She Laughed at His $500 Bid—Then the Auctioneer Said, “The Factory Is His.”
Chapter 4
They escaped through the loading bay.
The rain was colder outside.
Vivian’s heels slipped on the asphalt as Ethan pulled her toward an old black pickup parked beside the fence.
She stopped before getting in.
“I don’t know you.”
“I know.”
“You show up at an auction, buy my family’s factory for five hundred dollars, have a man shoot at you, and expect me to get into your truck?”
“No.”
He opened the passenger door.
“I expect you to decide whether you want to know why your father trusted me.”
Vivian stared at him.
The factory rose behind them, dark and hollow.
For eighteen months she had believed the building represented failure.
Now, for the first time, it looked like a locked box.
And someone was desperate to get inside it.
She climbed in.
Ethan drove.
For several minutes neither spoke.
Then Vivian noticed the old scar across his left hand.
A thin white line running from his thumb to his wrist.
She had seen it before.
A childhood memory surfaced.
Her father kneeling beside a boy in the factory yard.
“You’ll be all right, Ethan.”
Vivian turned sharply.
“Where did you get that scar?”
Ethan’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“You remember?”
She stared at him.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“My father knew you.”
“He did.”
“Who were you to him?”
Ethan kept his eyes on the road.
“His employee.”
“That isn’t true.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
He said nothing.
Vivian’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Her father stood beside Ethan.
They were outside the factory.
But Vivian had never seen the photograph.
Beneath it was a message.
Ask him why your father chose him instead of you.
Vivian looked up.
Ethan saw her face.
“What did they send you?”
She turned the screen toward him.
His expression hardened.
“Don’t answer.”
“Why?”
“Because now they know you’re with me.”
The phone buzzed again.
This time, only four words appeared.
YOUR FATHER LIED.
