Chapter 1 - THE MAN LUKE THOUGHT I HIRED
I linked my arm through Daniel’s and stepped onto the sunlit patio.
My ex-husband Luke was already there.
So was Camellia.
Twenty-five years old.
His former secretary.
The woman he had left me for six months earlier, when our son Oliver was barely three weeks old.
Camellia wore a white swimsuit beneath a flowing designer cover-up and stood beside Luke as though she had always belonged there.
The pool party was supposed to be simple.
Oliver’s first big family gathering since the divorce.
My sister had offered her backyard because she had a heated pool, enough patio space for everyone, and the supernatural ability to invite both sides of a broken family without realizing she was organizing a diplomatic summit.
Luke arrived with Camellia even though nobody had invited her.
That was why I arrived with Daniel.
Or at least, that was the explanation everyone assumed.
Luke saw him and immediately laughed.
“This is pathetic!”
People stopped talking.
Luke looked Daniel up and down.
“Who did you hire, Clover? Some discount actor from a talent agency?”
Heat rushed into my face.
“A guy like him would never actually choose a washed-up single mother like you.”
Camellia touched Luke’s arm.
“Luke.”
“No, seriously.”
He was enjoying himself now.
“Have you even looked in a mirror lately?”
Daniel did not release my hand.
His pleasant expression disappeared.
“Actually, Luke, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”
Luke frowned.
“What?”
Daniel reached into his jacket.
He removed a small black velvet box.
“I brought you something.”
Luke laughed again.
“A consolation prize?”
He opened it.
The color drained from his face.
Inside was a custom secure evidence drive marked with the identification seal attached to an active federal securities referral.
Luke dropped it.
Daniel calmly picked it up.
“My name is Daniel Reed.”
The patio became silent.
“I’m a forensic financial attorney with Vanguard Litigation Group in Washington.”
Luke’s face changed.
Clover didn't hire me to pretend to be her boyfriend.
“She retained my firm after the divorce because the disclosures you filed contained inconsistencies.”
Luke looked at me.
“You investigated me?”
I answered calmly.
“I verified what you told the court.”
Daniel continued.
“We found approximately four-point-two million dollars diverted through entities connected to your company.”
Camellia went pale.
“We traced transfers associated with an employee-benefit reserve, expansion accounts, and several vendors that appear to have provided no services.”
Luke’s lips moved.
No sound.
Daniel took one step closer.
“We also traced funds through Belize.”
Camellia turned toward Luke.
“What Belize funds?”
Luke did not look at her.
Daniel continued.
“Some of that money was used in connection with the beachfront condominium you told Ms. Vale was purchased with your personal post-divorce income.”
Camellia’s mouth opened.
“Luke?”
“Don’t.”
Daniel’s voice remained calm.
“And we found evidence you made materially false statements during divorce discovery regarding compensation, stock options, and related entities.”
Luke looked at me.
“You had no right.”
That sentence changed something inside me.
Not:
That isn't true.
Not:
You’re mistaken.
You had no right.
Daniel looked almost amused.
“Clover had every right to investigate whether sworn financial disclosures in her divorce were accurate.”
Luke’s eyes moved toward the drive.
“What exactly is on that?”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Enough that I would recommend you stop talking without counsel.”
Luke’s face became ghostly.
And that should have been the most satisfying moment of my divorce.
It wasn't.
Because Camellia suddenly stepped away from him.
“You said the condo was paid for with the stock sale.”
Luke whispered:
“Camellia.”
“You said the divorce settlement was already done when you bought it.”
“Not here.”
“You told me Clover knew about Belize.”
My stomach tightened.
I looked at her.
“What exactly did he tell you I knew?”
Camellia stared at me.
For the first time since the affair began, she did not look smug.
She looked afraid.
“He said you signed a waiver.”
“What waiver?”
Luke closed his eyes.
Daniel immediately looked at me.
I knew that expression.
New information.
Camellia continued.
“He said part of your settlement allowed him to transfer overseas assets separately because they were company compensation.”
“No.”
Her face collapsed.
“I saw a document.”
Daniel said:
“Do you have it?”
Luke snapped:
“She doesn’t have anything.”
Camellia looked at him.
That was the wrong thing to say.
She reached into her handbag.
Pulled out her phone.
“I photographed it.”
Luke moved toward her.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Don’t.”
Luke stopped.
Camellia found the image.
Handed me the phone.
The document looked real.
My name.
The case number from our divorce.
A signature at the bottom.
CLOVER BENNETT.
Except I had never signed it.
Daniel enlarged the image.
His expression hardened.
“Clover.”
“I didn't sign that.”
“I know.”
Luke said:
“This is insane.”
Daniel ignored him.
The document purported to waive claims to assets connected with a company called:
MAR AZUL CAPITAL HOLDINGS.
Daniel looked at me.
“We haven’t seen this entity.”
Luke’s face told us everything.
The $4.2 million trail was not the entire story.
There was another company.
Another document.
Another hidden pool of money.
And Camellia had just handed us the first piece.
Daniel looked at Luke.
“You may have a substantially larger problem than the one I came here to discuss.”
Then a baby cried behind us.
Oliver.
My son.
I turned instinctively.
And in that moment I remembered why I had started investigating Luke at all.
Not revenge.
Not Camellia.
Not even money.
Six months earlier, while I was recovering from childbirth, Luke had looked me in the eyes and sworn that every financial disclosure was complete because:
“I would never steal from the mother of my son.”
May you like
Apparently he had interpreted that sentence very creatively.
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