Chapter 5: Diane
The voice on the other end was composed.
Almost pleasant.
"I figured you'd answer eventually," the woman said.
"You seem like the curious type."
Ava kept her voice level.
"Who is this?"
"You already know who this is." A small pause.
"I'm not calling to threaten you.
I want to be clear about that.
I'm calling because you deserve to know what you've walked into."
"I'm listening."
Jason had gone very still across the table.
"He does this," Diane said.
"He finds someone new, takes them somewhere impressive, lets them feel special.
He's very good at it.
The restaurant, the charm, the whole thing.
What he doesn't tell you is that he uses people.
He used me for two years and then decided I knew too much about his business to keep around comfortably."
"That's one version," Ava said.
A beat of silence.
Diane hadn't expected that.
"Excuse me?"
"I said that's one version.
I've heard another one tonight."
"From him." The pleasantness in her voice cooled slightly.
"Of course."
"You texted me twice before calling," Ava said.
"You mentioned his contract with your brother's company.
If you were just trying to warn me, you wouldn't have led with that.
You'd have led with something personal."
Another silence.
Longer this time.
"You're smarter than his usual type," Diane said finally.
"What do you actually want?"
The pleasantness dropped entirely.
"I want him to honor what we built together.
Two years.
I was part of every decision he made about that restaurant during the hardest period it went through.
I was there when he almost lost it.
And he walked away like none of that counted."
"So this is about the restaurant."
"This is about being erased." Her voice had an edge now, real and sharp.
"He gets to keep everything and I get to disappear?
No.
That's not how it works."
"What are you planning to do?"
"Marcus pulls out of the east side deal, Jason loses the second location.
He's been counting on that building for eighteen months.
Without it, the expansion doesn't happen." She paused to let that settle.
"All I'm asking is a conversation.
One conversation, the three of us.
That's it."
"You're asking me to arrange that."
"I'm asking you to tell him it's the better option.
Before things get complicated."
Ava looked at Jason.
He was watching her face, reading what he could from her side of the call.
"I'll think about it," Ava said.
"Don't think too long." The line went de@d.
Ava set the phone face-down on the table.
"She wants a meeting," Ava said.
"The three of you.
She's threatening to pull Marcus from the east side deal if you don't agree."
Jason said nothing for a moment.
Then: "She's been building to this for weeks."
"Is the deal that important?"
"It's not nothing." He looked at the table.
"But it's not everything either."
"She thinks it is."
"She thinks a lot of things." He finally picked up his coffee.
"What did you make of her?"
Ava considered.
"She's not irrational.
She's angry and she has a plan.
That's more dangerous than irrational."
"Yes," Jason said quietly.
"It is."
He reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone.
He found a number and held the screen toward Ava so she could see the name.
*Grace — Legal.*
"I need to make a call," he said.
"Do you mind?"
Ava shook her head.
He stepped outside.
Through the window she watched him pace slowly along the pavement, phone to his ear, the cold air making small clouds of his breath.
She looked down at her own phone.
Diane's number still on the screen.
Then she noticed something she'd missed before.
The third message — the call — had come from a slightly different number than the first two texts.
Same area code.
Different last four digits.
May you like
Diane had called from a second phone.
Ava screenshot both numbers and set her phone down carefully.
