Chapter 4 - Why Raven Really Hired Her
Sarah stood motionless outside Raven's study.
The brass key felt suddenly heavy in her palm.
“She can never know.”
Raven's words repeated in her mind.
Twenty-three months and fourteen days.
Had everything been a lie?
Sarah pushed open the door.
Victoria saw her first.
Raven turned.
His expression told Sarah everything.
He knew she had heard.
“Know what?”
Neither answered.
Sarah held up the key.
“And before you decide what version of the truth I can handle, remember that I'm the woman who fixes your mistakes before you've even discovered them.”
“Sarah—”
“Why did you hire me?”
Raven looked toward Victoria.
“Leave us.”
Victoria hesitated.
Then nodded.
When the door closed, Sarah remained standing.
Raven leaned against his desk.
“I knew who your father was.”
The admission hurt more than she expected.
“When?”
“Before your first interview.”
Sarah laughed once.
“You personally interviewed me three times.”
“Yes.”
“You said the screening process was standard.”
“It wasn't.”
“Why?”
Raven was silent.
“Why, Raven?”
“Because I found your father's name in one of Antonio's old ledgers.”
Sarah stared.
“When?”
“Three months before you applied.”
“And then my résumé conveniently arrived?”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes. Your application was coincidence.”
“That's convenient.”
“I almost rejected it because of your name.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because you were the best candidate.”
Sarah shook her head.
“You investigated me.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Education. Employment. Financial background.”
“My personal life?”
A pause.
“Only enough to determine whether you had connections to anyone involved with my father.”
Her anger rose.
“You had no right.”
“I know.”
That answer stopped her.
Raven didn't defend himself.
“I expected you to last a month,” he continued. “Maybe two.”
“Why?”
“My assistants usually quit.”
“I noticed.”
“You challenged me on your third day.”
“You scheduled meetings in two buildings twelve minutes apart.”
“You told me my calendar was stupid.”
“I said inefficient.”
“You meant stupid.”
Sarah almost smiled.
She refused.
“When did this stop being about my father?”
Raven looked at her.
“Your second week.”
“That quickly?”
“You found a seven-million-dollar accounting discrepancy everyone else missed.”
“So?”
“So I stopped seeing Daniel Ashford's daughter.”
His voice softened.
“I started seeing you.”
Sarah's anger faltered.
She hated that.
“Yet you never told me.”
“I didn't know there was anything to tell. Daniel's name appeared in a ledger. That was all.”
“Until tonight.”
“Yes.”
Sarah opened her hand.
The brass key gleamed beneath the study lights.
“Grand Central. Locker 314.”
Raven straightened.
“Where was that?”
“Hidden inside the envelope.”
“We go tomorrow.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I go tomorrow.”
“Sarah—”
“My father left it for me.”
“And Malcolm may know about it.”
“Then you can stand twenty feet away and glare intimidatingly at commuters.”
“Ten feet.”
Despite herself, Sarah smiled.
Raven noticed.
The tension eased slightly.
Then his phone rang.
He checked the screen.
Malcolm.
Raven answered on speaker.
“What?”
Malcolm's voice was calm.
“I assume Miss Ashford found the key.”
Sarah and Raven exchanged a look.
“How do you know about it?” Raven asked.
“Because Daniel told me.”
“When?”
“The week he died.”
Sarah stepped closer.
“What is inside the locker?”
“Something Antonio would have killed to recover.”
Raven's face hardened.
“My father is dead.”
“Yes. Which is why the contents are considerably less dangerous now.”
“Except to you,” Sarah said.
Malcolm chuckled.
“Exactly like Daniel.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Why? He was brilliant. Stubborn. Morally exhausting.”
“Did you kill him?”
Silence.
Then Malcolm said, “No.”
Sarah believed he meant it.
That didn't make him innocent.
“Tomorrow morning,” Malcolm continued, “I'll tell you everything.”
“Where?” Raven asked.
“My office. Nine.”
“No.”
Sarah looked at Raven.
“Why?”
“Because if he wants us there, we're not going.”
