Chapter 12 - THE NETWORK

We reached Sophie’s apartment with police.

Door unlocked.

Wine glasses on the table.

Half-packed luggage.

No Sophie.

Her fiancé, Grant, had vanished too.

But he made one mistake.

He left his laptop.

Emails connected him to Harold.

So did two other men.

Daniel wasn’t the mastermind.

He was one piece.

Harold had built a network that targeted wealthy women through relationships.

Some married.

Some didn’t.

All were manipulated into signing documents.

Margaret recruited, researched, and coached.

Daniel handled long-term targets.

Grant was being trained to replace him.

“This is bigger than us,” Naomi said.

Federal investigators entered the case.

Financial fraud.

Kidnapping.

Forgery.

Identity theft.

Possible homicide.

Meanwhile, Sophie’s phone pinged near an airport.

We raced there.

Security footage showed Grant guiding her through a private terminal.

She looked unsteady.

Drugged.

A charter plane was scheduled for Montreal.

Police stopped it eleven minutes before takeoff.

Grant ran across the tarmac.

He didn’t make it far.

Sophie was found alive.

Disoriented.

Terrified.

She remembered drinking champagne.

Then nothing.

Grant started talking within hours.

He wanted a deal.

And he gave police the one thing we needed.

Daniel’s location.

An abandoned hotel owned by one of Harold’s shell companies.

Federal agents surrounded it before dawn.

I wasn’t allowed near the raid.

Good.

I had seen enough guns.

Enough blood.

Enough men calling cruelty a misunderstanding.

At 6:14 a.m., Marcus called.

“They got Harold.”

“And Daniel?”

Silence.

“Marcus?”

“Daniel wasn’t there.”

My stomach tightened.

“Where is he?”

“We don’t know.”

Harold was arrested carrying false passports and almost two million dollars.

He refused to answer questions.

Then agents searched the hotel basement.

They found records linking him to Evelyn’s death.

Drug purchases.

Insurance documents.

A payment to the mechanic who serviced her car before the crash.

The mechanic was still alive.

And willing to testify.

Margaret’s confidence finally cracked.

Harold’s charges multiplied.

Grant cooperated.

Rebecca agreed to testify.

Andrea did too.

Everything was collapsing.

Except Daniel was still missing.

That evening I returned to Dad’s house with two security officers.

I walked into my childhood bedroom.

On the pillow sat my wedding ring.

I had left it in Naomi’s office.

Underneath was a note.

You were supposed to be different.

I spun toward the hallway.

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A floorboard creaked.

Then Daniel stepped out of the darkness.