Chapter 43: Northstar Capital

Freya lasted exactly one evening before curiosity defeated her. She didn't search Louis's documents or touch the folder again. Instead, she used public information, reasoning that anything available online was fair game.

Northstar Capital appeared to be a relatively quiet investment company established several years earlier. Public records listed professional managers rather than Louis. The company had made scattered investments across technology, logistics, manufacturing, and property, but it attracted little media attention.

What interested Freya was timing. Several investments had been made shortly before Louis's public collapse. Others occurred immediately afterward, when prices were low. Either Northstar had incredible luck or someone knew exactly what was going to happen.

At breakfast, Freya placed her phone beside Louis's plate. Northstar's public profile filled the screen. "Good morning." Louis looked at it, then at her. "Good morning."

"Want to tell me why your mysterious paperwork belongs to an investment company that seems unusually good at buying assets around your bankruptcy?"

Louis calmly buttered his toast. "You researched it." "Obviously. You left the name in front of a writer. Curiosity is an occupational hazard."

He considered how much to reveal. "Northstar is connected to me." "Connected how?" "I control it." Freya stopped eating.

She had expected some relationship, perhaps consulting or a minority investment. Direct control was different. "So while everyone thinks you're financially ruined, you own an investment company buying discounted assets?" "Essentially."

Freya stared at him for several seconds before beginning to laugh. Louis looked mildly offended. "What's funny?" "I spent my first week planning how to sell handbags to give you startup capital."

"I never asked you to do that." "I know! That's why it's funny." She wiped the corner of her eye. "I was mentally preparing to support a tragic bankrupt tycoon, and apparently the tragic tycoon was running acquisitions behind my back."

Louis waited until she stopped laughing. "Northstar can't be exposed yet." Freya immediately became serious. "I won't tell anyone."

"You're not angry?" "I already knew you were hiding money. This just tells me where some of it is." She narrowed her eyes. "Unless there are five more secret companies."

Louis didn't answer quickly enough. Freya pointed at him. "There are more." "Not five." "That is not a comforting answer."

Despite herself, Freya felt relieved. The original novel had ended with Louis completely defeated. Yet here he was, quietly rebuilding before anyone realized he had started. Perhaps the author had never known him as well as she thought.

"Does Ethan know?" she asked. "No." "Knox Group?" "They suspect I have something left, but not Northstar."

Freya nodded. "Then I'll behave like I know nothing." "You already do that surprisingly well." "Excuse me?" "At the charity dinner."

She accepted the compliment. "Fine. But there's a condition." Louis waited. "If your secret empire creates another security problem around me, you tell me immediately."

"Agreed." This time he answered without hesitation. Freya resumed breakfast. The secret between them had grown larger, yet strangely, the distance between them felt smaller.

After Louis left, Freya added Northstar to a private note and then locked the file. She wasn't planning to investigate further unless necessary. His secret company wasn't hers to expose. More importantly, knowing the truth changed her view of the original ending: perhaps she hadn't awakened after Louis's story ended at all. Perhaps she had arrived precisely when a story no reader had seen was beginning.