Chapter 5 - The Affair Was a Trap
Harper did not speak for several seconds.
The words were too strange to understand.
“He wanted me to take the watch?”
Mara nodded.
“Why would he text me asking for it?”
“Because the plan changed.”
“What plan?”
Mara pushed the case closer.
“Open it.”
Harper hesitated.
Then she lifted the latches.
Inside were paper ledgers, a flash drive, two photographs, and a handwritten note.
The note was from Kyle.
She recognized the slanted K immediately.
H will leave if she sees Sloane. Movers Thursday. Put M’s watch in walnut case. Once H is out, V can recover it away from building cameras.
Harper read it twice.
Her vision blurred.
Not because she wanted Kyle back.
Not because the betrayal hurt less.
Because the betrayal had been engineered.
Her humiliation had been logistics.
Her heartbreak had been a delivery mechanism.
Mara said quietly, “Kyle knew you would leave immediately if you found him with Sloane.”
Harper looked up.
“How did Sloane know?”
“I don’t think she did.”
“She got naked by accident?”
“No.”
Harper’s laugh was sharp.
“Then she knew enough.”
Mara nodded once.
“Kyle told her you had been seeing someone else. Told her the wedding was already off but that you were hiding it from the family. He made her believe he was devastated.”
“That is not an excuse.”
“No.”
“Stop trying to give me excuses for people who made choices.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
Harper looked at the note again.
“Who is V?”
“Vittorio.”
“And M is Matteo.”
“Yes.”
Harper closed her eyes.
Kyle had deliberately placed the watch in her things.
Vittorio’s men were supposed to steal it after she moved.
But something went wrong.
“Why didn’t they get it?”
Mara’s face tightened.
“Because the walnut box was empty when they searched your apartment.”
Harper opened her eyes.
“What?”
“I thought you had the watch. Vittorio thought you had the watch. Kyle thought you had the watch.”
“And you?”
“I opened the box in your apartment this afternoon.”
Harper stared.
“You were there?”
Mara nodded.
“I got in after Kyle. The apartment was already destroyed. He hadn’t found it.”
“Then where is the watch?”
“I don’t know.”
Harper leaned back.
She replayed moving day.
The box on the dresser.
Sloane leaving early.
The movers.
The umbrella.
The dress.
Kyle’s office.
Something scratched at her memory.
A small thud.
The walnut case falling open when she tossed it into the carton.
She had been holding her red umbrella because it was raining.
The umbrella had tipped over.
A heavy object had rolled beneath the radiator.
She had assumed it was one of her metal curtain samples.
Later, one of the movers had handed her the umbrella and said, “This was under the heat vent.”
Harper stood so fast the chair scraped.
Mara stared. “What?”
“My umbrella.”
“What about it?”
Harper grabbed her phone.
Lucian answered on the first ring.
“Harper.”
“I think I know where the watch is.”
A pause.
“Where?”
“My red umbrella.”
Another pause.
“That sentence requires explanation.”
“Later.”
“Where is the umbrella?”
Harper’s stomach dropped.
At the sublet.
On the floor outside the apartment after the break-in.
“Lucian.”
“Yes.”
“Who has access to my apartment right now?”
“Police sealed it after our people left.”
“Then we need to go.”
“You stay where you are.”
Harper pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Strongly prefer.”
Lucian sighed.
“I strongly prefer you stay where you are.”
“Rejected.”
Mara stared at her.
Harper ended the call.
Twenty minutes later, she stood in the hallway outside 4B with Lucian, Gideon, two police officers, and Mara.
Lucian had not been happy to see Mara.
Mara had not been happy to see Lucian.
Gideon looked delighted by both facts.
The red umbrella was gone.
Harper stared at the empty patch of carpet.
“It was right there.”
One officer checked the evidence log.
“No umbrella was collected.”
Lucian looked at the building camera technician.
“Who entered after we left?”
The man checked records.
