Chapter 59
"Shell company? How long did the payments last?"
"Ten months. A full ten months. Started the second month after Arianna left her job, ended a month before she showed up at Samuel's engagement party."
Sebastian flipped to the last page of the bank statements.
Ten months at $120,000 per month. Total of $1.2 million.
$1.2 million to get a woman married into the Ashford family.
No. Not to buy her. To invest in her.
Sebastian turned to another file Jack had compiled.
Arianna's entry-exit records.
During those ten months, Arianna had two overseas trips.
First destination: Singapore. Seven-day stay.
Second destination: also Singapore. Four-day stay.
Singapore. Brian's home base.
Sebastian leaned back in his chair. The leather creaked faintly under his weight.
The trail was clear enough now.
After leaving the securities firm, Arianna had been funded for ten months by a shell company called "BW Business Consulting." The company's name carried Brian's fingerprints. During those ten months, she'd flown to Singapore twice. When the ten months ended, she appeared at Samuel's engagement party, entering as a "self-invited" guest.
This wasn't a woman's independent choice.
This was an infiltration operation carefully planned over at least ten months.
And the target was the Ashford family.
Sebastian pulled out the USB drive and gripped it in his palm.
He stood and walked to the bookshelf.
On the second shelf sat a photograph.
Samuel's memorial photo.
Samuel wore a sapphire blue suit, a gentle smile on his face. He looked nothing like Sebastian. Samuel resembled their father—round face, small eyes, always that hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth.
The car accident two years ago.
Resuscitation failed.
Sebastian stared at the photo.
Samuel's accident. He'd never questioned it before. The traffic police's accident report had been crystal clear—the other party's truck ran a red light, struck Samuel's car from the side, the driver's side crumpled, he bled out on the way to the hospital.
Traffic accident. An accident.
But now, if Arianna had been planted in the Ashford family, every step she'd taken within the family needed re-examination.
Including Samuel's death.
Sebastian lifted the photo from the shelf.
On the back was a line of text in Samuel's handwriting.
[With Anna here, I'm at peace.]
When he wrote those words, he didn't know his wife was someone else's chess piece.
Sebastian returned the photo to its place.
He sat back down in his office chair and picked up his phone.
He opened Evelyn's contact information—new number, the one he'd had his assistant track down.
His thumb hovered over the input field for five seconds.
He wanted to tell her.
Tell her about Arianna's resume gap, the payment records from BW company, the Singapore entry-exit records, and those cufflinks with the W.
But his thumb didn't press down.
He didn't have the right to reach out to her yet.
The revenue rights transfer for those three properties was just a fraction of the Ashford family's debt to her.
The ink on their divorce certificate had only dried a few days ago.
He had no standing.
Sebastian locked his phone and placed it on the desk.
---
Same time.
Parker Group tower, thirty-sixth floor.
Evelyn's computer screen glowed at her workstation.
The preliminary research report for the North District old city renovation project was complete in first draft. Forty-seven pages total.
Property rights analysis, resident intention statistics, cultural preservation building assessments, policy and regulation compliance, competitor analysis, preliminary financial model—all six sections complete.
Evelyn moved the cursor to the conclusion paragraph on the last page, read through it once, changed two words, and saved.
Then she leaned back in her chair.
Her phone buzzed on the desk.
Mr. Eagleson.
[Ms. Kendall, we've pulled the flower bouquet order information. The "Scarborough Fair" platform's backend records show the buyer used a newly registered account. The real-name verification information was fake—the ID number belongs to someone who's already deceased. But the delivery address was a transfer station. We pulled surveillance from that location too. The person who picked up the flowers was still wearing the hoodie. However, there's one discovery—]
Evelyn's finger paused on the screen.
[The virtual wallet used for payment and the anonymous virtual wallet that sent the "stop looking into your dad" text three months ago show cross-related transaction records. The tech team is doing final confirmation, but preliminary assessment is they're from the same funding pool.]
Same funding pool.
Same person.
Evelyn set the phone on the desk.
Her gaze fell on the photo beside the computer screen—the picture of her mother and father together, face-up, held down at the corners by a small folder.
In the photo, her mother wore a white dress, smiling with crinkled eyes.
Evelyn looked at it for a moment.
Then she reached out and flipped the photo over, back side up.
The name Benjamin White lay quiet on the paper.
She opened her phone and sent Cedric a message.
[Haven Club and the anonymous virtual wallet's funding pool are cross-linked. Arianna's the front, but someone behind her is providing money. Look into BW Business Consulting, LLC.]
Send.
She set down the phone and continued editing the North District project report.
After typing two lines, her fingers stopped.
She looked up toward the window.
The thirty-sixth floor view reached the distant city skyline. The last rays of sunset dyed the glass facades of several high-rises a dark orange.
The ginkgo tree downstairs—its leaves were starting to turn yellow.
Cedric's reply popped up ten minutes later.
[BW. That name is very interesting.]
Evelyn looked at the screen, her fingertip hovering over the send button for a second.
[How so?]
[Brian's flagship company in Singapore is called "Intercontinental Shipping," but before he made it big, the first trading company he registered was called "BW."]
Evelyn's finger rubbed against the edge of the desk. The wood grain was slightly rough, making her fingertip tingle faintly.
[So the person behind Arianna is most likely him.]
[Not necessarily him personally.] Cedric's text carried an almost cold rationality. [Someone with his status wouldn't personally handle these petty threats. But Arianna is definitely a chess piece he planted in the Ashford family. As for why they're targeting you, it's probably because your appearance disrupted this chess piece's positioning.]
Evelyn closed the conversation without replying.
She thought of that photo, thought of Brian's refined yet unfathomable face.
If he really knew she existed, if he really cared about that foundation named after her mother, why would he "welcome" her in this way?
Was it a test, or elimination?
She stood up, grabbed her bag, and walked toward the elevator.
---
The elevator doors opened on basement level two.
As soon as Evelyn stepped out, she saw Cedric leaning against his car.
He wore a dark gray trench coat, an unlit cigarette between his fingers. The underground garage's cold white lights hit his profile, carving out sharp angles.
"I'm taking you somewhere."
Evelyn didn't ask where. She opened the car door and climbed into the passenger seat.