Steven groaned inwardly but sat up as he waited for her to spill the good news. He hoped she wasn’t about to offer up some other birthday surprise.“Well, I thought you’d like to know that the story Sandra told you about me being in debt is completely false.”At first, her words failed to register in his mind until he caught the grin on her face.“What do you mean you’re not in debt, Marie? The story about Jeff?..”“It’s false…” She said, waving her hand.“At that time, it had become obvious that pulling off the party would cost more than I had…”“And your best friend decides that the way to fix that is to tell your husband you’re paying off debts from your deadbeat boyfriend?”She sighed as she sank back onto the bed. She was probably back to worrying about Sandra. Not wanting her to descend into the same headspace, he quickly added,“So the whole story about Jeff was false?”“Not everything. Just the parts that had to do with the debt.”“Well, I’m relieved to hear that. But that wa
“Are you freaking kidding me, Steven? You think I did this?” Marie said, crossing her arms on her chest.“I'm not saying that you did, Marie but you and I are the only ones that know about my marriage to Sandra!”“Sandra does!” She flung back, grabbing her personal items and plunging them into her purse. Steven stood on the other end of their bedroom, knotting his tie, and then put his jacket on.“If that blasted woman did this! She's going to have it in for her. She sighed an NDS for Pete's sake! Like I don't have enough on my plate to deal with already.” He said, storming out of the room.She followed closely behind, her hands swinging wildly as she took long strides to match his pace.“Where are you going?”“I have to fix this, Marie. I have to fix everything so by the time all this is done, I'll still have a company to run!”“So you're going to do what? Jet off to Japan?”“Yes! If that's what it takes. Since it's so hard for people to keep their mouths shut.”“I have no idea why y
Marie's mouth hung open in surprise as she perused the documents she held in her hand. How could Sandra be in possession of these documents?Marie dug into another cabinet and found another stack of the emails that “Theodore” and his contacts had supposedly been exchanging. Why would Sandra steal the evidence against Theodore? Was this what Zed had paid her to do? Or had he done it himself?She heard voices in the distance and without thinking, hid herself behind the drapes. Lucky for her, Sandra had black drapes.“I told you that Cadence girl was going to be a problem.” Sandra was saying.“It's fine, Sandra. I’ll deal with her later. For now, we need to focus on the second part of the plan.”What plan was Zed talking about and what had Cadence ruined for them?“Oh, I know. It's just not been easy, Zed. He really loves her, you know. I’ve tried making my move a couple of times. It always falls flat. But I think I might need to spice things up a little bit more.”“Of course he loves he
Marie’s feet tore across the road, she had long lost her shoes and hadn’t even thought of stopping to pick them up. She knew the pain piercing her feet was nothing to be compared to what she’d feel if Zed or Sandra caught up with her. Her mind reeled with panic as she thought about what to do next. An entire stack of text messages had revealed that Zed had at first tried to bribe Cadence through Agent Smith. If she could get this to Steven before she was caught by either of them, then maybe Stveen would know where to look when she got missing.“Marie! Slow down and hear me out.” Sandra’s voice boomed from behind her. She had seen them coming and duck behind a shrub. From where she was crouched, she could see where she had parked. All she had to do was get to it, unlock it, and hope like hell that they missed her. Sweat matted her raven hair, forcing it to cling to her face as she took out her cell phone and emailed the screenshot to her private email. She was just about to email it to
Steven tried to take a deep breath and failed as the limo cruised along the street. He had barely caught a wink of sleep on the flight to London. His mind had been so preoccupied with thoughts of how his meeting with Mr.Kaito would go. At first, he had been upset with Marie.She trusted Sandra too much and had probably let it slip to her best friend that they had backdated their wedding and it was as though he had never even been married to Sandra. Slighted, Sandra had probably tipped off someone who had then fed off the information to Mr. Kaito. He had people looking into it to find out if Sandra had been involved. He hoped for her sake that she wasn’t unless not even the money she had been paid would be sufficient to get her through what she had coming.Then Steven had gotten irritated with Mr. Kaito. Why on earth was marriage so important to him? Had his marital status affected his ability to run the account? The whole thing had felt quite cultic but Steven had been eager to prove
“Now, Steven, I’m more than happy to renegotiate as your email said, but I was under the impression the retainer wouldn’t be up for review until the contract expires. So what gives?”If there was one skill Steven had perfected over the years, it was letting the other person lead the conversation. But he was just as confused as he was at the beginning of the conversation. Was money the reason the contract had been put under review? He pulled out his cell phone to check again and realized it had run out of juice. Mr Kaito was, however, expecting an answer. He decided to wing it and see where the conversation led.“You’re right, Mr. Kaito. But I was under the impression that your company had called for a contract review?”“No, we only issued a response to the email by your Account Director citing additional costs and asking for a review.”Had someone tried to renegotiate the contract with Kazuko Inc. without running it by him first? A muscle jerked in Stven’s cheek as he thought of the n
Steven pushed the giant doors of Graceville Memorial Hospital, running towards the front desk.“Looking for Marie Blair Watson…” He hollered, barely stopping to catch a breath.“Okay, please one moment.” The kind looking nurse said as she scrolled through a tab.“I can’t find a Marie Blair Watson here…”“I’m pretty sure she’s here. She just got admitted. She’s in a coma?”“Nope.” The nurse said, barely sparing the tablet a second glance.“Do you have a Marie King?”The nurse looked through the tab and nodded this time.“I do. Who are you?”“Her bloody husband! Who do you think I am? Where’s my wife?”“Please, keep your voice down, Mr. King.” She said, glaring at him. Steven clenched his fists and followed her. She took him round a corridor and pushed back a curtain. Immediately Sandra saw him, she flung herself into his arms sobbing.“Oh Steven! What are we going to do? Oh Marie…” She said,Steven stumbled forward to the bed where his wife lay. She was hooked up to a ventilator with h
“Sorry, I took so long.” Sandra said as she barreled down the stairs. He was still glued to the spot with the takeout in his hand when he turned to face her.“I thought you said Marie didn't make it to your house, Sandra?” He asked.“Yes, I did. She never made it here.”“And the Mexican food made it? How do you explain that, Sandra?”She glared at him for some seconds before throwing her head back in laughter.“Are you crazy, Steven King? You think I did that to her? What did I do? Run her over with my car?”“I'm just trying to make sense of what's happening, Sandra. How come the food made it to your house and my wife didn’t?”“If you must know, Mr King. Zed came over to my house after work today. You can call him and confirm. Did you stop to think of why Marie was bringing me Mexican food? Because I asked her to! And I had already asked Zed to ask well! And shame on you for thinking I would hurt my best friend!” She screamed, waving her hands around her.“Sandra…”“No, Steven. I don'