Chapter 24: The Client Behind the Investigation

Derek finally identified the client who had hired the private investigators. The answer was both expected and inconvenient. "Knox Group," he told Louis. "Not directly. The payment went through a consulting company, then another intermediary, but the original instruction came from an executive attached to Clement's older brother."

Louis sat behind a borrowed office desk in a private suite registered under one of his holding companies. Unlike the small apartment Freya knew, the room overlooked the financial district from forty floors above. Several executives sat outside waiting for instructions.

"What are they trying to learn?" Louis asked. "Your daily movements, who you're meeting, and whether you're secretly rebuilding. They also asked for information about Freya." Louis's gaze sharpened. "What information?"

"Her spending, contacts, whether she's planning a divorce, and whether she has access to any accounts connected to you." Derek placed a report on the desk. "Clement's personal interest may be useful to them. If they can get close to her, they probably think she could reveal something."

Louis opened the report. Photographs showed Freya leaving the supermarket, visiting the courier shop, and entering the shopping center. Most were harmless, but seeing her unknowingly photographed made his expression colder with every page.

"End the surveillance." "Quietly?" "Yes. Feed the investigators enough false information that Knox believes I'm still searching for investors." Derek smiled. "And Clement?" "Let him approach her for now, as long as he doesn't cross the line."

Derek raised an eyebrow. "You're using your wife as bait?" Louis looked up sharply. "No. She doesn't participate. If Clement approaches her, we observe what he does. Nobody encourages contact."

"Understood." Derek collected the reports. Before leaving, he added, "Freya is already suspicious of you." Louis's expression remained unchanged. "Why do you say that?" "Yesterday she asked me why our car was so expensive for unemployed people."

Louis rubbed his forehead. That sounded exactly like Freya. "What did you tell her?" "That my family has money." "Your family does have money." "Exactly. Best lies contain truth."

Back at the apartment that evening, Freya was assembling her new desk chair. Several metal pieces were spread across the floor, and the instruction sheet lay upside down beside her. Louis stopped at the bedroom door. "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Yes." A wheel immediately fell off. Louis looked at it. Freya picked it up. "Mostly." He removed his coat and crouched beside her. "Give me the instructions." "Can you assemble furniture?" "Probably."

Twenty minutes later, the chair stood perfectly upright. Freya sat down and spun once experimentally. "Not bad for a bankrupt tycoon." "A useful skill for my résumé." She laughed.

For a moment Louis considered telling her about Knox Group's surveillance. Then he remembered the photographs in the report. If Freya knew she was being watched because of him, she might leave for her own safety. Strangely, the thought bothered him more than expected.

"What?" Freya asked when she noticed him staring. Louis stood. "Nothing." She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You're becoming weirder every day." He walked toward the door before she could question him. Behind him, Freya became even more certain that her supposedly penniless husband was hiding a very large secret.

Neither of them realized that the small changes in their daily life were slowly pulling them deeper into the conflicts left behind by the original story. What had begun as a temporary arrangement after bankruptcy was becoming something far more complicated, and the people watching Louis were beginning to understand that Freya was no longer the predictable weakness they had expected her to be.