PART 2: A Stranger Let Me Sleep on His Shoulder—Then My Ex-Husband Found Me Before the Plane Even Landed -035
“I know.”
“How?”
Silence.
I opened my eyes.
“How do you know?”
“I saw the charge.”
My chest tightened.
“You said I couldn’t access the account.”
“You couldn’t. I still received transaction alerts.”
“Then you knew I was leaving Dallas.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I thoughtthat was what you wanted.”
I nearly laughed.
“That has never stopped you before.”
He accepted the remark without defending himself.
That unsettled me more than an argument would have.
Daniel raised one hand.
“Ms. Walker, I need to make a phone call.”
I nodded.
He moved several feet down the hall.
I lowered my voice.
“Ethan, I need one straight answer.”
“I’ll give you one.”
“Do you believe Adrian arranged for me to sit beside him?”
“No.”
The certainty surprised me.
“Why not?”
“Because if Prescott wanted something from you, he wouldn’t need to engineer a commercial airline seat.”
I looked at the photograph again.
Adrian.
Caroline.
Sam.
Ethan.
Four people connected before I ever boarded that plane.
“You sound very confident for someone who says he barely knows him.”
“I know how men like Adrian Prescott operate.”
“And what exactly does that mean?”
“It means they don’t leaveimportant things to chance.”
A chill moved through me.
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“It wasn’t supposed to.”
At the end of the hallway, Daniel turned back toward me.
“Mr. Prescott is coming up.”
My stomach tightened.
Ethan heard him.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“Do not accuse him.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Good.”
“Because I don’t need instructions from you anymore.”
A pause.
“No,” Ethan said quietly. “You don’t.”
That answer took some of the fight out of me.
I glanced inside the room.
Lily shifted.
I lowered my voice.
“I’m hanging up.”
“Call Celeste in the morning.”
“My attorney?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because whatever happens next, I want everything documented.”
I frowned.
“Why would you want that?”
“Because I handled this badly.”
“That may be the first thing we’ve agreed on in months.”
“I deserve that.”
His voice softened.
“But if I’m right about Northbridge, this stopped being only about ourmarriage a long time ago.”
The elevator chimed.
I looked toward it.
Adrian stepped out alone.
No jacket now.
No polished public smile.
Just a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms and the exhausted expression of a man who had been dragged back into something he had spent years trying to leave behind.
“I have to go,” I told Ethan.
“Elena.”
I almost disconnected.
Then he said, “Whatever you think of me, keep Lily close.”
I looked at my daughter through the open doorway.
“I always do.”
Then I ended the call.
Adrian saw the photograph in my hand.
He stopped walking.
For the first time since I met him, genuine shock crossed his face without any attempt to hide it.
“Where did you get that?”
“That was delivered downstairs.”
He looked at Daniel.
Daniel explained in a few sentences.
No drama.
No speculation.
Adrian listened untilhe reached the part about the message.
Then he held out his hand.
“May I?”
I hesitated.
Not because I feared losing the photograph.
Because giving it to him felt strangely like giving away control.
But I handed it over.
Adrian turned it over.
He read the sentence.
His face went still.
“Who was supposed to be in fourteen B?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“You were.”
My anger arrived so fast that it almost steadied me.
“That is not an answer.”
“It is.”
“The note says otherwise.”
“The note is wrong.”
“Then explain the picture.”
“I can.”
“Good.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
I stepped into the hallway and pulled the door almost closed behind me.
Lily was still visible through the opening.
“I’m tired of everyone saying my name before giving me half an answer.”
Adrian absorbed that.
Then nodded.
“Fair.”
Daniel looked between us.
“I’ll be at the elevator.”He walked away.
