Chapter 6 - The Unlisted Number
The steady hum of my desk phone cut through the quiet afterglow of Lauren’s humiliating exit, dragging my attention away from Ethan’s text message.
Marcus had already stepped out of the office, closing the door behind the compliance officers, leaving me alone with the quiet ticking of the antique wall clock. The screen of my desk phone didn’t display a standard internal extension or a local client prefix; it flashed a string of digits marked Private Caller.
Normally, I would have let it roll straight to voicemail. But today, the air in the room felt different, charged with a lingering electricity that made my instincts flare.
I picked up the receiver. “Maya Bennett.”
“You think you’ve won, don’t you, Maya?”
The voice was low, coated in a slick, artificial sweetness that sent a jagged shiver straight down my spine. It wasn’t Lauren. It was a voice I hadn't heard in over a decade—one I had hoped was buried as deeply as my childhood memories.
My grip on the receiver tightened. “Who is this?”
“Oh, don’t play games with me, sweetie,” the voice purred, a cruel, familiar cadence slipping through the static. “Lauren was always a blunt instrument. She never had the finesse for real retaliation. But getting my former star student fired and dragged out by compliance officers? That’s cold. Just like your mother taught you.”
My breath caught in my throat. The room seemed to tilt slightly on its axis.
“Mrs. Gable?” I whispered, the name slipping out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Helen Gable. Former guidance counselor at Westridge High School, queen of the social hierarchy, and the woman who had personally orchestrated every administrative roadblock that kept me from receiving financial aid or college placement letters seventeen years ago.
“Bingo,” the voice hissed through the line. “You managed to build a nice little empire for yourself, Maya. Cute restaurants. Expensive husband. A nice thick shield of wealth. But you forgot something very important.”
“I didn't forget anything,” I said, my voice hardening, forcing the old terror back down into the dark where it belonged. “If you’re calling to threaten me on behalf of Lauren, you’re wasting your time. She’s facing federal wire fraud, and if you aren't careful, you’ll be sharing a jail cell with her.”
Helen let out a sharp, brittle laugh.
“Jail? Oh, Maya, darling. I don’t care about Lauren. Lauren was just a pawn I used to test the waters. What I care about is the little foundation you set up last year under your maiden name—the community culinary grant funded by your holding company. You listed your mother as the primary trustee, didn’t you?”
A cold weight dropped into the pit of my stomach.
“What about it?” I demanded, standing up so fast my office chair rolled back and slammed against the wall.
May you like
“Well,” Helen said, her voice dropping to a toxic whisper. “Let’s just say public records are a wonderful thing. And when the state attorney general finds out that your mother’s signature on those grant applications was forged to funnel corporate funds back into your private accounts, let’s see how many people want to eat at your fancy restaurants.”
The line went dead with a sharp click.
