Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN ON THE VIDEO
The woman in the video had my hair.
My dress.
My voice.
Almost.
She sat in my home office eight months earlier.
A contract lay before her.
The camera angle showed only part of her face.
Enough.
She said:
“I understand the obligations.”
Then signed.
Evelyn Vale.
My signature.
I watched twice.
The third time, I stopped the video.
“That isn't me.”
Charles looked miserable.
“It looks like you.”
“It isn't.”
Adrian folded his arms.
“Evelyn—”
I ignored him.
“When was this recorded?”
General counsel Martin Creel checked.
“December ninth.”
I laughed.
Everyone stared.
“I was in Copenhagen.”
Adrian's face didn't move.
“Company records show you returned December eighth.”
“I didn't.”
I opened my phone.
Calendar.
Flight records.
Photographs.
A keynote address.
December ninth, 10:00 a.m. Copenhagen.
The guarantee video timestamp showed 3:20 p.m. Nashville.
Even with time zones, impossible.
Naomi leaned forward.
“Then who is that?”
I looked at the screen.
Same height.
Similar build.
Dark hair.
My dress.
Then she moved her left hand.
And I saw it.
No scar.
I had a pale surgical scar across my left wrist from an accident at nineteen.
The woman didn't.
“A stand-in.”
Vanessa whispered something I couldn't hear.
Celeste's posture changed.
Adrian remained unnervingly calm.
“Deepfake,” someone suggested.
Margaret shook her head.
“Possibly partial synthetic alteration.”
I looked at Adrian.
“You created a video.”
He said nothing.
“Who is she?”
Nothing.
Then Vanessa spoke.
“I know.”
Every eye turned.
Adrian's face finally changed.
“Don't.”
Vanessa smiled without warmth.
“Her name is Livia Dane.”
“Vanessa.”
“She works in corporate events.”
I remembered her.
Dark-haired.
Similar height.
Had coordinated three of our charity galas.
Vanessa looked at me.
“Adrian paid her to sit for reference footage.”
“Reference footage for what?”
“He said it was for an internal training simulation.”
Adrian slammed his hand on the table.
“You're lying.”
Vanessa turned.
“Careful.”
There it was again.
Knives.
Celeste whispered:
“Vanessa, don't be stupid.”
She looked at Celeste.
“I'm not going down for your son.”
Interesting.
Not our plan.
Your son.
Alliances were collapsing.
The meeting adjourned pending forensic review.
Adrian remained suspended.
As people left, he caught my arm.
I pulled free.
“You have no idea what you've started.”
I looked at him.
“No, Adrian.”
I picked up my father's trust documents.
“I have a fairly good idea what you started.”
His face softened suddenly.
The husband returned.
“Evie.”
I hated that name in his mouth.
“Don't.”
“Twenty-one years.”
“You should have remembered those before forging dementia.”
“I was protecting the company.”
“From me?”
“From instability.”
I almost laughed.
“You planned to give it to Vanessa.”
“No.”
“Then what's the merger?”
“A business decision.”
“And sleeping with her?”
His face hardened.
“That's between us.”
“No. Your hotel reimbursements came from my company.”
He looked away.
Tiny.
But enough.
Then he said:
“You left the company first.”
There it was.
The grievance beneath everything.
“You chose Clara.”
“Yes.”
“You made me carry this place.”
“I funded this place.”
“I built it.”
“We built it.”
“No.”
His voice rose.
“I built what you abandoned.”
The hallway went silent.
Several employees looked away.
I studied him.
Finally.
The truth.
Not financial.
Emotional.
Adrian believed my maternity sacrifice had transferred ownership of everything.
Company.
Authority.
History.
Maybe even me.
“You wanted me home with our premature daughter.”
“I wanted a wife.”
“You wanted someone absent enough to steal from.”
His face changed.
I walked away.
My phone buzzed.
Daniel.
YOU NEED TO SEE THE HARBOR CROWN BID FILE.
I called.
“What?”
His breathing was fast.
“The eighty-million contract.”
“What about it?”
“We didn't win because our bid was best.”
Cold moved through me.
“Then why?”
“Someone inside the redevelopment authority altered the scoring.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“But?”
Daniel hesitated.
“The payment trail leads to Celeste.”
My mother-in-law wasn't merely receiving money from the theft.
She might have helped manufacture the victory being celebrated.
May you like
And Adrian had called Harbor Crown the biggest deal of his career.
It was beginning to look like it might be the crime that ended it.
