Chương 5
And somewhere inside his laptop was a file her dead father had hidden fourteen years earlier.
Sarah’s thumb stopped above her phone before she made the call.
“Do you know where he would go?”
Genevieve stared at the access log until the letters blurred.
“Home.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Too obvious.”
“The office.”
“Security can freeze his building access.”
“He’s COO.”
“Not anymore if you suspend him.”
Genevieve looked up.
The idea should have felt satisfying.
Instead, it made something inside her chest tighten.
Julian had helped choose the flooring in the executive suite.
He had argued for the ugly conference-room chairs because he claimed comfortable people made bad decisions.
He had slept on the office couch during the Harbor Street refinancing.
Suspending him from Vance Development felt less like firing an employee than amputating a piece of her own history.
“Do it,” she said.
Sarah studied her for half a second.
Then she called the company’s general counsel.
Genevieve listened to only one side of the conversation.
“No, effective immediately.”
“Yes, paid administrative leave pending investigation.”
“No, do not circulate a reason beyond need-to-know.”
“Yes, revoke remote credentials.”
A pause followed.
Sarah’s face changed.
“When?”
Genevieve tightened her hand around the edge of Hazel’s blanket.
Sarah turned away from the bed.
“Who authorized that?”
Another pause.
“Send me the audit trail.”
She ended the call.
“What?”
Genevieve asked.
Sarah did not answer at once.
That delay had become its own language.
“What did he do?”
“Julian transferred a copy of the board portal archive to an external encrypted drive at three forty-eight this morning.”
Genevieve frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No.”
“He didn’t know I was paralyzed then.”
Sarah looked at her.
“He did know there had been an emergency.”
“But the neurologist didn’t even see me until after dawn.”
“Then whatever he was doing started before your diagnosis.”
The room seemed to narrow around that fact.
Genevieve had been treating the paralysis as the opportunity Julian seized.
Now it looked more like a convenient acceleration of something already underway.
Dr. Patel, who had remained quietly at the foot of the bed, glanced toward the hallway.
“I’m going to give you both ten minutes.”
Genevieve nodded.
The doctor hesitated.
“Your blood pressure is elevated.”
“I’m shocked.”
“I mean medically.”
“I know.”
Dr. Patel’s expression softened.
“You need rest too.”
The door closed behind her.
Sarah pulled the chair closer again.
“Tell me about the last month.”
Genevieve gave her a tired look.
“That’s broad.”
“Anything unusual involving Julian, the company, your father’s records, board members, money, or the trust.”
“He asked where the original trust documents were.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That you had certified copies and the originals were in storage.”
“Did he ask which storage?”
“Yes.”
Sarah’s jaw tightened.
“He also asked whether the lake house had ever been refinanced.”
“That’s interesting.”
“I thought he wanted to renovate the kitchen.”
“That is less interesting.”
Genevieve almost smiled, but the movement tugged at her bruised cheek.
She touched it gingerly.
Sarah noticed.
“Do you want police involved?”
The question landed heavier than Genevieve expected.
She looked at Hazel.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t have to decide this second.”
“Your face says I do.”
“My face says I dislike Eleanor.”
“You’ve disliked Eleanor since she asked if you were divorced because you ‘worked too much to keep a man.’”
“She remains a compelling person.”
Genevieve looked toward the door.
“What happens if I report the assault?”
“The hospital already documented it.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
Sarah folded her hands.
“If you choose to make a police report, an officer can take your statement and review the hospital incident documentation.”
“And the recording?”
“It may support your account, depending on what it captured and how it’s handled.”
“Will Eleanor be arrested?”
“Maybe not tonight.”
Sarah’s tone remained careful.
“I’m not going to promise you a dramatic television version of this.”
Genevieve nodded.
She appreciated that more than reassurance.
“What about Julian?”
“For the slap?”
“No.”
She looked at the papers still lying across the foot of the bed.
“For this.”
Sarah leaned back.
“That depends on what those documents are, who drafted them, what representations were made, whether signatures were forged anywhere else, whether anyone accessed protected records improperly, whether there was an actual attempt to transfer assets, and several other things I don’t know yet.”
“So we know almost nothing.”
“We know enough to stop pretending this was a marital argument.”
Hazel made a tiny clicking noise in her sleep.
Genevieve lowered her face and breathed in the warm, milky smell of her daughter’s hair.
“I kept thinking there must have been a moment.”
Sarah waited.
“A moment when he decided.”
“About Victoria?”
“About me.”
Genevieve shifted against the pillows.
“When does somebody go from bringing you tea during fertility injections to trying to take your company while you’re in a hospital bed?”
Sarah was silent long enough that Genevieve looked at her.
“I don’t think people change in one moment,” Sarah said.
“That would be cleaner.”
Genevieve stared at the dark window.
“Cleaner would be nice.”
Her phone vibrated beneath the pillow.
Both women froze.
Sarah reached for it.
The screen showed twelve missed calls and a stream of messages from senior staff, board members, and one number Genevieve did not recognize.
At the top was a text from Julian.
Please do not let Sarah turn this into something it isn’t.
Genevieve read it twice.
Then another appeared.
I’m trying to protect Hazel too.
Sarah saw that one.
“Do not answer.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
A third message arrived.
You need to ask your father’s lawyer what he did in 2012.
Genevieve stopped breathing.
Sarah took the phone from her.
“That’s bait.”
“Maybe.”
“It is absolutely bait.”
“He mentioned Dad.”
“Because he knows that will make you engage.”
“What if he knows what’s in the file?”
“He probably does.”
Genevieve looked at the printed filename again.
May you like
“Then I need to know too.”
“Yes.”
