Chapter 4 - The Husband She Loved Had Chosen Her as the Fall GuyAudrey stared at David.
“You were going to frame me for murder?”
“No.”
“That is exactly what you just said.”
“Marcus was.”
“And you helped him.”
David dragged both hands through his hair.
“I didn’t know at first.”
“When did you know?”
Silence.
Audrey laughed bitterly.
“That answer is going to matter.”
“Three weeks ago.”
Three weeks.
Twenty-one days.
Audrey remembered making David dinner seventeen days ago because he had complained about working late.
She had rubbed his shoulders while he sat at the kitchen table.
He had kissed her hand.
All while knowing someone planned to put her name on a murder.
“Get out.”
“Audrey—”
“Get out of my house.”
“I can help.”
Roman spoke.
“He’s right.”
Audrey turned on him.
Roman didn’t flinch.
“I need him alive and talking.”
“Then take him.”
David’s face changed.
“No.”
Audrey looked at him.
For years, she had believed love meant knowing someone deeply.
Now she realized familiarity and knowledge were not the same thing.
She knew how David liked his coffee.
She knew which shoulder bothered him after tennis.
She knew he hated olives.
She had never known what kind of man he was when fear offered him somebody else’s life in exchange for his own.
“Take him,” Audrey repeated.
David panicked.
“Roman, wait. I can give you Marcus.”
“You’re going to.”
“I need protection.”
Roman smiled without warmth.
“You should have negotiated before you forged the paperwork.”
David turned to Audrey.
“Tell him.”
She stared at him.
“Tell him what?”
“That he can’t just take me.”
Audrey looked toward Roman.
Then back at her husband.
“For six years you told me I worried too much. That I analyzed everything. That I needed to trust you.”
David’s eyes filled.
“Audrey.”
“You were right about one thing.”
“What?”
“I should have trusted myself.”
She walked upstairs.
Behind her, she heard Roman’s men escort David outside.
She didn’t cry until she reached the bedroom.
Not because David had been taken.
Because the bed was still unmade.
The white duvet Chloe had clutched lay on the floor.
Audrey sat on the edge of the mattress.
And finally, after more than twenty-four hours of anger, logistics and survival, the grief arrived.
Her marriage was gone.
Not ruined.
Gone.
Maybe it had been gone months earlier.
Maybe years.
She covered her face.
The door remained open behind her.
She heard footsteps stop.
Roman.
“Go away.”
He didn’t move.
“I said go away.”
“All right.”
Then his footsteps retreated.
Audrey cried harder.
Not because he left.
Because he listened.
David never had.
Roman was in the kitchen when Audrey came downstairs forty minutes later.
He had made coffee.
Or attempted to.
Audrey tasted it and immediately looked at him.
“This is terrible.”
“I don’t make coffee.”
“Apparently.”
“You looked like you needed some.”
“I need coffee, not punishment.”
Roman took the cup.
“I’ll have someone bring it.”
Audrey almost smiled.
Almost.
“Where’s David?”
“Secure.”
“Does that mean a basement?”
“No.”
“A warehouse?”
“No.”
“You know these answers aren’t reassuring.”
“He’s at a private residence with a lawyer.”
Audrey stared.
“A lawyer?”
“Contrary to newspapers, I occasionally use them.”
“Scandalous.”
Roman leaned against the counter.
“David is willing to testify against Marcus and Sloane.”
“Because he suddenly found a conscience?”
“Because he wants to stay alive.”
“That sounds more like him.”
Roman watched her carefully.
Audrey hated being watched carefully.
“What?”
“I owe you an apology.”
“For?”
“When I came here last night, I wasn’t completely sure you were innocent.”
Audrey went still.
Roman continued.
“Your signatures were on everything. Your engineering credentials were attached to Northpoint. You shared accounts with David.”
“So you came here thinking I might be involved.”
“Yes.”
“And the two million?”
“I intended to pressure you.”
Anger rose immediately.
“How?”
Roman didn’t answer.
“Roman.”
“Financially.”
“You were going to take my house.”
“If necessary.”
Audrey laughed once.
“You really are unbelievable.”
“I was protecting my company.”
“And I was acceptable collateral.”
His face tightened.
“At eleven forty-two last night, yes.”
Audrey picked up her coat.
“Where are you going?”
“Anywhere you aren’t.”
“Audrey.”
“No.”
She turned.
Roman caught her wrist.
Not tightly.
But the contact stopped both of them.
He released her immediately.
“I was wrong.”
Audrey stared at him.
“You don’t get points because you discovered I wasn’t a criminal before destroying me.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
Roman’s voice was low.
“I have spent most of my life assuming everyone is dangerous until they prove otherwise.”
“That sounds exhausting.”
“It keeps people alive.”
“Does it?”
Roman didn’t answer.
Audrey continued.
“You came here to collect money I never owed you.”
“Yes.”
“You were prepared to take my home.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“I removed the lien this morning.”
Audrey blinked.
“What?”
“Harbor Meridian’s claim against your house has been released.”
“You can’t—”
“I can. The collateral agreement was fraudulent.”
“You already knew that.”
“I know it now beyond dispute.”
Audrey studied him.
“Why tell me?”
“Because I don’t want anything from you that belongs to David.”
Something in the sentence shifted the air.
Audrey looked away.
Roman’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed after three words.
“When?”
He listened.
“Lock everything down.”
He ended the call.
Audrey’s stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
Roman looked at her.
“David disappeared.”
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“The house where he was being held lost power for forty-seven seconds.”
“And?”
“When the security system came back, one guard was unconscious.”
Audrey stared.
“David escaped?”
Roman’s face hardened.
“No.”
“Then what?”
May you like
He put his phone away.
“Someone took him.”
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