Chapter 3 - THE MAN WHO GAVE LIAM A REASON
Liam had not invented his suspicion from nothing.
That was the part Ava hated most.
Someone had built it.
Two months earlier, Liam’s chief operating officer, Victor Ames, showed him a photograph.
Ava outside a Boston hotel.
Standing beside a man.
Brunette hair blowing across her face.
The man’s hand near her back.
Victor asked:
“You know him?”
Liam did.
Nathan Cole.
Ava’s former boyfriend from college.
Liam stared.
“What was she doing there?”
Victor shrugged.
“I thought you knew.”
The photo had come from a private event photographer.
Ava had attended a healthcare-compliance conference.
Nathan worked for one of the sponsors.
They spoke for seven minutes.
Nothing happened.
Liam never asked her.
Instead, he began looking.
Phone location.
Calendar.
Old emails.
He found:
one lunch with Nathan,
three conference messages,
a congratulatory note after Lily was born.
All innocent.
But jealousy is a machine that converts ordinary information into pattern.
Then Victor mentioned something else.
“Lily has your eyes?”
Liam looked at him.
Victor smiled.
“Relax. Bad joke.”
It did not feel like one later.
Why was Victor involving himself?
Because Ava had recently been invited by Liam to advise Davies Genomics on a planned healthcare partnership.
Ava worked in compliance strategy for a hospital network.
She was good at asking boring questions.
Vendor ownership.
Validation procedures.
Lab incident reporting.
Conflict disclosures.
During one dinner she asked Victor why Davies Genomics bought specialty reagents almost exclusively from Ames Biomedical Supply.
Victor said:
“Legacy contract.”
Ava asked:
“Related to you?”
Victor smiled.
“Distantly.”
Not distant.
His brother owned it.
Ava did not know that yet.
May you like
Victor did.
And he did not want her looking closer.
