Chapter 2: The Name They Never Knew
The car pulled away from the curb and I didn't look back.
My phone lit up before we reached the end of the street.
Jonathan.
I let it ring.
Then Florence called.
I let that ring too.
My assistant's message was already waiting: *"Everything is ready for Monday morning, Ms.
Hargrove."*
Ms.
Hargrove.
Not Davis.
Never Davis.
Charlotte Davis had been a quiet woman who took the bus, bought groceries on a budget, and fell in love with a man she thought was decent.
Charlotte Hargrove owned 34% of the investment group that had been keeping Jonathan's company breathing for the past eighteen months.
I hadn't planned it that way.
I had simply wanted to be loved for something other than my name.
Now I knew that was never what Jonathan wanted.
My phone lit up again.
This time it was my lawyer.
"I saw the news alert," he said.
"Are you all right?"
"Pull the funding review forward," I said.
"First thing Monday."
A pause.
"Charlotte…
that will effectively freeze their entire operation."
"I know."
I ended the call just as we turned through the gates of my actual home.
Inside, one light was still on.
May you like
My grandmother was waiting up.
And in her hand was an envelope I had never seen before — with Jonathan's name written on the front in handwriting that wasn't mine.
