Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN BEFORE SABRINA
They escaped through an old freight passage forty minutes later.
By then, the archive had changed.
One box was missing.
Security footage showed a masked person entering the service level through a maintenance entrance.
But another camera captured the vehicle.
Registered to Monroe Strategic Advisory.
Charlotte called Sabrina.
She answered immediately.
“What do you want?”
“Your mother.”
Silence.
“What about her?”
“You told Ryan she died when you were thirteen.”
“She did.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because Victoria Monroe used an American passport eight months ago.”
Sabrina stopped speaking.
Charlotte continued.
“Would you like to try again?”
Thirty minutes later Sabrina sat across from Charlotte in a private conference room.
No red gown.
No diamonds.
A black sweater.
Hair tied back.
She looked younger.
Less invincible.
“My mother is alive.”
Charlotte waited.
“She left my father when I was thirteen.”
“Why tell everyone she died?”
“Because that’s what he told people.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she work for Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“What did she do?”
Sabrina hesitated.
“She was your mother’s financial adviser.”
Charlotte’s jaw tightened.
“Why did you never mention that?”
Sabrina laughed bitterly.
“You didn’t exactly ask about my childhood while I was sleeping with your husband.”
The remark was ugly.
Also fair.
“What did Victoria know about Adrian?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your company removed something from the Monarch archive tonight.”
Sabrina stared.
“No.”
“The vehicle belonged to Monroe Strategic.”
“Half our cars are shared with contractors.”
“Who?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Charlotte pushed the photograph across.
Sabrina’s face changed instantly.
She touched her mother’s image.
“I’ve never seen this.”
“When did you last speak to her?”
“Eight months ago.”
Charlotte leaned forward.
“The same month the ghost account began moving larger amounts.”
Sabrina looked up.
“What ghost account?”
Charlotte studied her.
Real confusion.
Again.
Pieces of Sabrina’s involvement did not match.
She was arrogant.
Cruel.
Complicit in the affair.
She accepted suspicious consulting money.
But perhaps someone had used her too.
“Why did you sleep with Ryan?”
Sabrina blinked.
“What?”
“Simple question.”
She looked away.
“He told me your marriage was over.”
Charlotte laughed softly.
“You humiliated a woman because you thought her marriage was over?”
Sabrina’s face reddened.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I hated you.”
That surprised Charlotte.
“You didn’t know me.”
“I knew what people said.”
“What?”
“That Charlotte Bennett got everything.”
Sabrina’s voice sharpened.
“Company.”
“Money.”
“Properties.”
“Power.”
“Then disappeared to Boston and acted as if none of it mattered.”
“You knew who I was.”
“No.”
“Not exactly.”
“My mother used to talk about Henry Bennett’s daughter.”
“But there are almost no public photographs.”
Charlotte understood.
She had deliberately remained private after her mother’s death.
Ryan knew she was from the Bennett family.
He believed the fortune had been fragmented among trusts.
He never knew she controlled it.
Sabrina continued.
“When Ryan described you, I realized who you probably were.”
“And you didn’t tell him.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Her eyes became cold.
“Because my mother told me never to.”
Charlotte leaned forward.
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
The same time Victoria resurfaced.
“What exactly did she say?”
Sabrina looked at her.
“She said, ‘If Ryan Collins ever discovers who his wife really is, Adrian Bennett will move before we’re ready.’”
Charlotte felt the room change.
“What were you preparing?”
Sabrina swallowed.
“To expose him.”
The mistress Charlotte wanted to destroy might have been part of an investigation against the same man she was now hunting.
Except Sabrina had fallen in love with Ryan along the way.
And turned an operation into something personal.
“Where is your mother?”
“I told you.”
“I don’t know.”
Charlotte stood.
“Find her.”
Sabrina looked up.
“Why should I help you?”
Charlotte slipped the folded ten-dollar bill onto the table.
Sabrina stared at it.
May you like
Charlotte’s voice remained calm.
“Because right now this is the cheapest thing you owe me.”
