Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO REFUSED PROTECTION
The threats escalated.
A stranger followed Eden from the grocery store.
Someone scratched a warning into her apartment door.
Her phone received messages at odd hours.
STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.
EVAN DIDN'T LISTEN.
YOU SHOULD.
Detective Ortiz arranged additional patrols.
She also recommended Eden stay somewhere else temporarily.
Eden refused at first.
"This is my home."
Ortiz nodded.
"I understand."
"Then why should I leave?"
"Because someone is trying to frighten you."
Eden folded her arms.
"They're succeeding."
Ortiz's expression softened.
"Being afraid doesn't mean you have to make yourself easy to find."
Eden looked away.
Eventually, she agreed to stay with her friend Maya Bennett, a nurse who lived in a secure apartment building.
Nico offered his guesthouse.
She declined.
He didn't argue.
That mattered.
One evening, Eden met Nico at a public café near the river.
She had agreed because he said he wanted to show her something.
He arrived without his usual entourage.
Only Marco waited outside.
Nico placed a folder on the table.
Inside were copies of business records.
Eden studied them.
"What's this?"
"Shipping invoices."
She frowned.
"From your company?"
"Yes."
"Why are you showing me?"
"Because your brother's notebook references several of these transactions."
Eden looked closer.
The dates matched.
The amounts matched.
But the listed cargo didn't.
One invoice described agricultural equipment.
Another listed medical supplies.
A third referred to refrigerated food shipments.
Yet the payments were routed through companies with no obvious connection to those industries.
Eden looked up.
"Someone was using your business."
Nico nodded.
"That's what it looks like."
"Without you knowing?"
His expression tightened.
"That's the question."
She stared.
"You're telling me you don't know what's happening inside your own company?"
He didn't look away.
"I'm telling you I should have known."
Eden closed the folder.
"Then maybe you weren't as powerful as everyone thought."
Nico gave a humorless smile.
"Maybe not."
She studied him.
For the first time, she saw something beneath his reputation.
Not weakness.
Accountability.
May you like
And it frightened her more than his power had.
Because it made him human.
