Chapter 11 - The Phone He Lied About
The second corporate phone looked ordinary in the evidence photograph.
Black case.
Cracked corner.
A small silver Vance Global inventory label near the camera.
Flynn had told company security it disappeared during a trip to London six months earlier.
The device had not been in London.
It had been in Selina's possession.
Detective Alvarez came to my hospital room the next morning with a warrant return and the expression she wore whenever a case grew uglier.
"The phone is encrypted."
"Can you open it?"
"Probably."
"How long?"
"Long enough that you should not build theories while you wait."
I looked at her.
"You have gotten to know me too well."
"Occupational hazard."
Camille arrived ten minutes later.
She had already contacted Vance Global's technology department.
The phone had been assigned to Flynn three years earlier for merger communications.
It was supposed to be returned when the merger closed.
Instead, Flynn kept it.
"Why?" Nathan asked.
Camille looked at me before answering.
"Because it was not connected to the normal compliance archive."
I understood immediately.
"A private phone."
"Yes."
"For Selina."
"That is the obvious possibility."
The device had been removed from mobile management before it supposedly vanished.
Someone with administrator rights had approved the removal.
Daniel Mercer.
I almost admired the consistency of the corruption.
Every hidden door seemed to have Daniel standing beside it with a key.
At noon, Flynn's attorney sent notice that Flynn wanted to amend his statement to police.
Alvarez interviewed him without me present.
Three hours later, she returned.
"He admitted lying about the phone."
"Why?"
"He used it to communicate with Selina."
There it was.
The simple answer.
The humiliating answer.
The answer I had known before anyone said it.
"How long?"
"Approximately two years."
Nathan swore.
I felt strangely calm.
The affair had already become a fact in my mind.
This only gave it a device number.
"Why was the phone on the boat?"
"Flynn says he gave it to Selina six months ago."
"Why?"
"He told her he was ending the relationship."
I laughed softly.
"Ending which part?"
Alvarez did not answer.
"Did he end it?"
"According to him, he tried."
"That sounds like Flynn."
Nathan looked at me.
"Do you want me to leave?"
"No."
I needed someone in the room who remembered who I was before I became Mrs. Vance.
Alvarez continued.
"He says he gave Selina the phone and told her he did not want private contact anymore."
"But he still saw her."
"Yes."
"He still bought her a house."
"That happened earlier."
"He still went to the corporate apartment with her."
"Yes."
"Then ending things seems to have involved a lot of continuing."
Alvarez's mouth tightened slightly.
It might have been the beginning of a smile.
"He says the apartment meeting two nights before the stabbing was because Selina threatened to expose the affair."
I stared at her.
"So she was already blackmailing him."
"He did not use that word."
"Of course he did not."
"He says she demanded two million dollars and a board advisory position."
My eyebrows rose.
"What did he say?"
"No."
"And then two days later she accused me."
"Yes."
A new piece slid into place.
Selina had not simply wanted Flynn back.
She had wanted position.
Shares.
A board seat.
A permanent foothold.
When Flynn refused, she built a crisis that would destroy the marriage and leave him dependent on the woman he believed he had protected.
Except the crisis had grown beyond her control.
"Why did Flynn give her two hundred fifty thousand after the attack if she had already demanded two million?"
Alvarez looked at her notes.
"He says she called him from the apartment and said she was terrified police would blame her."
"And he paid her."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"He says he wanted her to leave the city before he did something worse."
I felt my jaw tighten.
"Something worse to whom?"
"He says he was beginning to doubt her story."
"When?"
"After he returned to the living room and saw you unconscious."
The sentence hit me unexpectedly.
"He began to doubt her while I was still on the floor?"
"That is what he says."
"Then why did he not tell police immediately?"
Alvarez did not soften it.
"He was protecting himself."
There it was.
The pattern again.
Protect Selina until the cost rose.
Then protect Flynn.
I wondered if there had ever been a moment in our marriage when protecting me came first.
I could not think of one.
The phone was unlocked at 4:18 p.m.
Alvarez returned after dinner with selected messages cleared for disclosure.
"Some of this is relevant to your case."
"And some is just the affair."
"Yes."
"I do not need every romantic detail."
That surprised me when I said it.
A week earlier, I would have wanted every word.
Now I wanted facts that could explain why I almost died.
Alvarez handed me a transcript.
Six months earlier, Flynn had written:
This stops now.
Selina replied:
You have said that before.
Flynn:
I mean it this time.
Selina:
Because she might give you a child?
My fingers tightened.
"She suspected pregnancy six months ago?"
Alvarez shook her head.
"Read the next line."
Flynn:
Because I am tired of lying.
Selina:
You are not tired of me.
Flynn:
That is exactly why I have to stop.
I looked away.
Even his attempt to leave Selina was a confession of love.
The next exchange was from five weeks before the attack.
Selina:
Does Mabel still have the Halberd preferred block?
Flynn:
Why are you asking me about Mabel's investments?
Selina:
Curious.
Flynn:
Do not involve yourself in her finances.
Selina:
You protect her money more fiercely than your marriage.
Flynn:
Enough.
That message mattered.
It showed Flynn had not given Selina the share information directly.
It also showed she had already been hunting for it.
Then came a message from nine days before the stabbing.
