Chapter 3 - The Signature That Wasn’t Hers
The money had been transferred to Harlow Strategic Advisory.
Maya searched the name online.
There was no company website.
No public office.
No employees.
Only a mailing address connected to a private residence in Connecticut.
The residence belonged to Celeste Holloway.
Maya’s hands turned cold.
She downloaded the transfer records and went directly to Trent’s office.
He was standing by the window when she entered.
“Why did nearly three million dollars go to a company registered at your mother’s address?”
Trent did not look surprised.
He looked annoyed.
“You shouldn’t be reading financial reports right now.”
“It has my signature.”
“You signed a stack of authorizations after your father died.”
“I didn’t sign this.”
Trent walked toward her and took the tablet from her hands.
“You’ve been forgetting things lately.”
“I’m pregnant. I’m not incompetent.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
But the way he smiled told her he had thought about it.
Trent deleted the downloaded files.
Then he kissed her forehead as though she were a confused child.
“Let me handle the company. Stress isn’t good for the baby.”
That night, Maya waited until he was asleep.
She entered her late father’s study, a room Trent rarely used because Thomas’s old files made him uncomfortable.
Inside a locked desk drawer, Maya found a leather notebook.
Most of the pages contained business figures.
One page had been torn almost completely out.
Only four handwritten words remained near the binding.
NEVER TRUST HARLOW.
Below them was a single sentence.
ALEX KNOWS THE REST.
Maya stared at the name.
Her brother had supposedly disappeared four years before Harlow Strategic Advisory was created.
Unless the company had existed long before the public records showed.
Or unless Alex had known what Trent’s family was planning before anyone else did.
As Maya closed the notebook, she heard the floor creak behind her.
Trent was standing in the doorway.
May you like
“What are you looking for?”
👉 Maya hid the notebook in time—but Trent’s next move proved he had already started watching her.
