Chapter 3 - ETHAN BEFORE NATALIEMartin showed Natalie a photograph.
Three men at a charity golf tournament.
Daniel.
A business owner named Robert Mercer.
And Robert's son.
Ethan.
Natalie felt the room tilt.
“They knew each other?”
“Briefly.”
“Ethan told me he'd never met Dad.”
“That wasn't true.”
Years earlier Ethan had approached Daniel seeking investment capital for a hospitality startup.
Daniel declined.
Why?
The numbers didn't make sense.
Ethan was carrying hidden debt.
Worse, some of that debt was owed privately.
To Chloe.
Natalie's sister.
Natalie stared.
“Chloe knew Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
Martin hesitated.
“Well enough to lend him forty thousand dollars.”
Before Natalie ever met him.
Before the engagement.
Before Ethan supposedly walked into her life by coincidence.
Natalie felt nauseated.
“Did Chloe introduce us?”
Martin couldn't answer.
But Natalie could.
The charity dinner where she first met Ethan?
Chloe had insisted Natalie attend.
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Ethan had been seated at their table after a “last-minute seating change.”
Coincidence suddenly required too much imagination.
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