Chapter 1 - Five Minutes Until Everything ChangedThe bathroom handle moved.
Inside, Mason Reed stopped breathing.
Outside the door, Claire Bennett watched her husband’s fingers curl around the brass handle and felt every lie she had told during the last seven months collapse into a single terrible second.
Owen glanced back at her.
“You okay?”
Claire forced a smile.
“Of course.”
His hand turned the handle.
Click.
The bathroom door opened inward.
Mason flattened himself against the narrow section of wall behind it, one hand covering his mouth. His white shirt was still partially buttoned. His shoes were in his hand.
Owen stepped inside.
Mason could smell his cologne.
For one horrible moment, the two men were separated by less than eighteen inches and one open wooden door.
Claire remained near the bed.
Her heart pounded so violently she was sure Owen could hear it.
He crossed toward the shower.
“Five minutes,” he said. “Then we’ll go.”
“Take your time.”
Wrong answer.
Claire knew it immediately.
She had been practically begging him to leave thirty seconds earlier.
Owen looked back.
She smiled.
Then his phone rang.
The sound nearly made Mason jump.
Owen checked the screen.
“Damn.”
“What?”
“Jonathan.”
Claire knew the name.
Jonathan Pierce chaired the investment committee at Bennett Capital.
Owen answered.
“Hey.”
His expression changed almost instantly.
“What do you mean the numbers don’t match?”
He walked back into the bedroom.
Claire barely moved.
Owen listened, then headed toward the balcony doors.
“No. Don’t send anything until I see it.”
He stepped outside and pulled the glass door nearly closed.
Claire moved.
Fast.
She entered the bathroom.
Mason was still behind the door.
“Go.”
“How?”
“Down the hall. Service stairs.”
“He’ll see me.”
“He’s outside.”
Mason looked toward the bedroom.
Claire grabbed his wrist.
“Now.”
He slipped past her.
Barely.
His socks made no sound against the hardwood.
Claire followed just far enough to watch him disappear into the hallway.
Then she saw something on the carpet.
One silver cuff link.
Mason hadn’t noticed losing it.
Claire snatched it up.
From the balcony, Owen’s voice rose.
“That’s impossible. I approved six-point-four.”
Claire shoved the cuff link into the pocket of her sleep shorts.
She rushed back into the bathroom.
The shower was running.
Owen had turned it on before answering the call.
She stared at it.
Then an idea came.
She took one of the fresh towels and dampened it beneath the water.
Owen came inside.
“Sorry.”
Claire jumped slightly.
He noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You look nervous.”
“I’m standing in a bathroom while you’re arguing about millions of dollars.”
Owen smiled faintly.
“Fair.”
He ended the call.
“Shopping might have to wait.”
Her stomach tightened.
“Problem?”
“Probably somebody entered a number wrong.”
He removed his jacket.
Claire kissed his cheek.
“Then deal with it.”
“You sure?”
“Of course.”
Owen looked at her for a second longer than she liked.
Then he stepped into the shower.
Claire left the bathroom.
Only after the door closed did she breathe.
Her phone vibrated.
MASON:
I’M OUT.
Another message followed.
THAT WAS TOO CLOSE.
Claire deleted both.
She stood beside the bed and stared at the place where he had been lying only minutes before.
Seven months.
That was how long she had been sleeping with Mason.
Seven months of hotel rooms.
Lunches that lasted too long.
Messages deleted before Owen came home.
Promises that neither of them called promises.
It had begun during a charity weekend in Boston.
One drink.
Then another.
Then Mason saying everything Claire had secretly wanted Owen to notice.
That she was lonely.
That Owen was married to Bennett Capital before he was married to her.
That she had become furniture inside a beautiful house.
None of that excused what she did.
Claire knew that.
She simply hadn’t stopped.
Owen came out ten minutes later.
Suit trousers back on.
Fresh shirt.
“Jonathan wants me downtown.”
Claire leaned against the dresser.
“Today?”
“Apparently twenty million dollars developed legs overnight.”
He smiled when he said it.
Claire didn’t.
Because Mason had recently begun asking strange questions about Owen’s company.
Questions Claire had assumed were professional.
Mason and Owen had known each other since college.
Mason served as Bennett Capital’s chief strategy officer.
He was one of Owen’s closest friends.
He was also the man who had just escaped their bathroom.
Owen kissed Claire.
“I’ll make shopping up to you.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
He started toward the door.
Then stopped.
Claire’s body went rigid.
Owen crouched beside the bed.
He reached beneath it.
When he stood again, something was between his fingers.
A button.
White mother-of-pearl.
Claire recognized it instantly.
It had come from Mason’s shirt when she pulled him toward her earlier.
Owen examined it.
Claire forced herself not to look away.
“Yours?” he asked.
She laughed softly.
“Do I look like I wear men’s dress shirts?”
He smiled.
“Point.”
He set it on the dresser.
Probably house staff, his expression seemed to say.
Probably laundry.
Probably nothing.
Owen left.
Claire waited until she heard the front door close.
Then she grabbed the button.
Her phone rang.
Mason.
She answered.
“You lost a button.”
Silence.
Then Mason said:
“Claire.”
“What?”
His voice sounded different.
Not frightened now.
Serious.
“The call Owen got.”
“What about it?”
“I need you to forget you heard anything.”
Claire frowned.
“Twenty million dollars?”
“Exactly.”
“Mason, what’s happening?”
“Nothing.”
“You sound like Owen.”
Another silence.
Then Mason said:
“Listen to me carefully. Whatever happens next, do not ask Owen about the missing money.”
Claire’s skin prickled.
“Why?”
Mason didn’t answer immediately.
May you like
When he did, his voice was almost a whisper.
“Because I already know where it went.”
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