Chapter 14 - BRENDA’S RED FOLDER
Brenda called me sixteen times after police searched Pike’s office.
I answered none of them.
The seventeenth call went to Daniel instead.
That told me fear had finally become stronger than arrogance.
By evening, Brenda had hired an attorney.
By the next morning, her attorney had contacted Detective Hale.
And by noon, Brenda wanted to talk.
Not apologize.
Talk.
There was a difference.
The meeting happened in a private conference room at her lawyer’s office.
I did not need to be there.
Hale actually suggested I stay away.
I went anyway after Daniel confirmed it would not interfere with the investigation.
Brenda looked different without the confidence she had worn in my apartment lobby.
Her hair was pulled back.
There was no makeup on her face.
She wore a loose gray sweater and kept both hands wrapped around a bottle of water she never opened.
Her attorney sat beside her.
Daniel sat beside me.
Detective Hale took the chair at the end of the table.
For nearly a minute, nobody spoke.
Then Brenda looked at me.
“I know you hate me.”
I almost laughed.
“That isn’t why we’re here.”
Her mouth tightened.
“No.”
“It isn’t.”
She looked down at the water bottle.
“I did know about the apartment.”
There was no point pretending otherwise.
The wedding-night recording had already captured her voice.
“I knew Elias wanted a claim to it.”
“You knew they planned to make me look unstable.”
“Yes.”
“Say it clearly.”
Her attorney looked at her.
Brenda swallowed.
“I knew Cynthia and Elias planned to provoke arguments and tell people you were unstable.”
The words were ugly in daylight.
“You knew they were moving money?”
“I knew Elias said he was moving some.”
“From me.”
“Yes.”
“You knew you were moving into my apartment.”
Brenda’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“And you sent a crib there before I had been married twenty-four hours.”
She flinched.
“Yes.”
I wanted to ask how she could do that.
I wanted to ask what kind of woman discusses nursery placement while another woman is celebrating a wedding she believes is real.
But I already knew the answer.
A selfish one.
A frightened one.
A person who tells herself somebody else deserves what is happening because that story makes it easier to benefit.
I did not need Brenda’s psychology.
I needed facts.
“What did you know about the drops?”
She stared at the unopened water.
“Not enough.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I knew Elias sometimes gave you something to calm you down.”
My skin went cold.
“I did not consent to being calmed down.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
“No.”
Her voice rose.
“I knew he said you took something for anxiety.”
“I never did.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because after the hotel he told me to say I had seen your prescription if anyone asked.”
The room went still.
Hale leaned forward.
“When did he say that?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“Exact words?”
Brenda looked at her attorney.
He nodded once.
Brenda continued.
“He said, ‘If this gets stupid, you saw Ella’s prescription.’”
Hale wrote it down.
“What prescription?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Did you agree?”
Brenda’s face tightened.
“I didn’t answer.”
“That is not the same as refusing.”
“I know.”
At least she had stopped trying to sound innocent.
I asked about the bottle from the hotel.
Brenda repeated what she had told me on the phone.
Elias called after I escaped.
He told her to return to the suite.
He told her to take the leather toiletry case.
She did.
Then she brought it to Cynthia’s room.
“What did Cynthia do?” Hale asked.
“She opened the case.”
“And?”
“She took out the bottle.”
“Did you see what was inside?”
“No.”
“Did she say what it was?”
Brenda hesitated.
“Yes.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What?”
“She called it the drops.”
There it was.
Not my word.
Not Elias’s recorded sentence alone.
Brenda had heard Cynthia identify the bottle directly.
“What happened next?”
“Cynthia put it in her cosmetic bag.”
“Where is that bag now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she leave the hotel with it?”
“Yes.”
Hale already had video showing the leather case leaving with Cynthia.
Now she had a witness connecting the bottle inside it to the phrase from the recording.
Brenda rubbed her stomach.
Then she looked at me.
“I didn’t know they were doing what you showed me.”
“What did I show you?”
“The camera clips.”
I had not shown her those.
My expression must have changed.
Brenda looked confused.
“Elias did.”
Everyone at the table froze.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“He had copies.”
“How?”
“He showed me pieces after you found the camera.”
My stomach dropped.
The deleted files.
We assumed Elias erased them remotely to destroy them.
He had also kept copies.
“Where?” Hale asked.
Brenda swallowed.
“On a small black drive.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did you see it?”
“Cynthia’s house.”
Hale wrote quickly.
“What was on it?”
“Videos of Ella.”
“What kind?”
Brenda looked at me with shame.
“Some where you looked confused.”
“Did Elias say why he kept them?”
“He said they were insurance.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Against what?”
“You.”
I almost laughed.
Of course.
They drugged me, staged incidents, recorded the results, and called the recordings insurance against me.
Brenda continued.
“He said if you ever fought the property documents, the videos would prove you had been unstable for months.”
The plan was clearer now.
They would show only the pieces where I looked confused.
Not the clips where Elias caused the confusion.
Not the footage where he broke the glass.
Not the video where Cynthia discussed the tea.
Editing could turn a victim into evidence against herself.
That had been the hidden camera’s real purpose.
Hale asked Brenda why she was cooperating now.
