Olivia’s palms were clammy as she stood outside the office building at dark, checked both ways, and then used the key card to let herself in.
She walked quickly through the marble lobby and followed Marcus’s directions, taking the elevator to floor thirteen, then turning right.
She stopped before Todd’s office and breathed deeply, afraid of what she might find. Then Olivia forced herself to summon the courage. She used the key.
Once inside it was different. Olivia didn’t feel so fine. This was the place Todd had spent so much time in. Olivia could almost feel his presence hovering around.
She turned on her phone’s flashlight, not daring to turn on the overhead lights. As the flashlight swept across the room, her heart pounded.
There, all over his desk, were pictures of women. Women her age. Women she had never seen before. Women kissing Todd.
One of the women, Olivia felt sure, was Mina. But who were the others? She felt sick to her stomach. They had all been right. She had never really known Todd at all.
How could she have been so wrong?
As she scrolled through Todd’s files on his desk, everything seemed in order. There were mostly records of accounts he handled. All loose ends were tied up and everything was sorted perfectly. Very neat, very organized, she thought.
She went to his computer, turned it on, and blinked as she saw his work email pull up. His email was filled with correspondence between him, customers, and people in the company. Most emails were about appointments, investments, and company meetings. One email was slightly jarring though.
“I can’t talk about this any further,” Todd had written to someone at work. “People here won’t like it. This is the kind of thing we can only discuss in person.”
Why couldn’t he talk about something openly? Olivia wondered. Was it possible that Todd might have been hiding something at work?
She continued scrolling, and then stopped. To Olivia’s surprise, a long string of emails from Mina popped up.
“I’ll see you at seven for dinner,” the first one said. “Miss you so much, can’t wait for my hugs.” The email was dated a week ago.
Olivia felt her mouth go dry. Last week. So it was all true.
“Todd, where are you?” the next email from her said. “It’s harder to get in touch with you these days. You haven’t answered for two days now! Are you avoiding me for some reason? I thought we had a fantastic time last week. You said yourself what a great time it was.”
Olivia broke into a sweat. That email was dated a few days before the previous one. Deanne had been right, Todd and Mina had been dating right up until the end. It was hard for Olivia to grasp what she was seeing.
“I love you so much, Todd,” the email said. “I’ll always love you, too, no matter what happens. I hope you realize that, you’ve got to realize that.”
“I realize it, sweetheart,” Todd had replied. “And I feel the same way, forever.”
Goose bumps rose all over Olivia’s skin. She felt as though she’d entered the twilight zone. Todd would love Mina forever? How could he write that to her as he was buying Olivia her engagement ring?
Was that what Marcus was trying to tell her when he shook his head at the meeting? That Mina was responsible for Todd’s death?
Did Mina find out about the engagement? Could this have been a motive for her to kill him?
Olivia no longer knew what to think. But she knew one thing: she had to see Mina now.
She scanned Todd’s desk and her eye fell on an opened envelope, a letter beside it, clearly a love letter. She saw the writing scrawled in the corner. She saw Mina’s name and her address.
And Olivia knew where she needed to go next.