Chapter 8 - THE PERSON USING MARK'S PASSWORD
Mark arrived at Maya's office without Lena.
Without lawyers.
Without warning.
Security nearly removed him.
Ava allowed him upstairs.
He looked terrible.
Not sympathetic.
Not humbled.
Terrible.
His tie was crooked.
His face unshaven.
“Someone used my account.”
Ava stayed behind the conference table.
“You expect me to believe you?”
“No.”
“That would be a first.”
He flinched.
She noticed.
Years earlier, she would have softened.
Not now.
Mark placed his phone on the table.
“My credentials were used to delete archived records at 9:46.”
“We know.”
“I was on television.”
“We know that too.”
“Then you know it wasn't me.”
Ava folded her arms.
“It proves you weren't physically typing.”
Mark's jaw tightened.
“You always did that.”
“Did what?”
“Make things precise when everyone else wanted them simple.”
Ava almost smiled.
“You used to call it being difficult.”
Mark looked away.
“I was wrong about some things.”
“Some?”
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Turn this into our marriage.”
Ava stared at him.
“You forged my name and erased me from a company I helped create. This is our marriage.”
Mark's face changed.
He looked toward Maya.
“Can we speak alone?”
“No,” Ava said.
He nodded slowly.
Perhaps he had finally learned he did not get to control the room.
“Bellamy handled the incorporation.”
Ava felt her pulse sharpen.
“Go on.”
“I was twenty-five. He offered financing.”
“You were twenty-four.”
Mark blinked.
Ava held his gaze.
“I remember the year better than you hoped.”
He continued.
“Bellamy said investors wouldn't take a company seriously if ownership was split with my wife.”
“So you removed me.”
“He said it was temporary.”
“You signed the amendment.”
Mark hesitated.
Maya leaned forward.
“Did you forge Ava's signature?”
“No.”
“Did you know it was forged?”
Silence.
That was enough.
Ava looked at him.
“You knew.”
“Later.”
“How much later?”
“Months.”
“And you did nothing.”
“I couldn't.”
Ava laughed.
“You could humiliate me in front of five hundred people, but correcting a corporate filing was too difficult?”
Mark's face reddened.
“You don't understand Bellamy.”
“Then explain him.”
Mark walked to the window.
“He doesn't invest in companies. He owns people.”
Maya said, “That's dramatic.”
“It's accurate.”
Mark turned.
“Bellamy funded Meridian through entities we didn't understand. Every time I tried to refinance him out, another agreement appeared.”
“You became rich,” Ava said.
“Yes.”
“So did he.”
“More.”
Ava thought of the merger.
“Why Lena?”
Mark froze.
There it was.
Fear.
Not embarrassment.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“Mark?”
He looked at the table.
“Lena didn't start as my mistress.”
Ava felt something twist.
“Then what was she?”
Mark answered quietly.
“Bellamy's compliance officer.”
Maya stopped writing.
Ava stared.
Lena had been assigned to Meridian years before the affair.
Which meant she had been inside the company long before Ava knew her name.
“Did Bellamy send her to you?”
Mark said nothing.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
Ava's stomach turned.
“And then you slept with her.”
Mark's voice dropped.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm exactly the kind of man you think I am.”
The answer surprised her.
No excuse.
No blame.
Just ugliness.
Then Mark looked at Ava.
“But Lena never left Bellamy.”
Ava remembered the woman in red smiling while she threw water.
Not impulsive.
Controlled.
“What does she do for him?”
“I don't know anymore.”
“Find out.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
Mark's face went pale.
May you like
“Because last night she disappeared.”
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