Chapter 2 - The Missing Red Folder
I reached my apartment just after midnight.
Naomi was waiting with two building security officers.
My bedroom was untouched.
Jewelry still in the drawer.
"What's missing?" Naomi asked.
"The red folder."
She frowned.
"What was in it?"
"My father's old Hartwell papers."
My phone rang again.
Julian.
I answered this time.
"What did you do?" he demanded.
"Interesting first question."
"Clara, Hartwell's lenders froze the closing."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have tried to pledge my assets."
Silence.
Then, softer, "Who told you?"
"Naomi."
"She's poisoning you against me."
Naomi rolled her eyes from across the room.
I said, "Did you authorize someone to enter my apartment?"
"No."
"Did Sienna?"
"She's sitting right here."
I almost laughed.
"You're in my honeymoon suite."
Julian snapped, "There are two bedrooms."
"Congratulations."
I ended the call.
Building security pulled access logs.
At 6:03 p.m., someone entered my apartment using Julian's guest credential.
That credential should have been disabled once we left for Hawaii.
It wasn't.
The elevator camera showed a man in a gray baseball cap carrying a messenger bag.
He never looked directly at the lens.
But when he reached my door, his sleeve lifted.
Naomi froze the frame.
A gold watch.
Square face.
Black leather band.
I knew it.
Julian's father, Charles Hartwell, wore the same watch every day for twenty years.
I stared at the screen.
Naomi whispered, "Your father-in-law was in your apartment while his son was flying to Maui."
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One sentence.
CHECK YOUR HUSBAND'S SECOND PHONE.
I looked at Naomi.
"Julian doesn't have a second phone."
May you like
Her expression said exactly what I was thinking.
Maybe I didn't know what Julian had.
