9 . When Wayne Tells D’Nisa Anthony Tried to Contact Amber

 The evening air was thick with the scent of damp pavement and distant exhaust fumes as Wayne pulled his sedan up to the curb outside D’Nisa’s apartment building. The dashboard clock glowed 11:42 PM, casting a dull amber light across the interior.

Inside the car, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Wayne had been drumming his fingers anxiously against the steering wheel for the entire five-minute drive, his jaw clenched tight.

D’Nisa unbuckled her seatbelt, turning to look at him with a mixture of exhaustion and suspicion. "You’ve been staring straight ahead like a ghost since we left the diner, Wayne. What is going on? Spill it."

Wayne let out a long, shuddering breath, finally cutting the engine. The sudden silence in the cabin felt deafening. He rubbed the back of his neck, refusing to meet her eyes at first.

"It’s about Anthony," Wayne muttered, his voice dropping an octave.

D’Nisa froze, her hand hovering over the door handle. The name alone seemed to drop the temperature in the car by ten degrees. "Anthony? What about him? I thought we agreed his name wasn't getting brought up in this house—or anywhere near me—after everything that went down last month."

"I know, I know," Wayne said quickly, holding up a hand as he finally turned to face her, his eyes dead serious. "And believe me, I wouldn’t bring it up if it wasn't urgent. But... he reached out to me today."

D’Nisa scoffed, a sharp, disbelieving sound, though a flicker of unease crossed her features. "Reached out? To you? Why on earth would Anthony contact you?"

"Because he knew I wouldn’t block him immediately, and because he couldn't get through to anyone else," Wayne replied, leaning forward against the steering wheel. "D’Nisa... he tried to contact Amber."

The words hung in the air, heavy and sharp. D'Nisa's breath caught. She stared at Wayne, her eyes wide. "Amber? Are you out of your mind? Amber changed her number months ago. She blocked him on every single platform the night she walked out. How could he possibly—?"

"He didn't call her phone," Wayne interrupted, cutting her off gently. "He intercepted me outside my office downtown this afternoon. He looked like absolute hell, D’Nisa. Unshaved, hollow-eyed, completely panicked. He grabbed my arm before I could get into my car and practically begged me to give a message to Amber."

D’Nisa crossed her arms tightly over her chest, trying to armor herself against the rising panic in her stomach. "And what? You stood there and listened to him? You should have told him to go to hell and driven off."

"I tried to!" Wayne insisted, his tone defensive yet laced with genuine concern. "I told him to back off, that Amber was finally starting to piece her life back together, and that she didn't want anything to do with his mess. But that’s the thing... he started crying, D’Nisa. Actual tears. He swore on his mother’s grave that he wasn't trying to pull her back into the drama."

"Then what did he want?" D’Nisa demanded, her voice rising, the frustration bleeding through her armor. "If he's not trying to cause chaos, why is he hunting down my friends to get to her?"

Wayne swallowed hard, lowering his voice until it was barely a whisper above the hum of the car's cooling engine.

"He said he found something. Documents. Proof regarding the corporate fallout—the very thing that destroyed Amber's reputation and tore her life apart a year ago," Wayne said, watching D’Nisa's reaction closely. "Anthony swore up and down that he didn't orchestrate the betrayal like everyone thought. He said he was framed by the upper management, too... and that the real person who sold Amber out is still walking around pretending to be her closest ally."

D’Nisa stared at Wayne, her mind racing as the terrifying implications of his words began to sink into the dark quiet of the car.

What is D’Nisa's immediate reaction to Anthony's claim, and does she believe Wayne should tell Amber