Chapter 14 - The Friend on the Other Side
Chanel called from an unknown number.
Tiana almost ignored it.
Then instinct made her answer.
“Hello?”
“Tee.”
She recognized the voice immediately.
“You’re not supposed to contact me.”
“According to Marcus’s lawyer?”
“My lawyer.”
The correction mattered.
Chanel laughed softly.
“Oh, so now you have lawyers.”
“What do you want?”
“To stop this from becoming something it doesn’t need to become.”
“You mean an investigation?”
“I mean a misunderstanding.”
“You co-founded LuxeCircle.”
Silence.
Tiana continued.
“You told me you were an investor.”
“I am an investor.”
“You were director of investor relations.”
“That title didn’t mean anything.”
“It meant enough to put on your website.”
“Tiana—”
“You recruited me.”
“I introduced you to an opportunity.”
“You told me not to tell Marcus.”
“Because he’s controlling.”
“He was right about LuxeCircle.”
“That doesn’t make him right about you.”
Tiana nearly ended the call.
Then Chanel said, “Did he tell you he had me investigated before your birthday?”
Tiana stopped.
“What?”
“Ask him.”
“Investigated how?”
“I don’t know. Background check. Business search. Something.”
Tiana’s pulse accelerated.
“Why would Marcus investigate you?”
“Because he’s been trying to get me out of your life.”
“That isn’t true.”
“Ask him.”
“I will.”
“And ask why he bought that SUV weeks before your birthday but waited to transfer it.”
“Because it was a gift.”
“No.”
Chanel’s voice became low.
“Because he wanted leverage.”
Tiana closed her eyes.
“You’re trying to manipulate me.”
“I’m trying to remind you who your boyfriend is.”
“Ex-boyfriend, maybe.”
“Exactly.”
The word hurt.
Chanel continued.
“He set you up in front of your friends. He had paperwork ready. He had a woman standing there waiting to transfer ownership. He wanted to see whether you passed.”
Tiana hated that some of it was true.
“That doesn’t erase what you did.”
“I didn’t steal from you.”
“You lied about LuxeCircle.”
“Business changed.”
“You lied about your role.”
“Because I knew you’d make it weird.”
“You recorded me.”
Another silence.
Tiana’s grip tightened.
“Did you know Darius was recording that dinner?”
“I didn’t.”
She sounded almost convincing.
Almost.
“Where is Darius?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because he disappeared on me too.”
Tiana stopped.
“What?”
“He drained the operating account.”
The anger in Chanel’s voice sounded real.
“How much?”
“A lot.”
“Define a lot.”
“More than two hundred thousand.”
Tiana’s stomach tightened.
“Investor money?”
“Yes.”
“Where did it go?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I’m in trouble too.”
Tiana sat down.
For the first time, Chanel sounded afraid.
“Then get a lawyer.”
“I did.”
“Tell them everything.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Darius has documents with my signature.”
“You were co-founder.”
“I didn’t handle operations.”
“You handled investors.”
“Tiana, please.”
The desperation was unfamiliar.
“What do you want from me?”
“Tell Marcus to back off.”
“No.”
“Tee—”
“No.”
“He has enough money to survive twelve thousand dollars.”
Tiana went cold.
“This isn’t about whether he can survive it.”
“Your money came from a joint account.”
“How do you know that?”
Silence.
Tiana stood.
“Chanel.”
“I assumed.”
“No. You didn’t.”
“Tiana—”
“How did you know the twelve thousand came from our joint account?”
Chanel said nothing.
Tiana’s mind moved backward.
The application.
The wire.
The bank.
She had never told Chanel which account she would use.
Darius had sent wiring instructions.
Tiana had transferred from the future-home account.
Only Marcus and Tiana knew what the account represented.
Unless—
“Did you see my banking information?”
“No.”
“Did Darius?”
“No.”
“You answered too quickly.”
“You’re paranoid.”
Tiana’s heart pounded.
Then she remembered February.
Girls’ night at her house.
Chanel borrowing her laptop to order dinner.
Tiana had left her browser open.
Her password manager.
Her banking tab.
“Did you access my bank account?”
“What? No.”
“Did Darius?”
“I said no.”
“I’m sending this number to Karen.”
“Tiana, don’t.”
There it was.
Fear.
“Why not?”
“Tiana.”
She ended the call.
Immediately she wrote down everything she remembered.
Then she contacted Karen.
Within an hour, the attorney connected her with a cybersecurity consultant.
The consultant asked whether Tiana reused passwords.
She did.
Whether two-factor authentication had been active in February.
It had not.
Whether she had received login notifications.
Maybe.
She searched old emails.
Then she found one.
February 17.
New login detected.
Location: Atlanta.
Device: Chrome on Windows.
Tiana had assumed it was herself.
But she owned a Mac.
Her skin went cold.
Another email.
February 18.
Another Windows login.
Then March 2.
Three weeks before her transfer.
She called Marcus.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
“Chanel knew which account I used.”
“What?”
“I think somebody accessed my banking profile before I invested.”
Marcus became silent.
“Tiana, don’t touch anything.”
“I already changed passwords.”
“Good.”
“I’m sending everything to Karen.”
“Good.”
Then his voice softened.
“Are you okay?”
Tiana almost cried at the question.
“I don’t know.”
“Where are you?”
“At the house.”
“I’m coming over.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
Marcus arrived twenty minutes later.
For the first time since the party, he came not to collect clothes or discuss lawyers.
He came because she was afraid.
And when Tiana opened the door, Marcus was holding the one thing she least expected.
The key to Calvin’s old sedan.
“Your mother needs her car back,” he said.
Tiana stared at the key.
“You’re letting me drive that?”
Marcus looked at her carefully.
“It’s a car, Tiana.”
She almost laughed.
Then he added, “Just don’t call it junk.”
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This time, she did laugh.
And for one brief second, beneath all the debt and betrayal and suspicion, they remembered how loving each other used to feel.
