Chapter 2 - The Woman in Red
I thought Julian was threatening to destroy records.
I was wrong about the direction of his fear.
He shoved the phone into his pocket when he saw me looking.
“You embarrassed me in front of my entire company,” he said.
“The company isn't yours,” I answered.
“That's the problem, isn't it?”
Camilla appeared behind him, her face stripped of the composure she'd worn at the party.
“You said this was handled,” she whispered.
Julian turned on her.
“Not now.”
For the first time, I wondered whether Camilla knew more about the financial arrangements than the affair.
Elena stepped between us and said company counsel would contact both executives separately.
Julian tried to follow us into the secured corridor, but hotel security politely barred him.
His disbelief was almost comic.
He had spent years using titles to make doors open.
Now a man in a plain black suit wouldn't move.
At the elevator, Camilla caught my sleeve.
“Please,” she said quietly.
“I need to speak to you alone.”
I looked at her earrings.
“My mother's diamonds are a strange choice for an honest conversation.”
Her hands flew to her ears.
“Julian told me they were his grandmother's.”
“Then he lied to both of us.”
She removed them and held them out.
I didn't take them.
“Give them to Elena,” I said.
“Document the return.”
Camilla swallowed.
“You don't understand what he'll do.”
“What has he threatened?”
She glanced toward Julian, who was arguing with security.
Before she could answer, her phone lit up.
She went white.
Then she hurried away.
In the private meeting room, Daniel Cho spread transaction maps across a long table.
The suspect companies had ordinary names: Harborstone Advisory, Bellwether Logistics, and Eastbridge Implementation.
Their invoices described consulting and logistics support for Aurelia's failed expansion.
The amounts were anything but ordinary.
Seven million dollars had moved through these three firms in fourteen months.
Invoices had been divided to sit just below approval thresholds.
Then they had been approved in clusters by Julian.
“That still isn't proof of personal theft,” I said.
Daniel nodded.
“Which is why we traced beneficial ownership and bank instructions.”
He turned a page.
Harborstone's registered contact was a woman named Serena Price.
Camilla's sister.
I stared at the surname.
The affair was beginning to look less like a private betrayal and more like an operating arrangement.
“Did Serena receive the money?” I asked.
“Some of it,” Daniel answered.
“But the transfers eventually reached a holding account we haven't fully identified.”
Elena's phone rang.
She listened without interrupting.
When she ended the call, she looked at me.
“Julian has filed an emergency complaint alleging you acquired Northstar using marital property concealed from him.”
“He doesn't know how I funded it.”
“He doesn't need to know to create a public dispute.”
I could already picture the headlines.
Bitter wife buys husband's employer.
Marriage scandal rocks rescued technology company.
Julian would wrap himself in accusations until people forgot the invoices.
Then Daniel silently pushed over one final sheet.
The account receiving the last Harborstone payment was associated with a trust.
The trust bore my mother's maiden name.
May you like
And its listed beneficiary was me.
