Chapter 7 - HOW WE MET
I met Fiona in a coffee shop eighteen months earlier.
She had bumped my table and spilled a little coffee across my building plans.
At least, that was how I remembered it.
She had apologized.
Asked what I was designing.
Mentioned a nonprofit housing project her father supported.
A week later, we had dinner.
Now I stared at a document dated before that meeting.
APPROACH THROUGH FIONA.
Below it were notes about my job, my apartment, and Dad’s address.
I called her.
“Was the coffee shop planned?”
Silence.
“That’s all I need to know.”
“Blake, wait.”
I stayed on the line.
“Yes,” she said.
The word seemed to scrape its way out.
“My father asked me to meet you.”
“For the trust.”
“He said there was an old business problem. He wanted to repair things.”
“And you believed that?”
“At first.”
“What changed?”
She began crying.
I used to move toward that sound without thinking.
Now I looked at the copied signature on Adrian’s desk.
“Fiona.”
“He wanted you close.”
“For eighteen months?”
“I fell in love with you.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did you know about the papers?”
“I knew he needed your consent.”
“Did you know the schedules were missing?”
Another silence.
That one hurt more.
We met in a public café near Adrian’s office.
Adrian sat at another table.
Fiona arrived without her wedding ring.
She put a flash drive in front of me.
“Emails.”
“How did you get them?”
“My father’s assistant forwarded the transaction file to me last month.”
“Why?”
“I was supposed to make sure you signed.”
I didn’t touch the drive.
“What do you want?”
“To fix what I can.”
“You laughed at my father.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to make that smaller.”
“I’m not trying.”
For once, she didn’t reach for me.
Adrian came over and took the drive.
He would preserve it properly before examining anything.
Fiona watched him leave.
“Dad’s company is selling HSS tomorrow.”
I looked at her.
“The board meeting?”
“Yes.”
“The buyer thinks they own the designs.”
She nodded.
“If the sale closes, the money gets distributed to companies my father controls.”
Adrian returned with his laptop.
The first email on the drive showed George giving Fiona instructions.
Keep Blake relaxed. Let counsel explain afterward.
Then Adrian opened the next attachment.
May you like
It was a schedule of payments.
Fiona’s name appeared beside a two-million-dollar transfer.
