Chapter 8 - One Lie in Front of the Wrong Man
Dawson entered the warehouse alone.
Louis watched from the surveillance van.
Corrine sat beside him.
“Why him?”
“Because Victor considers him disposable.”
“He always was.”
Louis glanced at her.
She wasn’t trembling.
That worried him almost as much as when she did.
Dawson searched the false office.
He found the planted drive.
Then his phone rang.
The microphone caught his side of the conversation.
“I have it.”
Pause.
“No, she doesn’t know.”
Corrine’s eyes narrowed.
Another pause.
Then Dawson said something that turned her blood cold.
“She still thinks the gambling debts were mine.”
Corrine leaned toward the screen.
“What?”
Louis immediately signaled the technician.
“Boost it.”
Dawson continued.
“You promised the debt would disappear when Butler gave up the files.”
Corrine stopped breathing.
Louis understood before she did.
The gambling.
The money.
The harassment.
Victor had financed it.
Dawson had been pushed toward Corrine deliberately.
Not because she was Louis’s wife.
Before that.
Because she was his assistant.
The bruises had been collateral damage in a plan that began long before the garage.
Corrine whispered, “He used me to get to you.”
Louis’s face became unreadable.
“No.”
She turned.
“What?”
“Victor used Dawson.”
“That’s what I said.”
“No. You said he used you.”
Louis looked at her.
“You are not responsible for what those men chose to do.”
Something inside Corrine cracked.
For months she had blamed herself.
For staying.
For paying.
For hiding.
For believing Dawson’s apologies.
Louis had never once asked why she hadn’t left sooner.
He had only asked what she wanted now.
On the surveillance screen, Dawson pocketed the drive.
Then he looked directly at the hidden camera.
And smiled.
Louis stood.
“He knows.”
The warehouse lights went out.
May you like
The surveillance feed died.
Then the van doors exploded open.
