Chapter 5 The Truth Behind the Lies

The photographs scattered across Harris's marble floor like accusations made of paper and ink. My hands shook as I picked up one after another-Jennifer with dark hair and sad eyes, Rebecca with a bright smile that didn't reach her face, Amanda whose picture showed her looking over her shoulder as if she was running from something.

Or someone.

"Flora, don't listen to her." Harris's voice cut through the silence, but I couldn't look at him. Not yet. Not when Victoria's accusations were hanging in the air like poison.

"Where are they now?" I whispered, staring at Amanda's photograph. She looked so young, maybe even younger than me. "Where are these women now, Harris?"

Victoria laughed, a sound like breaking glass that made me flinch. "Shall I tell her what happened to Amanda when she tried to break her contract? How she had that terrible accident-"

"Enough." Harris moved faster than I had ever seen anyone move. In one fluid motion, he crossed the room and grabbed Victoria by the shoulders, his face inches from hers. "Get out. Now."

But Victoria just smiled, completely unafraid of the man who towered over her with barely controlled rage. "You can't make me leave, Harris. Not anymore." She reached into her purse and pulled out what looked like a recording device. "Not when I have proof of everything you've done."

The blood in my veins turned to ice water. "Proof of what?"

Victoria's ice-blue eyes gleamed with triumph. "Should I play it for her, Harris? Should sweet little Flora hear the conversation you had with your lawyers about how to make problems disappear permanently?"

"You're insane," Harris said, but I heard something in his voice I had never heard before. Fear.

"Am I? Then you won't mind if Flora hears this." Victoria pressed play on the device, and suddenly Harris's voice filled the penthouse, cold and calculating in a way that made my skin crawl.

"The contract needs to be airtight. If any of them try to break it or go public, I need legal ways to ensure their silence. Permanent ways."

My heart stopped beating. That was Harris's voice, unmistakably, talking about ensuring silence in ways that sounded anything but legal.

"There's more," Victoria continued, fast-forwarding through the recording. "Listen to this part."

Again, Harris's voice: "Victoria was a mistake I won't make again. The next one needs to be completely dependent on me, completely isolated. Someone with family she'd never risk putting in danger."

The words hit me like physical blows. Someone with family she would never risk putting in danger. My mother. Tommy. He had chosen me specifically because I had people I loved who could be hurt.

I looked up at Harris, hoping to see denial in his steel-gray eyes, hoping to see some sign that this was all an elaborate lie. Instead, I saw a man who looked like he had been caught in the act of something terrible.

"Flora, it's not what it sounds like-"

"Isn't it?" I backed away from him, the photographs still clutched in my shaking hands. "You researched my family. You bought my father's debts. You knew exactly how desperate I was, and you used that desperation to trap me."

"I was protecting my business-"

"By threatening women who tried to leave you?" The words came out as a shout, all my fear and rage finally breaking free. "What kind of monster are you?"

Before Harris could answer, Victoria stepped between us, her smile wide and victorious. "The kind of monster who destroys anyone who gets in his way. But don't worry, Flora. I'm going to save you from him, just like I should have saved the others."

Something in her tone made warning bells go off in my head. "What do you mean, save me?"

Victoria's expression shifted, and for a moment, I saw something in her ice-blue eyes that was far more dangerous than Harris's calculated coldness. It was the look of someone who had lost touch with reality entirely.

"I mean," she said softly, "that sometimes the only way to save someone is to make sure they can never be hurt again."

The penthouse fell silent except for the sound of my own terrified breathing. Victoria reached into her purse again, and this time, what she pulled out made my blood freeze in my veins.

A gun. Small, silver, and pointed directly at my heart.

"Victoria, put that down." Harris's voice was deadly calm, but I could see the tension in every line of his body. "This isn't about Flora. This is about us."

"No, Harris. This is about justice." Victoria's hand was steady, terrifyingly steady, as she held the weapon. "This is about making sure you never hurt another innocent woman again."

"I never hurt anyone-"

"Liar!" Victoria's composure finally cracked, her voice rising to a shriek. "Jennifer didn't die in a car accident! Rebecca didn't just disappear! And Amanda-"

"Amanda is alive and well and living in California under a new name because I gave her enough money to start over!" Harris exploded, his control finally snapping. "Just like Jennifer, who is happily married to a doctor in Seattle! Just like Rebecca, who owns a successful bakery in Portland!"

The words hung in the air like a thunderclap. Victoria's face went white, then red, then white again.

"You're lying," she whispered.

"Am I?" Harris pulled out his phone and began scrolling through it. "Here's Jennifer's Christmas card from last year. Here's Rebecca's wedding invitation. Here's Amanda's business license." He held up the phone so Victoria could see the screen. "They're all alive, Victoria. They're all safe. They're all living the lives they chose after their contracts ended."

I stared at the phone, my mind reeling. "They're alive?"

"The contracts were real," Harris said, his voice quiet now, almost gentle. "The marriages were real. But when the year was up, I honored my word. I let them go with enough money to build new lives, free from the debts that had trapped them in the first place."

Victoria's gun wavered, but she didn't lower it. "But the recording-"

"Was taken out of context." Harris looked directly at me. "I was talking to my lawyers about protecting myself legally, yes. But not about hurting anyone. About making sure that if someone tried to blackmail me or go to the press with lies, I would have legal recourse."

"The permanent silence-"

"Was referring to non-disclosure agreements and financial settlements large enough that no one would ever need to break them." Harris took a step toward Victoria, his hands raised peacefully. "You know this, Victoria. Deep down, you know I never hurt any of them."

But Victoria shook her head violently, the gun still pointed at my chest. "No. No, you're lying. You have to be lying, because if you're not..." Her voice broke. "If you're not, then everything I've done, everything I've planned-"

"What have you done, Victoria?" The question came from behind her, and we all spun toward the voice.

A man stepped out of the shadows near the elevator-tall, Asian, wearing an expensive suit, with intelligent dark eyes that missed nothing. I recognized him immediately from the photographs in Harris's office.

Marcus Chen. Harris's assistant.

"Marcus, how did you-" Harris began.

"I've been tracking Victoria for weeks," Marcus said calmly, his attention focused entirely on the woman with the gun. "Ever since the security cameras picked up her breaking into the Kingston offices. Victoria, put the weapon down. It's over."

"It's not over!" Victoria swung the gun toward Marcus, and in that moment of distraction, Harris lunged forward.

What happened next seemed to unfold in slow motion. Harris tackled Victoria, the gun went off with a sound like thunder, and I heard someone scream.

It took me a moment to realize the scream had come from my own throat.

Victoria and Harris were struggling on the floor, the gun skittering across the marble toward the windows. Marcus was already moving, pulling out his phone to call for help.

But as I watched Harris pin Victoria to the ground, her wild blonde hair spread around her like a broken halo, I realized something that chilled me to the bone.

The bullet had shattered one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. And through that window, I could see lights in the building across the street-lights that had been arranged to spell out a message visible only from this angle.

"HE'S STILL LYING, FLORA. CHECK THE BASEMENT."

Someone else was involved in this nightmare. Someone who knew about Victoria's plan, someone who had been watching us, someone who wanted me to know that even now, even with Victoria subdued and her accusations apparently false, the truth was still hidden.

As sirens wailed in the distance and Marcus secured the gun, I looked at Harris, who was breathing hard as he held Victoria down.

"Harris," I said quietly, "what's in the basement?"

The look that flashed across his face told me everything I needed to know.

Victoria hadn't been lying about everything after all.