Chapter 5 - The Woman in the Black SUV
Mara moved June away from the window while I called building security.
The SUV remained parked, its windows reflecting the afternoon sky.
A guard walked toward it.
The engine started.
For one strange second I expected it to accelerate toward him.
Instead the vehicle rolled away slowly enough for our cameras to capture the plate.
The registration came back to a private investigation firm hired by a company connected to Nathan.
That did not prove a crime.
It proved our witness had good reason to feel watched.
Mara arranged for June to make a formal statement with investigators.
I stayed with her until her hands stopped shaking.
"When they fired me, I thought I was the problem," she said.
"They counted on that," I replied.
That evening, Victoria asked to see me.
I agreed only if Mara attended.
We met in the living room of the house where Arthur and I had once celebrated Christmas.
The family portraits felt like witnesses who had remained silent for years.
Victoria sat beside a cold fireplace with the old envelope in her lap.
"I owe you an apology."
"You owe Arthur the truth.
And you owe me an explanation."
She told us Nathan had been a brilliant, restless child who envied everything his older brother received.
Their father had repeatedly rescued Nathan from debts.
After he died, Victoria continued doing the same.
Brooke had visited with a spreadsheet of family medical information and a story about a private fertility project.
Victoria knew it was improper.
She handed over the physician's name anyway.
"Did you know about Nathan and Brooke?"
"I suspected."
"Did you know they were taking money from my company?"
She did not answer quickly enough.
Mara leaned forward.
"Mrs.
Bennett, this is the moment to tell us about any documents you signed."
Victoria took out a second envelope.
It contained a guarantee for a commercial loan.
The borrower was Meridian Advisory Group.
The collateral was the Bennett family home.
My company was represented as a party expected to make regular consulting payments.
The signature authorizing those payments was forged in my name.
"Nathan said it would all be repaid when the new center opened," Victoria whispered.
"You knew he was using my company to support the loan."
"I told myself the paperwork was temporary."
I stood, suddenly unable to bear the smell of her rose perfume.
The same perfume had filled my hospital room when she told me I should be more patient about giving Arthur a child.
"You watched me blame myself for years."
She bowed her head.
My phone rang.
It was Dr.
Moreno.
The certified lab file had arrived.
The container sent to Nathan's studio had not held a genetic sample taken from me.
May you like
It had held something far more disturbing: preserved embryos from a fertility procedure Arthur had told me was canceled.
