Chapter 4
She recognized bank routing numbers.
Corporate structures.
Account references.
And she recognized one company name immediately.
**Vesper Holdings.**
She had seen it three nights earlier on documents inside Nikolai’s study.
Wren scrolled upward.
Her hands began trembling.
There were photographs.
Shipping manifests.
Private schedules.
Names of security personnel.
A photograph of Nikolai’s office safe.
Another of his desk.
And messages stretching back months.
Elise had not arrived in Nikolai’s life accidentally.
She had been placed there.
Wren read one message twice.
**Once I marry him, access becomes easier. If he dies after that, nobody questions why the grieving widow inherits.**
Wren stopped breathing.
The phone nearly slipped from her hand.
Behind her, a voice said:
“You’re holding something that doesn’t belong to you.”
Wren spun around.
Nikolai stood at the entrance to the room.
No jacket.
White shirt sleeves rolled to his forearms.
His expression unreadable.
Wren immediately held out the phone.
“Neither does the woman who owns it.”
Nikolai’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
She swallowed.
“I think you need to read this.”
He crossed the room.
Wren had seen powerful men become angry before.
They raised their voices.
Threw glasses.
Punched walls.
Nikolai did none of those things.
He simply read.
And became still.
That frightened her more.
He scrolled.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
His jaw tightened.
“Where did you find this?”
“Under the sofa.”
“You read it?”
“The notifications appeared first.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Wren met his eyes.
“Yes.”
Nikolai looked at her for a long moment.
Most employees would have apologized.
Wren did not.
Finally, he returned to the messages.
“Victor.”
Wren hesitated.
“You know him?”
“I know several Victors.”
“There’s a photograph farther up.”
Nikolai found it.
His expression changed.
Barely.
But Wren saw it.
Victor Soren.
One of Nikolai’s oldest associates.
A man who had attended his engagement party.
A man who had hugged Nikolai after Elise accepted the ring.
A man who had called him brother.
Nikolai read the final message.
Then he laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“I created an imaginary betrayal,” he said, “and accidentally uncovered a real one.”
Wren did not know what that meant.
So Nikolai told her.
The collapse.
The frozen accounts.
The investigation.
All fake.
Wren stared at him.
“You pretended to lose everything?”
“Yes.”
“To test her?”
“Yes.”
“That’s…”
“Cruel?”
“I was going to say insane.”
Nikolai looked at her.
For the first time that night, something almost human moved across his face.