Chapter 2
For one second, I could not understand the words.
My company email.
Daniel.
Signed.
The restaurant around me blurred.
Daniel reached for the paper.
Mr. Lawson pulled it back.
“No.”
Daniel’s eyes flashed.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mr. Lawson looked at him calmly.
“I know a fraudulent withdrawal from a business deal when I see one.”
I stared at Daniel.
“What did you do?”
He looked at me.
Then at the watching restaurant.
Then back at Mr. Lawson.
“She’s my wife. I was protecting her.”
I laughed.
It sounded sharp.
Broken.
“From a contract?”
“From embarrassing herself.”
Mr. Lawson’s jaw tightened.
“Mrs. Carter’s proposal was excellent.”
Daniel snapped, “Stay out of my marriage.”
Mr. Lawson did not move.
“You brought your marriage into my business when you walked into my office pretending to speak for her company.”
My stomach turned.
“You went to his office?”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
“You wouldn’t answer my calls.”
“So you impersonated my company?”
“I was trying to stop you from making a mistake.”
The old sentence.
The familiar cage.
Daniel always called control protection.
The first time he came to my office, he said he was worried because I worked late.
The second time, at the conference, he said he wanted to make sure my coworker respected my marriage.
Tonight, he said he was protecting me from success.
Mr. Lawson placed the paper on the table.
It was an email printout.
From my company address.
To Lawson Clinics Partnership Office.
Subject: Withdrawal from Partnership Discussion.
The message said our company was no longer interested.
Below it was a digital signature.
Emily Carter.
Not mine.
My hands went cold.
May you like
Daniel had not only destroyed the meeting.
He had tried to erase it before it happened.
