Chapter 5: Allies
Maya waited until the nurses changed shifts before making the call.
Her hands still shook slightly as she held the phone, but her voice was steady when Rachel answered.
“It’s Maya.”
There was a short pause on the other end. Rachel had been her senior colleague for four years before Maya went on maternity leave. She was one of the few people who knew how good Maya actually was at her job.
“Maya? I heard… God, I’m so sorry. How are you? How’s the baby?”
“She’s in the NICU,” Maya said. “She’s fighting.”
Rachel was quiet for a moment. “What do you need?”
Maya looked at the closed door of her hospital room. “I need someone who knows how to follow money when people try very hard to hide it. And I need someone who won’t ask too many questions yet.”
Rachel didn’t hesitate. “Send me what you have. I’ll look at it tonight.”
Maya spent the next hour uploading the screenshots and transfer records she had already collected. She added the short voice recording of Diane from the day before. When everything was sent, she typed one more message.
This stays between us for now. I’m not ready to go public.
Rachel replied almost immediately.
Understood. I’ll call you tomorrow.
Maya put the phone down and closed her eyes. For the first time since the pool, she felt something close to relief. Not safety — not yet — but the knowledge that she was no longer completely alone in this.
May you like
She was still weak. Her body ached constantly. But her mind was working again, the way it always had when she was hunting discrepancies in someone else’s books.
This time, the books belonged to her husband.
