I Thought My Coworker Was Flirting With Someone Else Until She Pulled Me Aside and Told Me the Truth
Chapter 9
We escaped through the old loading tunnel.
By sunrise, the evidence had been mirrored to three independent locations.
Regulators.
Investigators.
Journalists.
Everything was out.
Mercer & Lane went into chaos.
Daniel was arrested.
Several board members resigned.
The CFO confessed.
But Elias disappeared.
No arrest.
No body.
Nothing.
He vanished before authorities reached the basement.
I spent the next week in a protected apartment.
Hannah stayed nearby.
We barely slept.
Neither of us knew what would happen next.
One afternoon, she knocked on my door.
“I found something.”
I let her in.
She handed me a folder.
“What is it?”
“My mother’s final report.”
I opened it.
Rebecca Miller had documented the entire Orion system.
But there was one strange line.
Primary subject refuses to believe he is being watched.
I stared.
“Who is the subject?”
She looked at me.
“You.”
I frowned.
“What?”
Rebecca had been monitoring me since I was a teenager.
Not because I was suspicious.
Because she believed Elias was going to use me.
My father had asked her to protect me.
Hannah had inherited that responsibility.
She had been watching me for years.
I looked at her.
“You were assigned to me.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve been protecting me since before we met.”
“Yes.”
“Then why pretend you were just my coworker?”
She smiled sadly.
“Because that was the only way to stay close without attracting attention.”
My chest tightened.
“So when you helped me…”
“I was doing my job.”
“And when you stayed late?”
She hesitated.
“That stopped being my job.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
She whispered,
“Because I fell in love with you.”
Everything went quiet.
I didn’t answer.
Not because I didn’t feel the same.
Because I was afraid.
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“I would have helped.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
She looked down.
“Because people I love tend to disappear.”
I stepped closer.
“So you pushed me away.”
“Yes.”
“I thought you were with Daniel.”
She laughed softly.
“I was trying to stop him from destroying you.”
“I hated seeing you with him.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“You weren’t subtle.”
I smiled.
“Apparently not.”
She looked at me.
“I am sorry.”
I took her hand.
“I believe you.”
She squeezed it.
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She listened.
Then looked at me.
“Elias was seen.”
“Where?”
“Your old apartment building.”
I felt cold.
“My old apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“They found a message.”
“What message?”
She handed me the phone.
A photograph.
My old apartment door.
Written across it:
I KNOW WHAT YOUR FATHER HID.
I stared.
“What did my father hide?”
Hannah shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
A second image arrived.
A locked mailbox.
Then:
COME ALONE.
Hannah looked at me.
“Don’t go.”
“I’m not going.”
“Good.”
“I mean, not alone.”
She smiled.
We drove there together.
The building was abandoned.
The mailbox was still there.
Inside was a metal envelope.
A letter from my father.
I opened it.
Daniel,
If you ever find this, then Elias failed to stop you.
My hands shook.
Your mother didn’t know this.
Hannah’s mother did.
The truth is that I wasn’t investigating Elias.
I stared.
I was investigating myself.
I read the next sentence twice.
I helped build Orion.
I looked at Hannah.
She went pale.
My father had been part of the system.
And he had been trying to destroy his own creation.
