Chapter 5
By noon, I had an attorney.
Her name was Grace Holloway.
She was sixty, silver-haired, sharply dressed, and unimpressed by powerful men.
I liked her immediately.
I found her through a friend who had survived a brutal divorce three years earlier.
Grace looked at the photograph of my cheek before asking anything else.
“Do you feel safe returning home?”
“No.”
“Good. Then don’t.”
Her answer was so immediate that I almost laughed.
She asked about Sophie.
The affair.
The company.
Our accounts.
The property.
The slap.
Then I showed her the photos I had taken from Michael’s private bank statements.
Grace became very still.
“Did you remove the original documents?”
“No.”
“Excellent.”
“Why?”
“Because your husband cannot accuse you of stealing records he still possesses.”
She enlarged one image.
“These transfers are interesting.”
“That’s one word for them.”
“Do you recognize this account number?”
“No.”
“LJM sends him eighty thousand here.”
She scrolled.
“Then two days later he sends seventy-five thousand to something called Hawthorne Holdings.”
My pulse jumped.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
Grace wrote the name down.
“Do not contact these companies.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m your divorce attorney, not a criminal investigator, and we are going to keep those worlds separate.”
She looked directly at me.
“If law enforcement becomes involved, you need independent counsel regarding financial evidence.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“Not based on anything you’ve told me.”
“But?”
“You were married to a CEO who may have moved company funds through shell businesses. Your joint tax returns matter. Your signatures matter. Any ownership interests matter.”
My stomach tightened.
“I never signed anything for his company.”
“You’re sure?”
“I signed tax returns.”
“Without reviewing every page?”
I looked away.
Grace sighed.
“That is extremely common.”
“I trusted him.”
“So did a lot of people, apparently.”
Her assistant knocked.
“Ms. Holloway? There’s someone here asking for Mrs. Carter.”
Grace frowned.
“Who?”
“She says her name is Lauren Matthews.”
My entire body stiffened.
Grace looked at me.
“Do you want to see her?”
“No.”
Then I changed my mind.
“Yes.”
Grace studied me.
“You don’t owe her a conversation.”
“I know.”
“Would you like me present?”
“Yes.”
Two minutes later, Lauren entered.
She looked nothing like the woman from the party.
No diamonds.
No perfect makeup.
No expensive dress.
She wore jeans, a gray sweater, and sunglasses.
When she took them off, her eyes were swollen.
Grace pointed at a chair.
“Sit.”
Lauren looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
I stared at her.
“For which part?”
She flinched.
“I deserved the wine.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know he was using company money.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true.”
“You had a company receiving payments.”
Her mouth tightened.
“He created LJM.”
I felt my pulse in my throat.
“What?”
“He told me it was legal.”
Grace leaned forward.
“Ms. Matthews, my client is not going to participate in a conversation that could expose her to legal complications. You should have your own attorney.”
Lauren nodded.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I already called one.”
Grace crossed her arms.
“Then why are you here?”
Lauren looked at me.
“Because Michael is going to blame everything on me.”
A humorless laugh escaped me.
“You’re surprised?”
“Yes.”
The honesty caught me off guard.
She continued.
“I know what you think of me.”
“You slept with my husband.”
“Yes.”
“You told me he was leaving me.”
“Yes.”
“You enjoyed humiliating me.”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
I leaned back.
At least she wasn’t pretending.
“So why should I care what happens to you?”
“Because I know things about Michael you don’t.”
Grace raised a hand.
“Careful.”
Lauren nodded.
“I’ll only talk about personal matters.”
I looked at her.
“Start.”
She twisted her fingers.
“Michael told me your marriage had been over for years.”
“Of course he did.”
“He said you stayed together for Sophie.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I know that now.”
She swallowed.
“He said you knew he dated other women.”
My stomach dropped.
“Other women?”
Lauren froze.
“You didn’t know.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“How many, Lauren?”
“At least two before me.”
I felt sick.
Grace put a glass of water in front of me.
I didn’t touch it.
“Names.”
“I only know first names. Amanda and Claire.”
“Employees?”
“Claire was.”
I stared at her.
“What department?”
“Marketing.”
I remembered Claire.
Blonde.
Quiet.
Very good at her job.
She had resigned suddenly three years earlier.
Michael told me she had received an offer in Seattle.
“Did Michael have an affair with her?”