Malcolm laughed.
“Antonio would be proud.”
The call ended.
Sarah sat on the edge of Raven's desk.
“You don't trust him.”
“I trust patterns.”
“My line again?”
“You've had a corrupting influence.”
For a moment they simply looked at each other.
Then Raven said, “Silian isn't your boyfriend.”
Sarah froze.
“What makes you think that?”
“You're terrible at lying.”
“I lie to you constantly.”
“No, you don't.”
“I told you the printer was broken last month because you wanted to print a hundred-page document five minutes before leaving.”
“It was broken.”
“I unplugged it.”
Raven stared.
Sarah smiled sweetly.
“I knew I liked you for a reason.”
The words slipped out naturally.
Too naturally.
Silence followed.
Sarah's smile faded.
Raven looked almost surprised by his own admission.
“You like me?”
“I've apparently made that embarrassingly obvious tonight.”
“Not before tonight.”
“I was trying not to.”
“Why?”
“You worked for me.”
“Past tense?”
“If anything happens between us, you won't work directly for me anymore.”
Sarah blinked.
“Nothing is happening.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you restructuring my hypothetical employment?”
“Because I plan ahead.”
She laughed.
“You're impossible.”
“So I've been told.”
“Mostly by me.”
“Mostly.”
The room became quiet.
Raven stepped closer.
Not touching.
Giving her space.
Sarah realized with sudden clarity that he was waiting for her to decide whether the distance remained.
She didn't move.
Neither did he.
Then she whispered, “Silian isn't my boyfriend.”
“I know.”
“He asked me to pretend because his family wouldn't stop bothering him.”
Raven's jaw relaxed.
Sarah raised an eyebrow.
“You look relieved.”
“I am.”
“At least you're admitting jealousy now.”
“I said nothing about jealousy.”
“You practically interrogated his hand.”
Raven smiled.
A real smile.
Sarah had seen it perhaps four times in two years.
She hated how much she liked it.
Then Victoria screamed from the hallway.
Raven moved instantly.
They ran.
Victoria stood near the elevator, staring at her phone.
“What happened?”
She handed it to Raven.
A message.
No sender identification.
Only a photograph.
Sarah recognized the location immediately.
Grand Central Terminal.
Locker 314.
The locker door was open.
Underneath the photograph were six words:
YOU ARE TWENTY YEARS TOO LATE.
Sarah's blood ran cold.
“No.”
She looked at the brass key.
“How?”
Raven was already calling security.
Within minutes they were in the car.
Grand Central was quieter at three in the morning but never empty.
Raven's security team reached the locker area first.
314 stood open.
Empty.
Sarah stared inside.
Her father's secret was gone.
Then she noticed something scratched into the metal.
Three numbers.
417.
“Another locker?” Raven asked.
Sarah shook her head.
“My father's birthday was April seventeenth.”
She ran her fingers across the numbers.
Something moved behind the back panel.
Sarah pressed it.
A false metal plate popped loose.
Inside was a small cassette tape.
Raven stared.
“Daniel expected someone to find the locker.”
“He expected them to find the obvious thing.”
Sarah removed the cassette.
Written across it in her father's handwriting:
SARAH — TRUST THE WOMAN WHO LEFT.
Victoria.
They found an old cassette player through Raven's security team.
At four thirteen in the morning, Sarah pressed play.
Static filled the car.
Then her father's voice.
A voice she hadn't heard in thirteen years.
Sarah covered her mouth.
“My darling Sarah,” Daniel said through the speakers. “If you're hearing this, then I failed to come home.”
Her eyes filled.
Raven silently reached for her hand.
Sarah let him take it.
The recording continued.
“There are three people you must understand. Victoria is innocent. Malcolm is guilty of betrayal, but not the betrayal everyone believes.”
Raven leaned forward.
“And Antonio Cavalcante…”
Static crackled.
“…was never Raven's biological father.”
Raven's hand went rigid around Sarah's.
The recording continued.
May you like
“The identity of Raven's real father is the secret that started everything.”
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