Chương 5
“I know.”
“You know it intellectually. That is not the same as behaving accordingly.”
Claire looked at her.
Naomi’s voice softened by one degree. “You are allowed to be the person this happened to.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You hire people.”
“I am people.”
“Today you are a client.”
The distinction irritated Claire.
That was probably why Naomi made it.
They contacted local law enforcement. The responding detectives were polite and cautious. They photographed the documents, asked whether Claire had suffered an actual financial loss, and explained that the immediate situation involved overlapping civil and criminal questions. They did not arrest Adrian or Evelyn. They did not seize Bennett Coastal’s offices. They did not declare the papers fraudulent after one conversation.
One detective, a tired woman named Renee Salazar, studied the passport copy from Claire’s suitcase.
“Who had access to the room?” she asked.
“Hotel staff, my husband, possibly his mother.”
“Anyone from the wedding party?”
“The bridal suite was crowded yesterday.”
“How many people?”
Claire counted. Bridesmaids, makeup artists, photographers, her mother, Daniel, the planner, two attendants from the hotel, Evelyn, and a florist who repaired a broken arrangement.
“Maybe fifteen.”
Salazar nodded. “Then we don’t assume the person who left this was the person who made it.”
“It could have been planted.”
“It could have been dropped. It could have been moved. It could belong to someone who had legitimate access to information. We preserve possibilities until evidence closes them.”
Claire almost smiled.
It was what she told junior analysts.
Adrian called seventeen times during the interview.
Claire did not answer.
Evelyn called once.
The single attempt unsettled her more.
By eleven, guests had begun gathering in the hotel restaurant for brunch. Through the suite wall, Claire heard a burst of laughter from the hallway and then her mother’s voice asking someone where the newlyweds were.
Claire’s stomach clenched.
She had forgotten the brunch.
Not literally. The schedule remained intact in her mind: eleven to one, terrace dining room, casual attire, transportation to the airport beginning at twelve thirty. But it had become part of another life, one in which the hardest decision of the morning was whether to wear the blue dress or the cream one.
Daniel knocked before anyone could stop him.
“Claire? Mom says your phone—”
Marisol opened the door far enough to block his view.
Daniel saw the police badges anyway.
He pushed inside.
He was thirty, six feet tall, and still wearing his wrinkled tuxedo shirt with jeans. His hair stood up at the back. A faint purple stain marked one cuff from the wine he had spilled during his speech.
“What happened?”
Claire stood.
For the first time that morning, her calm failed.
She covered her mouth, and a sound came out that she did not recognize.
Daniel crossed the room without asking another question. He held her while she tried not to fold. His shirt smelled like stale cologne and hotel soap. She gripped the fabric at his back and cried with no grace at all.
The detectives looked away.
Naomi closed the folder.
When Claire could speak, she told him enough.
Not everything. Not eight point six million, not the company, not the dates. She said someone had used her identity and Adrian might be involved.
Daniel went completely still.
Then he tried to leave.
Claire caught his wrist. “No.”
“I’m going to find him.”
“No.”
“He married you yesterday.”
“I noticed.”
“Claire.”
“You will not hit him.”
“I didn’t say I would.”
“You turned toward the door.”
“I was going to ask him a question.”
“With your hands?”
Daniel looked at Naomi, hoping for support. Naomi gave him none.
Claire tightened her grip. “I need you useful.”
His face changed. Anger remained, but brotherhood pushed through it.
“What do you need?”
“Take Mom downstairs. Tell her I’m sick. Get her checked out by noon and on her flight.”
“You want me to lie to her?”
“I want to tell her myself after her cardiologist’s office opens Monday.”
“She’ll know.”
“She always knows. Let her pretend.”
Daniel wiped a hand over his mouth. “What about the guests?”
“Thank them. Say there’s a family emergency.”
“Whose family?”
The bitter question hung between them.
Claire released his wrist.
“Mine,” she said.
Daniel left reluctantly.
At twelve fifteen, Claire walked out of the suite wearing sunglasses she did not need indoors. Naomi carried the folder in a sealed evidence bag. Marisol accompanied them to a service elevator so they could avoid the lobby.
The hotel corridor still smelled faintly of lilies from the ceremony.
Near the elevator, a housekeeping attendant pushed fresh towels into a storage cabinet. She glanced at Claire’s clothes, then at the wedding flowers visible through the open suite door. Recognition flickered. She smiled automatically.
“Congratulations.”
Claire stopped.
The attendant’s smile faded, confused.
“Thank you,” Claire said.
In the service elevator, Naomi pressed the basement button.
“You did not owe her that.”
“I know.”
The doors closed.
Claire watched her reflection in the brushed steel. Without the robe and pinned hair, she looked almost ordinary. A woman leaving a hotel with her attorney on the morning after her wedding could still be mistaken for a woman going to brunch.
That seemed indecent.
Naomi had reserved a conference room at a nearby law office. Tessa joined by secure video. Martin appeared ten minutes later, still wearing the charcoal suit from the wedding. He had attended the reception with his husband and left before midnight.
He sat across from Claire and folded his hands.
“Administrative leave,” he said.
Claire stared at him. “Effective when?”
“Now.”
“You haven’t reviewed whether any firm systems were compromised.”
“That is one reason for the leave.”
“I can lead the review.”
“No.”
“I know the architecture.”
“So does our security team.”
“I know my own access patterns.”
“That is evidence, not permission.”
May you like
The words stung because they were correct.
Martin continued. “We will preserve your accounts, devices, messages, and access logs. You will not use firm credentials until independent counsel clears it. Your compensation continues for now. We will notify the insurer and outside ethics counsel.”