Selina:
If Mabel hurt me, would you finally see what she is?
Flynn:
What are you talking about?
Selina:
Nothing.
Flynn:
Stay away from her.
Selina:
You always say that like she is the dangerous one.
I stopped reading.
"He had warning."
Alvarez watched me.
"A vague warning."
"He told her to stay away from me."
"Yes."
"Then when she came into my house claiming I attacked her, he never stopped to ask why she had ignored him."
"No."
I felt anger pulse behind my eyes.
Flynn had seen pieces.
He had seen Selina's obsession.
Her questions about my money.
Her threats to expose him.
Her hostility toward me.
He had told her to stay away.
Then one dramatic scratch erased all of that because believing Selina was easier than doubting her.
The final exchange was dated the morning of the attack.
8:03 a.m.
Selina:
I need to see you today.
Flynn:
No.
Selina:
You will want to.
Flynn:
I said no.
Selina:
By tonight you will understand everything.
Flynn did not reply.
I stared at the time.
"She announced it."
"In a way."
"And he still says he had no idea."
Alvarez leaned back.
"There is a difference between seeing a threat and understanding it."
"He did neither."
"That is fair."
The phone also held evidence against Selina that none of us expected.
Photographs of my old preferred-share agreement had been sent from Daniel to Selina through an encrypted app.
A draft of the fake estate amendment had been photographed on Daniel's desk.
There were voice notes in which Selina complained that I was "sitting on a block of votes she did not deserve."
Then forensic analysts found a deleted video.
It had been recorded two days before the stabbing.
Selina sat in Unit 1704 facing the phone camera.
She was practicing.
Not a speech.
Tears.
She looked at herself in the camera and repeated the same sentence in different tones.
"Mabel pushed me."
Again.
"Mabel pushed me."
Again, with a shaking breath.
"Mabel pushed me. She tried to hurt me."
I felt nausea rise.
The exact words from my living room.
The exact performance that had detonated my life.
Near the end of the video, Selina stopped crying instantly.
She looked off camera.
"Is that enough?"
A man's voice answered.
Daniel Mercer.
"More fear. Less anger. Flynn reacts to fear."
Selina nodded.
Then she started again.
"Mabel pushed me."
Nathan stood and walked out of the room.
I stayed.
I watched the entire clip once.
Then I asked Alvarez to turn it off.
"Will a jury see that?"
"If the judge admits it."
"Good."
At 10:00 the next morning, the court held my divorce emergency hearing.
I attended remotely from the hospital.
Flynn appeared from his lawyer's office.
For the first time since our wedding, we sat on opposite sides of a legal caption.
Vance v. Vance.
Camille asked for exclusive possession of the marital residence, full preservation of financial records, and temporary control of any converted shares held in my name.
Flynn's divorce attorney, separate from Pike, surprised everyone.
"Mr. Vance does not oppose exclusive possession of the residence."
Camille looked at me through the video screen.
The judge continued.
"He does not?"
"No, Your Honor."
"What about the financial restraints?"
"He does not oppose those either."
Camille narrowed her eyes.
"And the shares?"
Flynn's attorney paused.
"That issue is more complicated."
Of course it was.
The board had called another emergency meeting that morning.
My 6.8 percent voting block could become decisive if Flynn was suspended or removed.
Suddenly everyone cared about the financial life I had been told to leave behind after marriage.
The judge granted most of Camille's requests and set the share dispute for expedited review.
Then Flynn asked permission to speak.
His attorney looked alarmed.
The judge allowed it.
Flynn looked directly into the camera.
"I want the house transferred to Mabel."
I felt nothing.
"Mr. Vance," the judge said, "that can be addressed through settlement."
"I understand."
He looked at me.
"I do not want it."
I spoke before Camille could stop me.
"Neither do I."
Flynn flinched.
The judge cleared her throat.
"Counsel will handle property allocation."
The hearing ended.
An hour later, Vance Global's board called Camille.
Not Flynn.
Me.
They wanted to know how I intended to vote if my preferred shares converted before the next board meeting.
Camille put the call on speaker.
The lead independent director, Charles Bennett, sounded carefully respectful.
"Mrs. Vance, we recognize the terrible circumstances."
"Then do not use them as an introduction to a proxy request."
Silence.
Nathan covered a smile.
Bennett recovered.
"Fair enough."
"What do you want?"
"Continuity."
"Meaning Flynn."
"Meaning stability."
"Those are not the same thing anymore."
Another silence.
I remembered exactly why I used to enjoy negotiations.
"Mrs. Vance, the board is considering interim leadership."
"Then consider it."
"Your vote could determine the outcome."
"My vote does not exist yet."
"The trust transfer may activate it within days."
"Then call me when the shares are real."
I ended the call.
Camille stared at me.
"You enjoyed that."
"A little."
Then Alvarez's phone rang.
She listened.
Her face changed.
"Where?"
She looked at me.
"Do not let anyone into this room."
I felt my pulse jump.
"What happened?"
Alvarez ended the call.
"The blood on the boat is Selina's."
"Is she hurt?"
"We do not know."
"Then what?"
Alvarez looked toward the door.
May you like
"Someone just used Selina Cole's passport at a private medical clinic outside Milwaukee."
