The Call Boy I Met in Paris – Episode 10
Derek closed the office door before sliding a photograph across the desk. It showed Sophie leaving City Hall beside Justin, their marriage certificate tucked beneath her arm. Even captured from a distance, they looked far too comfortable together.
The investigator studied the image, then waited. Derek’s anger had been building since Sophie walked out of her father’s house without a backward glance. He had expected panic after ending their engagement, not a replacement husband within hours.
“I need you to look into someone for me,” Derek said. He wanted Justin reduced to a collection of debts, mistakes, and weaknesses—anything that could prove Sophie’s marriage was a desperate fraud.
“His name?” the investigator asked, opening a file on his tablet. Derek glanced down at the copy of the marriage certificate Tony had sent him.
“Justin Lake.” Speaking the name left a bitter taste in his mouth. It was now attached to the woman and company Derek had believed were nearly his.
The investigator paused for half a second. Lake was not an uncommon surname, yet the full name carried associations in elite business circles. Before he could ask whether Derek meant the famous heir, Derek continued.
“Sophie thinks he’s some kind of escort who works construction during the day,” he said. The description sounded ridiculous, but that made the marriage more insulting. She had chosen a man she barely knew rather than forgive him.
Across the room, Stella poured herself a drink. “He was at the hotel with her,” she confirmed. “He threw money around like he wanted us to think he was important, but he looked like hired help at the site.”
Stella did not mention how calmly Justin had handled her threats, or the way hotel staff had seemed ready to obey him. Those details unsettled her, so she dismissed them as part of his performance.
Tony stood near the window, staring over the city. The name continued to trouble him, but admitting uncertainty would weaken his authority. “Find out where he comes from, what he owns, and what Sophie promised him.”
“If the marriage was purchased, we can challenge it,” Derek said. He imagined the certificate invalidated, Sophie stripped of her claim, and Swift Architecture returned to Tony’s control.
The investigator chose his words carefully. “A financial agreement between spouses doesn’t automatically invalidate a legal marriage.” He could already see that Derek wanted a conclusion, not advice.
“Then find something that does,” Derek snapped. His affair with Stella had never felt like a threat because Sophie had always been expected to marry him anyway. Justin had changed the balance overnight.
Stella settled beside Derek, close enough that Tony deliberately looked elsewhere. “There has to be dirt on a man like that,” she said. “No respectable person agrees to marry a stranger for money.”
The hypocrisy went unacknowledged. Derek had agreed to marry Sophie for control of her company, while Stella had helped preserve the engagement for the same reason. Justin’s supposed greed offended them only because it competed with their own.
“I want his employer, his address, his bank records—everything,” Derek ordered. “And keep this quiet. Sophie can’t know we’re investigating him.”
The investigator gathered the photograph and certificate. A basic search would take minutes, but the name on the page suggested the assignment might reach far beyond a call boy’s hidden past.
After he left, Tony turned on Derek. “You were supposed to keep Sophie under control.” The accusation exposed how quickly their alliance was fraying.
“I will,” Derek promised, although he no longer sounded certain. He looked at the photograph again and focused on Justin’s hand resting protectively near Sophie’s back.
Elsewhere, a secure database returned its first result. The investigator stared at the screen as the profile loaded, and one title appeared beneath Justin’s name: Chief Executive Officer of Lake Enterprises.