“Police. Building manager. One maintenance worker.”
“Name?”
“Eli Ramirez.”
Harper knew Eli.
He was sixty, kind, and had helped her carry a lamp upstairs.
“Where is he?”
The manager swallowed.
“He never clocked out.”
Gideon’s radio crackled.
Then his face changed.
“Found him.”
They ran to the basement.
Eli was alive, tied to a chair in the boiler room with a bruise on his cheek.
The maintenance uniform hanging beside him belonged to someone else.
An impostor had entered the sealed apartment.
And taken the umbrella.
Harper crouched beside Eli while a paramedic checked him.
“Did you see his face?”
Eli nodded weakly.
“Tall. Brown hair. Nice coat.”
Harper’s heart sank.
“Was it Kyle?”
Eli looked at a photograph on her phone.
“Yes.”
Lucian swore.
Harper stood.
“Kyle has the watch.”
Mara shook her head. “Not yet.”
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed toward the loading entrance.
“There’s no way he got out with the umbrella without using the alley. I parked there.”
Mara ran.
They followed.
Her gray Lexus sat beneath a security light.
The rear passenger window had been smashed.
On the seat lay Harper’s red umbrella.
Broken in half.
Lucian put on gloves and lifted it carefully.
The wooden handle had been split.
Inside was a narrow hollow chamber.
Empty.
Harper stared.
“How did it get in there?”
Gideon examined the broken pieces.
“This isn’t factory construction.”
Harper remembered something else.
Kyle had given her that umbrella for her birthday.
Two months after he first appeared at the pawn dealer with Matteo’s watch.
She looked at Mara.
“He put it there himself.”
Lucian nodded.
“Kyle hid the watch in your umbrella before he ever planned the breakup.”
“Then why move it into the walnut box?”
“He didn’t.”
Harper understood.
The note said put M’s watch in walnut case.
But perhaps Kyle had lied to Vittorio.
He had kept the real hiding place secret.
“He was playing Vittorio too.”
Lucian’s eyes sharpened.
“Yes.”
Mara went pale.
“If Kyle has the watch now, he doesn’t need any of us.”
Harper’s phone rang.
Kyle.
She answered.
His voice sounded breathless.
“Harper, I need you to listen carefully.”
“No.”
“I have the watch.”
“I know.”
Silence.
Then he laughed once.
“Of course you do.”
Harper’s anger became ice.
“You put it in my umbrella.”
“I needed somewhere Vittorio wouldn’t look.”
“So you used me as a hiding place.”
“I was trying to protect us.”
“You slept with my cousin.”
“That was supposed to make you leave the apartment.”
“You could have asked me to leave.”
“And told you what? That the Morettis might kill us?”
“You could have told me the truth.”
Kyle’s voice softened.
“I loved you.”
Harper looked at Lucian.
Lucian did not interfere.
She said, “You loved having access to me.”
Kyle went silent.
“That’s not the same thing.”
Then he said, “You don’t know Lucian.”
“I know you.”
“He’s worse.”
“Maybe. But he hasn’t pretended to be better.”
Lucian’s eyes met hers.
Kyle’s voice hardened.
“I need the case Mara stole.”
“No.”
“If I don’t get it, Vittorio will kill Sloane.”
Harper’s blood ran cold.
“She’s with police.”
Kyle laughed bitterly.
“Not anymore.”
Harper looked at Mara.
Mara was already dialing.
Kyle continued.
“Check your messages.”
A photograph arrived.
Sloane sat in the back seat of a car with duct tape over her mouth.
A man held a gun against her ribs.
Harper stopped breathing.
Kyle whispered,
“Bring the case to the St. Clair Hotel ballroom tomorrow night. Eight o’clock. There’s a charity gala. Lucian will already be there.”
Harper looked at Lucian.
May you like
Kyle said,
“And Harper? Wear something red. I want to know where you are when the shooting starts.”
