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“Mason was a mess. He’d fucked up letting her overhear what they were talking about, and now this woman was on a complete power trip. Knowing there had to be something to get the upper hand on her, Lance had Scott look into her. He found some really bad shit—like Erin wasn’t the first person Cara impersonated.”
“Fucking scammy bitch,” Megan fumes.
“And that’s when Lance turned the tables. They threatened to expose her to the men she’d blackmailed previously, sold every property she owned here in the city, and sent her to live in Australia. Which is why she was in a mad rush to find a tenant for the studio and leased it so cheaply to Nina when they first met. She knew time wasn’t on her side. She used Erin’s name on the studio, so it wasn’t traceable to her, and then she left.”
“What in the fuck.”
“So why did Mason sell it?” I ask, my mind whirling at all the information.
“When he found out Cara was the real owner of the studio, he thought she was playing games with him. He had no idea it was complete fate that Nina ended up renting the studio. But whatever it was that Mason and Lance were discussing that night, Cara overheard it. He didn’t want that linked to Nina in any way. He thought having his girlfriend rent the building that the womanhenow blackmailed owned was too risky. He had her sell it.”
Megan stares at the carpet as silence falls over us.
“It was something really bad, wasn’t it?” I mutter, looking up at Lucy. “Whatever Cara overheard… it was really bad.”
“Bad enough Elliot wouldn’t tell me,” she confirms.
When Lance told me there was a woman from Mason’s past that had blackmailed him, my stomach twisted up at the thought of it, but this. Lance knew all of this and never told me. He knew Mason sold the studio. He knew everything.
No wonder he doesn’t trust Nina. His mum and sisters and now this.
“We forget about this,” I say. “The best thing we can do is pretend this conversation never happened. For everyone’s sake.”
“Agreed.” Lucy nods.
“Agreed,” Megan adds.
I swallow and smooth my hand down the dress. “I like this one. I’m adding it to my yes pile.” I turn around and show them the back.
“Yep, it’s perfect,” Megan says, standing. “Anyone for a whiskey?”
TWENTY-FOUR
Lance
Scarlet’s coming to Bora Bora. That’s about all I could focus on throughout the majority of my day. I’ve not seen or spoken to her since the day I found her planting trees in the meadow.
Not even a text.
And every day was spent with the hope and belief that she knew I was here when she was ready. The fact she hasn’t needed me yet or wanted to reach out hurts more than I’d ever admit.
I remove my passport from the safe in my office and tuck it into my carry-on bag, then head for my desk so that I can sign off for the next week.
I’m just about done sending a message to Harry when an email pops up from Ben. He’s not been in the office all week, and I was starting to think he’d given up.
My eyes scan over the attached bank note, a transaction which I quickly recognise from the payments in question. This one looks the same as the documents I gave to Ben months ago.
I pull out my phone and call him.
“Lance, you got my email.”
“What am I looking at exactly?”
“Could be nothing but check out the letters at the end of the account number. I checked every single payment and the history of all of them. This one bounced back and was the only one with NA at the end.”
NA.
I look at the account number and the initials at the end.
