Chapter 6: The Second Envelope
We stared at the tablet for a moment that stretched longer than it should have.
"Someone else knew," Priya said.
She wasn't alarmed.
She sounded almost relieved, the way people do when they discover they weren't as alone as they thought.
Ethan took the tablet, studied the number, and handed it back without a word.
He stepped into the corner of the room and made a call I couldn't hear clearly — just the low rhythm of his voice, three short exchanges, then silence.
"My security team is running the number," he said when he turned back.
"It's a burner.
Purchased in cash six weeks ago."
"Six weeks," I said.
That was when Ethan had learned about the engagement.
I didn't say it out loud.
He heard it anyway.
"We'll find out who it is," he said.
"Right now, what matters is Andrew."
Priya was already pulling up contacts on her tablet.
"I'll call Detective Reyes."
"Wait." I held up my hand.
Both of them looked at me.
"If we call the police tonight — here, at the gala — it becomes a news story by morning.
Every journalist in that ballroom will have it.
My name will be in every headline alongside his."
"Yes," Ethan said.
"My mother will find out from a news alert."
A silence.
"I need to call her first," I said.
"Before any of this moves.
I need her to hear it from me."
Priya lowered her tablet.
"How much time do you need?"
"Ten minutes."
Ethan nodded once.
He moved toward the door.
"I'll make sure Andrew doesn't leave the building.
I have security on every exit."
"You planned for that already?"
"I planned for several things." He paused at the door.
"Take your ten minutes, Ava.
You've earned the right to tell your own story first."
He left.
Priya set her tablet face-down on the vanity and looked at the wall, giving me the closest thing to privacy the small room allowed.
I dialed my mother.
She picked up on the second ring, the way she always did after seven in the evening when she was settled in her chair with the television low and her reading glasses pushed up on her head.
"Ava, darling.
How is the gala?
Is Andrew's speech tonight or—"
"Mum." My voice broke on the single syllable.
I hadn't expected it to.
"I need to tell you something.
And I need you to let me finish before you say anything."
A pause.
The television went silent.
"All right," she said carefully.
"I'm listening."
I told her.
Not everything — not the photographs, not the recording, not Priya's name — but the shape of it.
The fourteen months.
The careful geography of the bruises.
The bag I had packed and the threat that had made me unpack it.
She didn't speak for a long time after I finished.
"Mum."
"I'm here." Her voice was different.
Stripped of its usual warmth, not because she was cold, but because she was concentrating very hard on something.
"The photo on the mantelpiece."
"Yes."
"I always thought he held you too tightly in it." Another pause.
"I told myself I was being foolish."
"You weren't."
"No." A long exhale.
"No, I wasn't." Her voice steadied.
"What do you need from me?"
"I just needed you to know before it's in the news."
"Then I know." She paused.
"Ava.
The man on the mantelpiece — he is not going to be the last word on who you are.
Do you understand me?"
My eyes burned.
"Yes, Mum."
"Good.
Now go do what needs to be done."
I ended the call.
Priya handed me a tissue without looking at me.
I took it.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Yes."
She picked up her tablet.
Dialed Detective Reyes.
And when the line connected, she handed the phone to me.
I took it.
Outside in the corridor, I heard Andrew's voice — still smooth, still controlled, telling one of Ethan's security staff that there had been a misunderstanding and he simply needed to collect his coat.
"Detective Reyes," I said.
"My name is Ava.
I understand you've been expecting my call."
The voice on the other end was calm and unhurried.
"I have," she said.
May you like
"Why don't you start from the beginning."
Down the hall, Andrew's voice went quiet.