Brenda finally opened the water bottle.
She did not drink.
“Because of the folder.”
“What about it?”
“My lawyer told me police found one with my initials.”
“That does not mean you know what is inside.”
“I know enough.”
“How?”
Brenda looked at me.
“Cynthia kept a copy.”
My skin prickled.
“Where?”
“In her study.”
“You saw it?”
“Last night.”
“Why were you there?”
“Because Elias wanted me to stay with his mother until this calmed down.”
Maya would have laughed at the phrase calmed down.
I did not.
Brenda continued.
“I went looking for the black drive.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid Elias would put something on it that made this my fault.”
Self-preservation.
At least she was honest now.
“I found the red folder instead.”
“What was inside?”
Her hands began to shake.
“A proposed custody agreement.”
Her voice became thin.
“A financial schedule.”
“Notes about my prenatal appointments.”
“A list of people I argue with.”
My throat tightened.
“And?”
Brenda looked at me.
“A page titled credibility issues.”
The room was silent.
“What did it say?”
“That I’m impulsive.”
“That I’ve had unstable relationships.”
“That pregnancy has made me emotional.”
“That I’m financially irresponsible.”
Brenda’s eyes filled with tears.
“There were screenshots of texts I sent Elias when we fought.”
“Texts he told me he deleted.”
“And a note from Cynthia saying that if I became difficult after the baby was born, they should document postpartum instability immediately.”
The cruelty of it was almost elegant in its consistency.
I had been selected because I was quiet.
Brenda had been selected because she was impulsive.
Natalie had been selected because she owned property.
It did not matter who the woman was.
Cynthia could build a weakness out of anything.
Brenda wiped her face angrily.
“I thought I was family.”
I looked at her.
“So did I.”
She flinched.
Good.
I did not want revenge from Brenda.
But I was not going to comfort her for discovering the knife only after helping hold it against me.
Before we ended the meeting, I asked Brenda one question that had nothing to do with the bottle.
“Why me?”
She looked confused.
“What?”
“Why did you agree to any of this?”
Her attorney shifted beside her, but Brenda answered.
“Because Elias said you didn’t love him.”
I stared at her.
“He said you cared more about work and the apartment.”
“He said the marriage was basically an arrangement by the time we got together.”
“We were not married when you got together.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
Brenda’s face tightened.
“He said the wedding was about appearances and finances.”
“And that made sleeping with him acceptable?”
“No.”
Her answer surprised me.
“No, it didn’t.”
She rubbed her thumb over the bottle cap.
“I made it acceptable because I wanted him.”
The honesty was ugly, but clean.
She continued.
“Then I got pregnant.”
“And Cynthia started telling me the apartment should have belonged to Elias anyway.”
“She said you had used his money to buy it.”
My stomach tightened.
“That was a lie.”
“I know.”
“When did you know?”
“After the wedding.”
“How?”
“I saw the actual closing statement in Pike’s file.”
I stared at her.
“And you still came to my apartment.”
Tears filled her eyes again.
“Yes.”
There it was.
No excuse.
No misunderstanding large enough to save her.
She had learned enough to know the story was false and continued because the outcome still benefited her.
That mattered to me.
It meant I did not have to choose between seeing Brenda as manipulated and seeing her as responsible.
Both could be true.
Cynthia had manipulated her.
Brenda had also helped hurt me.
Adults do not become innocent merely because someone more calculating stands behind them.
Hale asked whether Brenda could identify where Cynthia kept the folder and the black drive.
Brenda gave her the layout of the study.
Then she said, “There’s something else.”
Of course there was.
“There is always something else,” I whispered.
Brenda looked at me.
“Elias knows you have the wedding recording.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“How?”
“He guessed.”
“When?”
“After Pike’s office was searched.”
Brenda’s voice dropped.
“He said there was no other way police could know certain things.”
“What did he say exactly?”
“He said you must have heard more than they thought.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
“Did he know where I was?”
“No.”
“Did he ask?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I didn’t know.”
“Was that true?”
“Yes.”
Brenda looked toward Hale.
“Then Cynthia told him not to worry.”
“Why?”
“She said Ella always comes back to fix things.”
The sentence hurt because it was true.
I had always returned after arguments.
Always apologized first.
Always repaired relationships even when I had not broken them.
Cynthia had mistaken my habit of repairing damage for an inability to walk away.
Brenda continued.
“She said if they could get you alone for ten minutes, Elias could make you doubt yourself again.”
I felt something cold settle inside me.
Ten minutes.
That was all they thought they needed.
Then Brenda said the part that changed our plans for the night.
“They’re going to your apartment.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Why?”
“They think you hid another copy of the recording there.”
Hale stood immediately.
I looked at the clock.
7:42 p.m.
My apartment was forty minutes away in traffic.
The building security alert arrived before we reached the door.
FAILED ENTRY ATTEMPT.
Then another.
FAILED ENTRY ATTEMPT.
User: ELIAS CARTER.
A third alert followed.
FRONT DOOR CAMERA MOTION DETECTED.
I opened the live feed.
Elias stood outside my apartment.
Cynthia was beside him.
May you like
And between them stood a locksmith with a drill.
