Chapter 6 - The Woman in the PhotographMaya woke the next morning to thirty-seven missed notifications.
Her first thought was that something had happened to her mother.
She grabbed her phone.
Then she realized none of the messages were from the hospital.
Three were from coworkers.
Four were from people she had not spoken to in months.
Nine were social media notifications.
The rest came from numbers she did not recognize.
Maya sat upright.
“What the hell?”
She opened the first message.
Girl, is this YOU?
Below it was a link.
Maya tapped it.
Her stomach dropped.
The photograph showed David kissing her on the sidewalk.
The angle was distant but clear enough.
Her face.
His face.
His hand at her waist.
The headline was worse.
PRESCOTT’S MYSTERY WOMAN: BILLIONAIRE PLAYBOY BREAKS HIS THREE-YEAR RULE
Maya stared.
“No.”
She scrolled.
There were photographs from outside the bookstore.
Outside the restaurant.
One of David opening the car door for her.
Another of Maya laughing.
Another of them walking.
Then came the speculation.
Who was she?
Where did she work?
How had she met him?
Was she an employee?
A model?
A socialite?
A “paid companion”?
Maya froze.
She read that phrase again.
Paid companion.
Her chest tightened.
Another article had already connected her name to the hospital.
Someone had found her mother’s fundraising page from months earlier.
Someone else had discovered that the medical bill had suddenly been paid.
The story practically wrote itself.
Mystery Woman’s Mother Received Expensive Surgery Weeks Before Prescott Romance.
Maya threw the phone onto the bed.
For several seconds, she could not breathe properly.
Then the phone rang.
David.
She stared at his name.
Did not answer.
It rang again.
She still did not answer.
A third time.
“Persistent bastard.”
She answered.
“What?”
David spoke immediately.
“Don’t leave your apartment.”
Maya’s fear transformed into anger.
“Good morning to you too.”
“There are photographers downstairs.”
“I know.”
“I’m sending security.”
“No.”
“Maya.”
“No.”
“This isn’t negotiable.”
Her voice went cold.
“Wrong answer.”
David stopped.
Maya stood.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“There are strangers outside your building.”
“I understand.”
“They know where you live.”
“I understand that too.”
“Then let me protect you.”
“Protect me or control the situation?”
Silence.
David’s jaw tightened on the other end.
“Both.”
“At least you’re honest.”
“Maya, this is not the time.”
“It’s exactly the time.”
She looked through the blinds.
Three people stood across the street.
One held a camera.
Her stomach turned.
David softened his voice.
“I won’t send anyone into your apartment. I won’t move you anywhere. I’ll put two people outside the building and another car nearby.”
Maya said nothing.
“You choose whether they stay.”
That was different.
She exhaled.
“Fine.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t sound victorious.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m relieved.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“David, they found my mother.”
“I know.”
That changed him.
His voice became colder.
“Marcus is dealing with it.”
“What does dealing with it mean?”
“Removing her address from anything we can legally remove, contacting the hospital, and making sure nobody gets near her.”
“Legally?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you emphasize legally?”
“Because you’ve known me long enough to ask.”
Despite everything, Maya almost laughed.
Almost.
Then she remembered the article.
“David.”
“Yes?”
“They know about the money.”
He went silent.
“They’re saying you paid me.”
“Maya—”
“They’re saying exactly what I was afraid people would say.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Her voice broke slightly.
David heard it.
“Maya.”
“I have to go.”
“Please don’t hang up.”
She did.
Across Manhattan, David lowered his phone.
Marcus stood in front of his desk.
“That went well.”
David looked at him.
“Not now.”
Marcus placed a tablet on the desk.
“We have a bigger problem.”
David read the screen.
His expression hardened.
The photograph had first appeared on an entertainment account with no obvious connection to Victoria.
But Marcus had traced the original submission through an intermediary.
“Victoria?”
“Someone working for her.”
David leaned back.
“Why?”
“That’s what I’m trying to determine.”
David looked at the article again.
“She knew about the hospital.”
“That information isn’t completely private.”
“The amount was.”
Marcus nodded.
“That part concerns me.”
David stood.
“Find out who told her.”
“Already working on it.”
“And Marcus?”
“Yes?”
“Make sure Maya’s mother is protected.”
“Already done.”
David looked toward the window.
“What about Maya?”
Marcus hesitated.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether you mean protected or managed.”
David looked at him sharply.
Marcus did not back down.
“She’s not a company problem, David.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?”
David looked away.
Marcus continued.
“If you show up with six security guards and tell her she’s moving into your house, she’ll probably throw something at you.”
“She doesn’t throw things.”
“She hasn’t known you long enough.”
David almost smiled.
Then his expression became serious again.
“I need to see her.”
“Then ask.”
David did.
He sent one message.
Can I come over?
Maya read it.
She wanted to say no.
Instead she typed:
Alone.
David arrived forty minutes later.
Technically alone.
The security vehicle remained half a block away.
Maya noticed.
She opened the door.
“That car yours?”
“No.”
“David.”
“It belongs to the security company.”
“That is not meaningfully different.”
“You said I should come alone. I came alone.”
She stared at him.
“You negotiate like a criminal.”
“I negotiate like a lawyer.”
“Worse.”
He entered.
Maya’s apartment suddenly felt smaller with him inside.
David looked around but did not comment on the chipped paint or old furniture.