“He told me he did.”
My hands went cold.
“When?”
“About four years ago.”
Sophie had been nine.
I remembered that year.
My father had suffered a stroke.
I spent months driving between our house and my parents’.
Michael told me he was proud of me.
He said he would handle things at home.
Apparently, he handled Claire too.
“Why did she leave?”
Lauren shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“What about Amanda?”
“Consultant. Before my time.”
I pressed my fingers against my temples.
This was becoming a history of a marriage I had never actually lived.
Grace interrupted.
“What made you come here today?”
Lauren took a shaky breath.
“Last night after everyone left, Michael told me to meet him in the parking garage.”
“Why?”
“He wanted my laptop.”
“Did you give it to him?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Daniel told me not to.”
There it was.
Daniel again.
I leaned forward.
“You and Daniel know each other.”
Lauren’s face changed.
“Who told you?”
“I have a photograph.”
She closed her eyes.
“That’s bad.”
“Explain.”
“Daniel approached me seven months ago.”
“About what?”
“The expenses.”
“You knew.”
“I knew Michael was running purchases through my LLC.”
“You just said he created it.”
“He did.”
“Why was it registered to your old address?”
“Because he said it needed to look like a vendor connected to me.”
I stared at her.
“And you agreed?”
“He told me it was for bonuses he couldn’t pay directly.”
“Did that make sense to you?”
“At the time?”
She looked ashamed.
“I wanted it to.”
The sentence landed harder than an excuse.
Because I understood it.
I had wanted to believe things too.
“Daniel asked you to help him investigate?”
Lauren nodded.
“He showed me payments I had never seen.”
“What do you mean?”
“LJM received money, but Michael controlled the bank account.”
My skin prickled.
“You didn’t?”
“I had access at first. Then he changed the password.”
“You allowed your company to have a bank account you couldn’t access?”
“I was sleeping with the CEO.”
Her voice cracked.
“I thought I was going to marry him.”
I looked away.
She continued.
“Daniel believed Michael was moving money through several vendors.”
“And Victor Hale?”
Lauren’s eyes widened.
“You know about Victor?”
“Answer me.”
She looked at Grace.
Grace said nothing.
Lauren lowered her voice.
“Daniel said there might be corporate espionage.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“He believed someone inside the company was selling confidential information to Hale Industries.”
“And he thought Michael was doing it?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Lauren nodded.
“Then something changed.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
She leaned forward.
“Three weeks ago, Daniel told me to stop asking questions.”
“Why?”
“He said he had been wrong.”
“About Michael?”
“About who was running it.”
I thought of the anonymous text.
MICHAEL ISN’T THE ONLY PERSON WHO STOLE FROM THE COMPANY.
“Who else?”
Lauren shook her head.
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
Grace looked at her.
“You said Michael asked for your laptop.”
“Yes.”
“What’s on it?”
“Emails. Spreadsheets. Messages.”
“With Michael?”
“And Daniel.”
I looked at her.
“You brought it?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
Lauren’s eyes moved toward the door.
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
“I’m not telling anyone.”
Grace nodded approvingly.
“That might be the first intelligent thing you’ve done.”
Lauren almost smiled.
Almost.
Then her expression collapsed.
“There’s something else.”
I was starting to hate that phrase.
“What?”
“Michael came to my apartment this morning.”
My body tensed.
“What happened?”
“He demanded the laptop again.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
She hesitated.
“But he scared me.”
“How?”
“He told me if investigators found certain files, we would both go to prison.”
“What files?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Grace’s face hardened.
“Did you record this conversation?”
Lauren reached into her purse.
She removed a small digital recorder.
“Yes.”
I stared at it.
Lauren’s fingers shook.
“I started recording him months ago.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel told me to protect myself.”
Again.
Daniel.
Always Daniel.
Lauren placed the recorder on Grace’s desk.
“There’s one conversation you need to hear.”
Grace did not touch it.
“Describe it first.”
Lauren looked at me.
“Michael is talking to someone on the phone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“When?”
“About two months ago.”
“What does he say?”
Lauren swallowed.
“He says, ‘Emily can never find out whose name is really on the trust.’”
My heart stopped.
“What trust?”
“I don’t know.”
Grace’s eyes narrowed.
“Did he say anything else?”
May you like
Lauren nodded slowly.
“He said if you found out, you could take everything.”
