Chapter 9 - THE FIRST DATE
Mara remembered the night perfectly.
Charity auction.
Crowded hotel bar.
Ryan spilling sparkling water on her sleeve.
Apology.
Conversation.
Dinner.
It had felt accidental.
The reservation proved otherwise.
Table for two.
Booked in advance.
Conrad’s assistant.
Ryan finally admitted it.
“My father wanted an introduction.”
“Why lie?”
“Because saying ‘my father researched your trust and thinks we should meet’ isn’t romantic.”
Mara laughed without humor.
“Was any of it real?”
Ryan looked at her.
“Yes.”
She hated that answer most.
Maybe he had loved her.
Maybe he still used her.
Both could be true.
Then Naomi asked:
“When did Conrad tell you about Halcyon?”
“Six months into the relationship.”
“When did you buy your ten percent?”
“After we got engaged.”
So Ryan’s financial conflict came later.
Conrad’s came first.
Then the sedative purchase was traced.
Zolmedrine had been ordered through a private medical supplier three months before the staged-photo night.
Purchaser:
Crescent Estate Services.
Mara frowned.
Her late mother’s estate office had used that vendor name years ago.
The account should have been dormant.
Who reactivated it?
Evelyn Cross had administrative access.
So did the estate accountant.
And one former employee.
Conrad denied involvement.
Ryan claimed ignorance.
Evelyn looked horrified.
“I did not order that drug.”
Then investigators found the shipping destination.
Not Conrad’s home.
A storage unit rented by Crescent Estate Services.
Inside:
Old Whitmore legal files.
Medical kits.
Archived estate supplies.
And a sealed envelope addressed to Caroline Whitmore.
Mara’s mother.
Dated four years earlier.
Before Ryan entered Mara’s life.
Inside:
A physician memo about “behavioral stabilization options” for Mara after a severe grief episode.
Mara went numb.
Her mother had considered medication intervention.
That did not mean drugging.
But the sedative pipeline existed before Conrad.
Then another envelope.
A purchase request for zolmedrine.
Signed by someone.
Evelyn Cross.
May you like
Mara stared at her family lawyer’s name.
The trap may have been older than the Holloways.
