
“You told me you only wanted to get the baby out of the way.”
Sabrina looked at him with contempt.
“You were always a tool, Preston.”
My husband’s expression cracked.
Perhaps that was his cruelest punishment.
Discovering that he had done to me exactly what someone else had been doing to him for years.
Sabrina gave an order.
“Kill her.”
Nobody fired.
She waited.
“I said shoot.”
Silence.
Preston turned to the men.
“What are you doing?”
One of them stepped forward.
He was the commander of the group.
He stopped in front of me.
And lowered his weapon.
“Ms. Sutherland. Perimeter secured.”
Sabrina’s eyes widened.