Chapter 2: What Someone Forgot on the Printer
The elevator doors closed.
Neither of us breathed.
Tessa pressed her back against the wall.
Her hands were shaking.
"They're going to come after me," she whispered.
"Arya said she'd handle me."
"She won't touch you."
"Vincent, I'm a caregiver from an agency.
She could have me replaced by morning."
"Then we move faster than morning."
I told her what I needed.
One phone call.
One person who still answered to me and not to Dominic.
A man named Carver — my attorney, not the firm's attorney.
Mine.
A distinction I had never needed to explain until now.
Tessa made the call at 1 a.m.
from the service stairwell.
Carver picked up on the second ring.
When she came back, her face had changed.
"He already knew something was wrong," she said quietly.
"He said Dominic contacted the firm two months ago asking about incapacity procedures."
Two months ago.
While I was still in the hospital.
While Arya was sitting beside my bed holding my hand.
I didn't speak for a long moment.
"There's something else," Tessa said.
She hesitated.
"Carver asked me one question before he hung up."
"What question?"
She looked at me carefully.
"He asked whether you knew about the second document."
I went very still.
"What second document?"
Tessa shook her head slowly.
"He said he couldn't tell me.
He said you needed to come in person." She paused.
"He said bring no one except the person you trust most."
The hallway was silent.
I looked at Tessa.
May you like
She looked back at me.
Neither of us said what we were both thinking.
