Chapter 3 — I Discovered Why Lauren Had Been Watching Me For Years
Chapter 3 — I Discovered Why Lauren Had Been Watching Me For Years
I was halfway to the elevator when Evelyn called again.
This time, she wasn’t whispering.
“Don’t come here.”
I stopped.
“What happened?”
“Lauren is gone.”
My heart tightened.
“What do you mean, gone?”
“She left with him.”
“The man pretending to be your former partner?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
I stepped back toward my apartment.
“Then tell me everything you do know.”
Evelyn took a breath.
“Lauren didn’t discover your file by accident.”
“I figured that out.”
“No. You don’t understand.”
Her voice dropped.
“She was looking for it.”
I froze.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re the COO.”
“I know what I am.”
“Then start explaining.”
She hesitated.
Finally, she said, “Three weeks before Lauren’s final interview, someone from outside the company contacted our executive office.”
“Who?”
“They wouldn’t give a name.”
“What did they want?”
“They asked whether we had a candidate named Lauren Mitchell.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“And you said?”
“Yes.”
“What happened next?”
“They told us to hire her.”
I stared at the elevator doors.
“Just like that?”
“They provided references. Credentials. Everything.”
“Who provided them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Evelyn.”
“I really don’t.”
I looked at the time.
Lauren had been in my life for almost five years.
Five years.
And someone had apparently been arranging pieces behind the scenes before she even got her dream job.
“Did they mention me?”
Silence.
That was enough.
“They did, didn’t they?”
Evelyn finally answered.
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
“They said Lauren would eventually need access to a confidential file.”
My blood ran cold.
“What file?”
“Yours.”
The elevator doors opened.
I didn’t move.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then find out.”
“I tried.”
“And?”
“They threatened the company.”
I looked around the hallway.
“Who?”
“They said if Lauren wasn’t hired, they would release financial information that could destroy the board.”
That changed everything.
This wasn’t a romantic coincidence.
It was organized.
Someone had leverage over one of the largest companies in the region.
And they had used that leverage to put Lauren exactly where they wanted her.
I drove downtown.
I didn’t go to the company.
Instead, I parked two blocks away and called the only person who could help me.
Marcus.
He had been my partner when I founded the consulting firm.
Officially, he had died four years ago in a boating accident.
Unofficially, I had never believed the story.
The phone rang once.
Twice.
Then someone answered.
“Shouldn’t have called me.”
I closed my eyes.
“Marcus.”
“Where are you?”
“Downtown.”
“Leave.”
“Lauren knows.”
Silence.
Then Marcus said something that made my chest tighten.
“She was always going to find out.”
I gripped the steering wheel.
“Who hired her?”
“Not who.”
“What?”
“Whoever hired Lauren wasn’t interested in her.”
“Then what were they interested in?”
“You.”
I stared through the windshield.
“Why?”
Marcus exhaled.
“Because of your father.”
I frowned.
“My father has been dead for twelve years.”
“I know.”
“Then what does he have to do with this?”
Marcus didn’t answer.
Instead, he asked:
“Did you ever wonder why your father left you that company?”
I felt my pulse increase.
“My father didn’t leave me the company.”
“He left you more than that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Check the old incorporation records.”
“I already did.”
“Not the public ones.”
I waited.
“There is another agreement.”
“Where?”
“Your mother’s house.”
“My mother sold that house years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then where is it?”
Marcus gave me an address.
I recognized it immediately.
An old office building near Boulder.
I hadn’t been there since college.
“What am I looking for?”
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
The line went dead.
I sat in the car for another minute.
Then I drove.
The building looked abandoned from the outside.
Inside, the receptionist was gone.
The lights on the first floor flickered.
I found the old suite number Marcus had given me.
The door was unlocked.
Inside was a small office covered in dust.
A metal filing cabinet stood against the wall.
On it was a handwritten label.
My name.
I opened the first drawer.
Nothing.
Second drawer.
Nothing.
Third.
A brown envelope.
My hands were shaking when I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
My father.
Marcus.
And another man.
A man I had never seen before.
On the back was a date.
Three months before I was born.
Underneath it, my father’s handwriting said:
If anything happens to me, keep him away from the boy.
I read it twice.
Then I found the second document.
A contract.
Lauren’s name was on it.
Not as an employee.
Not as a consultant.
As an assigned observer.
The date was five years ago.
One month before I met her.
My breathing stopped.
There was a section titled:
SUBJECT MONITORING — PERSONAL ACCESS
Under it was one sentence.
Maintain relationship until subject reaches disclosure threshold.
I dropped the paper.
Five years.
Five years of memories.
Our first date.
Our first apartment.
The night she told me she loved me.
Every argument.
Every vacation.
Every time she held my hand.
I suddenly couldn’t tell which moments had been real.
Then I noticed another page beneath the contract.
A list.
My habits.
My routines.
The restaurants I visited.
The people I spoke to.
My work schedule.
Even the days I visited my mother.
Someone had been documenting my life.
For years.
At the bottom of the final page was a note.
Do not allow subject to learn about the inheritance.
I stared at the word.
Inheritance.
I had never inherited anything.
My father had left me a modest amount of money.
That was all.
At least, that’s what I had been told.
Then my phone rang.
Lauren.
I almost didn’t answer.
But I did.
Neither of us spoke.
Finally, she whispered:
“Are you there?”
“Yes.”
“I know what they told you.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
She started crying.
“I didn’t know at first.”
“When did you know?”
“Three months into our relationship.”
I closed my eyes.
“And you stayed.”
“I loved you.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I was supposed to leave once I found what they wanted.”
“What did they want?”
Silence.
“Lauren.”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve been watching me for five years and you don’t know?”
“I stopped reporting everything.”
“Why?”
“Because I fell in love with you.”
I looked down at the contract.
“Then why did you leave me?”
Her voice broke.
“Because they told me if I didn’t, they would come after you.”
My anger disappeared for a second.
“Who?”
“I don’t know their name.”
“Lauren.”
“I swear.”
“Then who was the man you left with?”
She hesitated.
“Marcus.”
“I know.”
“He isn’t Marcus.”
I went completely still.
“What?”
“The real Marcus died.”
“I know.”
“The man in that building is using his identity.”
“Then who is he?”
Lauren whispered:
“Your father’s brother.”
I stared at the photograph on the desk.
My father.
Marcus.
The stranger.
Three men.
One secret.
Then Lauren said the words that changed everything.
“Your father didn’t die twelve years ago.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“What?”
“He disappeared.”
“Why?”
“Because he discovered who your mother had been working for.”
I looked at the old photograph again.
“Who?”
Lauren’s voice dropped to almost nothing.
“The same people who hired me.”
The call ended.
I stood alone in that abandoned office, surrounded by documents that had just destroyed everything I thought I knew.
Then I noticed something written underneath the photograph.
A single sentence.
The boy must never know who his real father is.
I stared at it.
My father had been dead.
Then he had been alive.
Lauren had been my girlfriend.
Then she had been my observer.
Marcus had been dead.
Then he had been alive.
And now I was staring at a sentence suggesting even the man who raised me might not have been my biological father.
For the first time, I understood why someone had spent five years watching me.
They weren’t protecting a secret.
They were protecting a bloodline.
And somehow, I was the person standing at the center of it.