Chapter 3: What Daniel Found in the System
Daniel walked Bryce to the door himself.
Not aggressively.
Not loudly.
Just firmly, the way someone does when they want a person gone before they decide to make it official.
Bryce didn't argue.
He kept his head down, shoved his wallet into his jacket pocket, and left without a single word.
The door closed behind him.
I sat at the table for a moment, not quite ready to move.
The couple at the next table went back to their food.
The woman who had put her fork down picked it up again.
The restaurant settled back into its normal rhythm, as if nothing had happened.
Daniel came back two minutes later and pulled out the chair across from me.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," I said.
"Honestly, I was fine the whole time."
He gave me a look.
"The card name wasn't Bryce."
"I saw."
"It was Marcus.
Marcus Teller." He set his phone on the table and turned it toward me.
"I ran it through our system.
We flag declined and flagged cards.
His came up."
I looked at the screen.
The name Marcus Teller sat next to a small red indicator.
Flagged for a chargeback dispute.
Six months ago.
A different restaurant, three blocks away.
"He's done this before," I said.
"At least once that we know about." Daniel leaned back.
"The other place didn't push it.
He disputed the charge, said the food was bad, got his money back."
I stared at the name.
Marcus Teller.
I turned it over in my mind.
The dating profile had said Bryce.
The texts had said Bryce.
He had introduced himself as Bryce when I walked in and he stood up from the table.
"He gave me a fake name," I said.
"Looks that way."
I picked up my water glass.
Put it down without drinking.
"Daniel, how many women do you think he's done this to?"
My brother didn't answer right away.
That was answer enough.
I pulled out my own phone and opened the dating app.
His profile was still there.
Bryce, 29, semi-retired entrepreneur.
The photos were confident and well-lit.
The bio was short and casual.
Nothing about it would have made anyone look twice.
"I want to report him," I said.
"To the app.
And maybe to someone else."
"You can," Daniel said.
"But here's the thing." He hesitated.
"A fake name on a date isn't illegal by itself.
The chargeback fraud might be, depending on how it was filed.
But without more—"
"There has to be more," I said.
My phone buzzed on the table.
I looked down.
It was a message from a number I didn't recognize.
*Hey.
I think we need to talk.
My name is actually Carrie.
I matched with someone called Bryce last month.
Did you just have dinner with him tonight at Harlow's?*
I looked up at Daniel.
He read the message over my shoulder.
"How did she know where you were?" he asked.
May you like
I didn't know.
But my hands had gone very still.
