Chapter 2 - BEFORE THE STORM
Three months earlier, Grace believed her marriage was tired, not dangerous.
She and Ethan had been together for six years.
They met when he joined Northcrest Estate as an operations consultant. Grace had recently inherited the mountain resort from her grandmother, Eleanor Holloway.
Northcrest included a luxury hotel, a wedding ballroom, forty guest cabins, and the secluded house where Grace had grown up.
Ethan seemed to understand the pressure she carried.
He offered to manage vendors.
He handled payroll problems.
He sat with Grace through long nights when pregnancy made sleep impossible.
When their daughter, Lily, was born, Ethan cried in the hospital.
At least Grace believed the tears were real.
Six weeks later, she found a charge for $186,000 in an account used for winter maintenance.
The payment had gone to Summit Risk Solutions.
Grace had never heard of the company.
Ethan dismissed it as an emergency snow-removal contract.
“Why wasn’t it approved by the board?” she asked.
“The pass would have closed without it.”
“Then show me the agreement.”
He smiled and kissed Lily’s forehead.
“You just had a baby. Let me carry the stress for a while.”
The answer might once have comforted Grace.
Instead, it made her uneasy.
She called the company’s listed number.
It connected to an inactive voicemail.
The registered business address belonged to an apartment in Denver.
The leaseholder was Sabrina Vale.
Grace knew Sabrina as Northcrest’s glamorous events director.
She also knew Sabrina had been spending more time in Ethan’s office after midnight.
Grace opened the payment history.
Summit Risk Solutions had received nearly $1.4 million over two years.
Every payment had been authorized with Grace’s electronic signature.
She had signed none of them.
That evening, Ethan came home carrying flowers.
Grace had not told him what she found.
Still, the first question he asked was:
May you like
“Were you in the company accounts today?”
👉 Ethan already knew Grace had opened the financial records, which meant someone inside Northcrest was watching every move she made.