He had learned.
Maya folded her arms.
“Did Victoria do this?”
David did not pretend not to understand.
“I think so.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said she wanted you back.”
“I thought she did.”
Maya caught the wording.
“Thought?”
David nodded.
“There’s something else happening.”
“What?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Maya laughed without humor.
“You really hate those words.”
“Yes.”
“Welcome to normal life.”
He watched her.
“You’re angry.”
“I’m humiliated.”
“Maya—”
“People think you bought me.”
“I don’t.”
“That doesn’t stop them.”
She picked up her phone.
“They found where I work. They found my mother’s surgery. Someone posted that I probably planned the whole thing.”
David’s face changed.
“Give me the names.”
“No.”
“Maya.”
“What are you going to do? Sue the internet?”
“If necessary.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Then tell me the point.”
“The point is that I knew this could happen.”
Her words stopped him.
She continued.
“This is why the money scared me. This is why your world scared me. In my life, eighty thousand dollars is impossible money. In yours, it’s something you can move before breakfast.”
“I know.”
“No. Listen.”
David did.
Maya’s eyes were bright with anger.
“When people look at us, they don’t see two people who talked all night. They don’t see me refusing your money. They don’t see you learning how terrible your coffee is.”
“It’s not terrible.”
“David.”
“Sorry.”
“They see rich man and poor woman.”
Her voice softened.
“And they decide the rest.”
David wanted to tell her he could fix it.
He knew immediately that would be the wrong thing.
So he said something harder.
“What do you want me to do?”
Maya stopped.
“What?”
“What do you want?”
She stared at him.
David continued.
“I can have attorneys respond. I can make a statement. I can say nothing. I can put security downstairs or remove them.”
He took a breath.
“But I’m not deciding for you.”
Maya’s anger did not disappear.
But something inside it changed.
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
“Even if I choose something you hate?”
“Yes.”
“That sounded painful.”
“It was.”
Maya sat down.
David sat across from her.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then Maya said, “I want to go to work Monday.”
David’s first instinct appeared on his face.
She pointed at him.
“Don’t.”
He closed his mouth.
“I want my life to continue.”
“Okay.”
“And I want my mother left out of this.”
“I can help with that.”
“I know.”
She looked at him.
“This time I’m asking.”
David nodded.
“Okay.”
“And I want you to tell me everything about Victoria.”
That was harder.
David leaned back.
“There isn’t much more.”
“I don’t believe you.”
He looked at her.
“Not because I think you’re lying.”
Maya chose her words carefully.
“Because people don’t usually come back after three years, photograph their ex kissing someone, leak medical information, and call it closure.”
David knew she was right.
“There was a business deal,” he said finally.
“What kind?”
“Three years ago, Victoria’s brother, Nathan Cole, approached my company with an investment opportunity.”
Maya waited.
“Victoria introduced us.”
“And?”
“I invested.”
“How much?”
David hesitated.
“That means a lot.”
“Twenty-eight million.”
Maya stared at him.
“Twenty-eight million dollars?”
“Yes.”
“I need to sit down again.”
“You’re already sitting.”
“Emotionally, David.”
He almost smiled.
She pointed at him.
“Continue.”
“The investment collapsed. Nathan disappeared. Victoria left shortly afterward.”
“Did she steal from you?”
“I could never prove she was involved.”
“But you believed she was.”
“Yes.”
“And the cheating?”
“Real.”
“With Nathan?”
David’s expression darkened.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“A man named Richard Vale.”
Maya waited.
David’s silence stretched.
“Who is Richard Vale?”
“My former chief financial officer.”
Maya slowly understood.
“Oh.”
“Yes.”
“That’s not just cheating.”
“No.”
“That’s betrayal from both sides.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“Vale disappeared from public life after an investigation.”
“What investigation?”
“Fraud.”
Maya looked at him.
“David, why do I feel like we just left the romance story and entered a crime documentary?”
“Because my life has terrible genre discipline.”
She almost laughed.
Then her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A message.
Maya looked down.
Her face changed.
David noticed immediately.
“What?”
She did not answer.
“Maya.”
She handed him the phone.
There was a photograph.
Her mother leaving the hospital two days earlier.
Taken from across the street.
Below it was one sentence.
Ask David what really happened to the missing $28 million.
David’s expression went completely still.
Maya watched him.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
David looked at the photograph again.
Then at her.
For the first time since she had known him, Maya saw something beyond anger in his face.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For her.
“Maya,” he said quietly, “pack a bag.”
Her expression hardened.
“No.”
“This is different.”
“You promised.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t order me.”
David closed his eyes briefly.
When he opened them, he forced himself to change the sentence.
“Will you please come with me?”
Maya looked at the photograph of her mother.
Then at him.
“Where?”
“Somewhere they can’t reach you.”
“That mansion?”
“Yes.”
She exhaled.
“This is a terrible idea.”
“Probably.”
She stood.
“Fine.”
David looked surprised.
“But I get my own room.”
“Obviously.”
“And no buying me a new wardrobe.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You thought about it.”
David said nothing.
Maya pointed at him.
“That face. That exact face.”
Twenty minutes later, she packed.
Neither of them knew that moving Maya into David’s house was exactly what Victoria had expected.
Because the photograph was not merely a threat.
May you like
It was bait.
And David had just responded exactly as someone from his past knew he would.
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