Page 42 of The Mood Board

Even if she was, it might not have anything to do with the case against Liam. Maybe she was a corporate spy sent at the very wrong time. Maybe she just had an unsettling personality. Maybe I was still jealous and making up reasons to dislike her.

But my gut was still telling me differently—it was too much coincidence at one time. I get the letter, and Janelle shows up only a couple of weeks before Liam gets arrested on white-collar charges. She shows up unannounced, and I find her looking for something in Liam’s office. Then I find out she changed her name before she came to work with Liam.

Janelle Moynihan had even been the name on her resume. How had she pulled that one off? Called every employer except her last and told them she had changed her name just in case someone called about her? Her planning was impressive. I had to give her that.

It also didn’t change the fact that the excuse she had given me could be the truth. But that didn’t make it any less strange or suspicious—who went to all that work just to apply for a company that was, technically, a step down from the career she had built for herself? Significantly few people were that intent on doing good in the world, and I highly doubted Janelle was one of them.

The coincidences kept building—and now my ex was calling me.

I stopped with the coffee mug halfway to my lips, something clicking into place. I wasn’t even sure what it was, except there were too many coincidences for absolutely everything to be a coincidence.

But, really, what were the odds Russ was working with Janelle? And that he just happened to be my ex-fiancé? That seemed like an enormous stretch, even for my imagination.

Except how else could I explain what was going on? I couldn’t, but my intuition told me something was off, and maybe it was time to start listening to it. That would be the biggest f-you to Russ, anyway, and I lived for those moments.

A sharp ring of a bell jerked me out of my thoughts, and Joanna hurried back to collect the boxes of food, which she put into a bag and handed to me along with the to-go cup into which she poured the coffee I had yet to drink.

“It’s on the house,” she said as I went to reach for my wallet. “Just promise me you’ll take good care of yourself. Liam loves you, and I know he wouldn’t want you to make yourself sick.”

“I will. I promise,” I said, smiling my thanks as I gripped the bag. It felt like she had put in a few extras, too, like maybe a slice of pie and an extra order of their fries with a side of their famous gravy. “And I’ll take care of Liam, too.”

“I know you will.”

The warmth in Joanna’s smile almost brought tears to my eyes, and a rush of warmth told me how grateful I was for the community Liam had brought into my life.

“Let me know if you need us for anything, whether it’s food or testifying. We all here know Liam didn’t do a damn thing,” Joanna added, her brow knotting again.

“I will. I promise. Thanks, Joanna.”

I left with a wave for her and a few of our neighbors and hurried to the car. My head was spinning, trying to figure out what I needed to do to find a connection between Janelle and Russ. Because the more I thought about it, the surer I felt that there was a link.

I pushed the car to get home and dropped the food onto the counter without a taste as I ran for my laptop. The FBI had taken all of Liam’s tech, but my computer had been at work that night, something I had been exceedingly grateful for over the past few days.

My fingers hesitated to type Russ’s name into the search bar. I wasn’t sure what I would find, and I didn’t really want to know. But I finally typed the name and hit “enter” before I could think any further about it. Article after article popped up about his life over the years we had been apart, enough to make my heart sink. How could such a horrible person be so successful? But the guy was incredibly charismatic and so good at fooling people into thinking he was the best guy out there.

I had certainly fallen for it.

About three years ago, the tone of the articles started changing. He had taken over the design firm we had both started, which seemed a feat in and of itself after such a short time. But if anyone could worm and slither his way into it, Russ could. From there, he grew and then sold the company, which seemed to whet his appetite for power and control because he had jumped to the CEO role of another company, this one in tech.

How I didn’t know. That must have taken some incredible fast-talking even for Russ.

My breath caught in my throat at the following article—a small announcement in a tech journal that Russ had been named the CEO of a new, up-and-coming tech company: Horizons.

The tech company that was a rival with Liam’s company, Vitality Venture, and was the same one Janelle claimed to have worked for and run away from.

Except I suspected she hadn’t run away—I was sure she was still working for them. Or for him, Russ, my ex.

Or maybe with.