Chapter 4 - UNLIKELY ALLIES
Finding Nicole Grant wasn't difficult, but seeing her was a shock. The glamorous twenty-four-year-old assistant who once wore thousand-dollar dresses and reeked of my husband's cologne was now working the evening shift at a mid-tier suburban real estate agency. She looked exhausted, her sharp edges dulled by the reality of a felony plea deal and a ruined reputation. I waited by her car in the dimly lit parking lot. When she saw me, she dropped her keys, instantly terrified. “I’m not supposed to talk to you,” she stammered, looking around frantically. “I don't want any more trouble, Caroline.”
“Andrew is going after Maya,” I said, my voice dangerously calm. “He’s tapping into an offshore reserve. A reserve you helped him build.” Nicole shook her head vehemently. “I told the investigators everything! I gave them the Haven Square invoices.” I stepped closer, blocking her car door. “You gave them the domestic invoices. But Andrew isn't smart enough to set up Cayman shell entities on his own. Who introduced him to the offshore brokers, Nicole?” She swallowed hard, tears welling in her eyes. The bravado she had in the hospital was completely gone. “It wasn't Andrew,” she whispered. “It was Marcus. Marcus Bell.” My mind raced. Marcus, Andrew’s business partner. The same man who had supposedly turned against Andrew to save himself. It was a dual con. They had feigned a public betrayal while secretly splitting a massive hidden reserve. “I have a hard drive,” Nicole confessed, her voice trembling. “A backup of Marcus's private server. I kept it as an insurance policy, but I’ve been too scared to use it. If I give it to you, you have to promise to leave me out of this.” I held out my hand. “Deal.”
