Chapter 4 - The Man With the Lemon Drops
Elias Voss called on Monday morning.
His voice carried the warm concern of a family doctor.
“Chloe, my dear. I heard you had a frightening weekend.”
She looked across the hotel room.
Dominic stood beside the window while Val reviewed the corridor camera on a tablet.
“Who told you?”
“A company has no secrets.”
The answer made her skin tighten.
“I hope you’re recovering.”
“I am.”
“Good. Dominic can become rather dramatic where security is concerned. I don’t want you frightened by his imagination.”
Chloe watched Dominic turn.
“What imagination?”
“Oh, business tensions. Old disputes. People sometimes see patterns where there are only administrative mistakes.”
There it was.
The invoice.
The fire.
Sixteen years folded into a phrase neat enough to file.
Chloe forced her voice steady.
“Was there something you needed?”
“Only to offer support. Perhaps lunch later this week.”
“I’m taking personal leave.”
“Of course. We’ll keep your desk waiting.”
The call ended.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Chloe handed the phone to Val.
“Please preserve that.”
Val nodded.
Dominic looked at her.
“You handled that well.”
“I sounded frightened.”
“You were frightened. You still asked questions.”
It was the first compliment he had given her that had nothing to do with usefulness.
She felt it more than she wanted to.
That afternoon, outside counsel arrived.
Her name was Nora Patel.
She represented neither Voss nor the company’s existing legal department.
She explained the limits of her role, then encouraged Chloe to obtain independent representation.
Dominic agreed to cover reasonable legal expenses without receiving reports of confidential conversations.
Chloe insisted the arrangement be documented.
Nora smiled slightly.
“Good.”
The next days moved slowly.
Accounts were preserved.
Access logs reviewed.
Authorities contacted.
Chloe learned that fear did not always arrive as a man in an alley.
Sometimes it arrived as an email from human resources asking her to attend an internal interview without her attorney.
Sometimes it arrived as David leaving twelve messages, each more desperate than the last.
Sometimes it arrived when she noticed how closely Dominic watched every door.
On Wednesday, Jessica came to the hotel.
She stood in the entrance clutching flowers she had clearly bought in panic.
“I didn’t know.”
Chloe stared at her.
“What didn’t you know?”
“David asked me to make sure you came to the club.”
The room tilted.
Jessica began talking quickly.
He had contacted her through a company social event.
He said Chloe needed to stop hiding.
He offered to pay for the birthday table as a surprise.
Jessica thought it was sweet.
“He said he wanted you around friends,” she whispered.
Chloe sat down.
Her brother had chosen the place.
The night.
The people.
Jessica’s eyes filled.
“I’m so sorry.”
Chloe looked at the flowers.
“I believe you didn’t know.”
Jessica started crying.
“That isn’t the same as saying I’m fine,” Chloe added.
“I know.”
They sat together until Jessica could breathe normally.
After she left, Chloe went out onto the hotel’s private terrace.
Dominic followed only after asking.
The city stretched beneath them, all glass and distance.
“I keep finding new ways he used people,” she said.
Dominic rested his hands on the railing.
“People who manipulate others rely on each person knowing only one small part.”
“You sound experienced.”
“I am.”
She turned toward him.
He did not look away.
“I’ve used fear to get cooperation,” he said. “Not with you. That doesn’t make the rest disappear.”
The honesty unsettled her.
So did the fact that he seemed to expect her judgment rather than her gratitude.
“What happens if this reaches you?”
“It already has.”
“Your business?”
“Maybe more than that.”
She searched his face.
“Are you going to stop helping?”
“No.”
“Because of what your father did?”
“Because I should have asked better questions long before you needed me to.”
The wind lifted her hair.
He reached halfway toward it, then stopped.
“May I?”
She nodded.
His fingers moved a loose strand away from her cheek.
The touch was brief.
Gentle.
It left her breath uneven.
Dominic stepped back.
“You’re frightened. You’re exhausted. And I’m still your employer.”
“I know.”
“So nothing happens here that you might later wonder whether you were free to refuse.”
Chloe looked at him for a long moment.
Then she said, “You’re learning better words.”
For the first time since the alley, he smiled.
Her phone rang before she could smile back.
David.
She answered.
May you like
His voice sounded broken.
“They’re going after Mom next.”
