Page 123 of Discretion at Its Finest

She wouldn’t last much longer, not without breaking completely. So when I’d gotten a glimpse of Brielle in the press, no longer the infant baby or toddler I’d remembered, but now a woman that reminded me too much of her mother… I couldn’t keep away from it any longer. I couldn’t ignore her presence in the world anymore.

And she’d fallen into the arms of Killian Russel.Killian fucking Russel.The son of the very man who made me disappear. Who signed the paperwork. Orchestrated the cover-up. Told me that hiding me in federal custody was for my own good. For the safety of Silicon Valley, the preservation of power.

I tried to ignore it. The first time I saw her name in the press, I let it go. The second time, I skimmed the headline, barely reading it. By the third, I had already watched multiple video clips caught by paparazzi.

Brielle Newman.

His shiny new personal assistant the media wanted to know everything about. She wasn’t mine… not by law or by name.

But the more she appeared, the harder it became to pretend that I was okay without knowing and with history repeating itself. Now I was watching Brielle walk straight into the arms of the same people who had taken everything from me, the heir to the same empire that erased me.

Gregory and Cheryl, from what I’d learned, abandoned her, left her to take care of Marissa’s daughter. If she stayed near Killian, near the Russels, in the spotlight… then I knew they’d come back for her. And after years of resentment, repeated failures and jealousy… I didn’t know what they were capable of.

But I couldn’t intervene. My name was still dead. My freedom was conditional… I still had too much at stake.

And I needed someone who didn’t. Someone who didn’t have anything to lose.

My phone rang in my pocket. I pulled it out, gazing down at the call I’d been waiting for. Holding it to my ear, I looked back to the window, over the bridge.

“Kaufman speaking.”

“I’m returning a call. You must forgive me for the delay… I was quite skeptical of the presumably dead king of SiliconValley requesting a call back. I don’t know whether to feel flattered or not… Regardless, I’d be a fool not to pick up.”

“You know who I am.”

I could hear the smugness in his tone.“Let’s just say your reputation precedes you, even from beyond the grave. My first question for you would be, why do you know me?”

“You have ties to the Russel family.”

He hesitated.“Potentially…”he murmured.“Why is that of concern?”

“The woman Killian Russel has in the headlines. Brielle Newman. His new PA, the newest shiny thing for the press… what do you know about her?”

“How much I know would depend on who’s asking… Why is she of your concern?”

My jaw clenched. “She’s my step-daughter…” The word sat wrong in my mouth. But until I knew for certain… until I had something more than a timeline and a gut feeling that had been eating at me for years, I wasn’t handing that to the man over the phone.

He paused.“You don’t say…”

“In my current circumstances, I can’t be involved with the Newman family. Her proximity to Killian… it complicates things. Potential resurgence of her father and step-mother coming back into the picture. The press bathing her in the light complicates it even more.”

A slow, amused exhale filtered through the phone.“And what exactly would you like me to do?”

“I need her monitored. Not closely, but close enough…”

“I see…”

“And my son… Eugene Newman. He’s been off the grid after serving time in the military. Find him.”

The man was quiet for a moment, turning it over.“…With all due respect, Mr. Kaufman. Though I am a very generous man… things like this don’t come without a price.”

I sighed. “I know they don’t. Which is why I’ll make it worth your while. In return, you’ll get access to everything tied to the Newman name.”

“You mean what’s left of it?”he countered smugly.“The same access that had you disappear from the public eye? Their trust collapsed. Their stock’s worthless and their name is shit. What exactly am I accessing?”

“The name is dead. The money isn’t.”

That rendered him silent once again.