Chapter 4

Michael introduced me, "This is my younger sister, Winona. Starting today, she'll be the CEO's assistant."

The woman on the far left was the first to speak up. "Michael, wasn't this position supposed to go to Nick's secretary? Why the sudden change?"

Michael gave her a cool look. "Aunt Grace, that's Grandpa's decision."

Grace Lane was the wife of one of my uncles.

I remembered her. When I left home three years ago, she had been the happiest about it.

The way she looked at me now was exactly the same as it had been three years ago. She thought I was a joke.

"Oh, Mr. Lane's orders, huh?" she smirked. "Alright then. Winona, what have you been doing all these years? Admin work? Hope you can keep up."

I didn't respond.

Michael cut her off for me. "Aunt Grace, that's enough. Let's move on to today's agenda."

After the meeting, Grace came over to me. "Winona, let me be real with you. You've been away for three years, and now you come back and take a significant position. What do you think everyone else is going to think?

"Michael can cover for you now, but he won't always be able to."

I looked at her. "Aunt Grace, is this a reminder or a warning?"

She paused for a second, then smiled. "Just letting you know. The Lane Group isn't a place where you can come and go whenever you feel like it."

She strutted off in her high heels.

I stood there, watching her walk away.

Michael came over and gave my shoulder a reassuring pat. "Don't worry about her. She has always wanted more influence in the company. You got in her way."

"I know," I replied. "She can't do much."

Michael nodded. "You need to watch out for someone else."

"Who?"

"Jeff's buddy, Charles Ford. He's got contacts at the City Fire Department, and lately, he's been digging into the Lane Foundation's pulling out their money. If he starts looking into you—"

"Let him dig all he wants. So what if he finds something? It was my money, and I have every right to withdraw my funding. There's nothing wrong with that."

Michael shot me a look but didn't say anything else.

I knew what was on his mind.

It wasn't Charles he was worried about. It was how Jeff would react when he found out the truth.

A fire station captain discovering that the wife he thought he'd killed was not only alive, but also the sister of his district's biggest sponsor would be enough to drive him mad.

*****

Charles' investigation moved faster than I had expected.

By the third week back in Beloris, Michael dropped a call log on my desk. "Charles reached out to a project manager at the Lane Foundation and took him out for a meal.

"The guy couldn't keep his mouth shut and spilled that it was Ms. Lane's decision to pull the funding."

"Does he know who I am?" I asked.

"Not sure yet. He only knows there's a 'Ms. Lane' at the Lane Foundation, but the Lane family always keeps things low-key, and nobody has ever seen your face in public."

"Will he tell Jeff?"

"Most likely. They trained together, and they're really close."

I leaned back in my chair, letting my thoughts run wild. "Then let's speed things up."

"What do you mean?" Michael asked.

"Isn't there the annual City Fire Department awards ceremony next month?"

Michael raised an eyebrow. "Are you going?"

I said, "Even though the Lane Foundation pulled funding from Jeff's district, we're still sponsoring the City Fire Department. We're the biggest sponsor of the ceremony.

"By tradition, a representative of the sponsors presents one of the awards."

Michael looked at me and smiled. "Are you going to hand out the awards yourself?"

"Yeah."

"Right in front of him?"

"In front of everyone."

Michael stood up and grabbed his coat. "I'll let the PR department know."

He paused at the door. "Winona."

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Are you ready for this? Once you step out there, the whole world will know who you are. Not only Jeff. The entire city will know that you're a Lane. Aunt Grace will make a move, too."

I stood up and walked over to the window. The Beloris skyline was glowing gold in the sunset.

I said, "Michael, when I was trapped in the flames, the last thing on my mind wasn't the pain. It was how stupid I'd been.

"I had been stupid enough to give up everything for a man. Now I've got it all back. If anyone wants to take it from me, let them try."

Michael didn't say another word. He closed the door and left.

I turned around and sat back down at my desk, opening up my laptop.

On the screen was the schedule for the awards ceremony. The award presentation was the third item on the agenda.

Jeff's name was second on the list of awardees.

He was named Firefighter of the Year for successfully evacuating more than 300 people from a massive mall fire with zero casualties.

Zero casualties?

I ran my fingers over the scar on my right arm. It still hadn't fully healed.

Did I count? Did our baby count?

I closed the page and picked up the broken piece of safety rope on my desk.

Michael had it recovered from the ruins of the blaze.

It was nylon, supposed to hold up to 660 pounds of force, but it was severed right in the middle.

It hadn't been burned through. It had been sliced clean through with a knife.

Michael sent it for analysis.

The report spelled it out. [The cut was clean and even. It wasn't melted by the heat. Someone had cut it.]

After Jeff untied the rope from my hand, someone cut it to make sure I had no chance of making it out alive.

I still didn't know who it was, but I would.