Page 117 of Married to Lies

Lips pursed, she nodded and turned to leave the room.

“Wait,” I said. “Let me talk to her first.” I got up to exit, but Jude said, “Wait.”

I turned to him. “Yes?”

“Do you have security on her?”

I studied him for a moment, taken aback by the question. “Not now that the wedding’s over, why?”

“If you care about her, put someone on her twenty-four seven.”

“Is that a threat?” I asked, pushing up from the table.

“No, it’s a goddamn suggestion. Paparazzi are going to follow her around until this dies down, this Conrad is being prosecuted for blackmailing charges according to my contact at the DA, and I would appreciate if everyone at this fucking table would quit acting like I’m the enemy when everything I’ve done is to protect this company and everyone in it.” His chest heaved from yelling while everyone fell silent.

Simon cleared his throat. “Speaking from experience, you can never be too careful, and we all know money isn’t an object. You don’t want something on your conscience that doesn’t need to be there.”

With those sobering words, I stood up. “Get with Daniel about my schedule for the interviews. Email me the talking points, and I’ll be prepared.” I brushed past them and out the door.

On my way down the hall, I got out my phone and called Steve. “You’re covering Rei,” I said. “Be discreet.”

“Yes, sir,” he said and hung up.

Then I got to my office and locked the door. Flipping through my messages, I saw one from Rei.

Rei: This article is going live later today. I wanted you to see it first.

56 Quentin

I waited until I was in the back seat of the car, on the way to Rei’s house, to read the article.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE WOMAN INVOLVED IN DECADE-LONG SCANDAL – Secrets, lies, and threats hidden behind the invisible workers at MyHome

By Camila Vargas

Dallas, Texas—The MyHome Tower is one of the tallest, most recognizable skyscrapers of the Dallas skyline. With thirty-six floors and hundreds of employees, it stands as a symbol of MyHome’s success.

While the five founders and their major investor work on the top floor of what employees refer to as “The Tower,” hundreds of workers silently and invisibly maintain the building, ensuring trash is removed, carpets are vacuumed, and the marble floors of its expansive lobby are gleaming.

One of those workers is Rei Li. People familiar know her as the woman who does it all, from cleaning the lobby to carefully servicing the offices on the top floor. But once you dig deeper, you find that Li is no average janitor. She’s the undercover owner of Radiant Cleaning.

Running from a traumatic past where a friend’s death led to countless lawsuits that buried her company and those she worked for in legal fees, Li decided to adopt a new name and rebuild her life—and her business—from the ashes. (More about that story can be found here.)

The only thing she needed was a figurehead to lead in her place while her face was plastered across the news and an ex-business mentor threatened to destroy her chances at ever doing business again in Dallas.

That’s when she ran into an old friend from school, a down-on-his-luck actor, Conrad Hale. The Upton University dropout had been auditioning for countless roles, but Li realized he could be perfect for a different kind of show.

He became the face of her company while she worked behind the scenes. Several years into the endeavor, they landed one of the biggest jobs in town, working at the MyHome Tower

Li said, “By all metrics, Radiant Cleaning was a success. We had high employee and customer satisfaction, but then Conrad changed.”

In the span of weeks, the face of her company turned into a stranger, becoming increasingly irritable and erratic. According to Li, Hale was convinced something illegal was going on at MyHome and, with Li’s proximity to the leadership, asked her to keep an ear to the ground.

“At first, I wanted to humor him because we were friends. It didn’t take long to find out that the MyHome founders were good, hardworking people,” Li said.

Hale allegedly responded by asking Li to place surveillance devices in CFO Quentin Thomas’s office and even told her to place evidence that would incriminate Thomas for crimes he didn’t commit.

Meanwhile, Li was developing a relationship of her own with Thomas.