Chương 6
Things Nathan had once said he loved because they reminded him of me.
Now they were packed away like evidence.
“You always do this,” I said.
His eyebrows pulled together.
“Do what?”
“Decide something is finished before you tell the other person it ended.”
“That is not fair.”
I looked at him.
“You decided our marriage was over while I was still trying to save it.”
He had no answer.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
I saw Paige’s name.
The timing was almost absurd.
He declined the call.
I laughed softly.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Say it.”
“I was just wondering if she knows.”
His face hardened.
“Knows what?”
“That the woman whose coat she wore is the same woman whose signature might have been used without permission.”
Everything changed.
Not dramatically.
Not loudly.
Just enough.
Nathan stopped breathing for a second.
“How did you find out?”
I watched him carefully.
Not what he said.
What he did.
The question was not whether he knew.
The question was whether he was surprised.
And he was.
“Interesting,” I said.
“What?”
“You did not ask what I meant.”
His expression shifted.
A mistake.
Small.
But real.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
He stepped closer.
“Evelyn, listen to me.”
“No.”
“Please.”
The word caught me off guard.
Nathan did not say please often.
Not to me.
Not when he believed he was right.
“I need you to understand something,” he said.
I waited.
“I never wanted things to get this far.”
I looked at him.
“Which part?”
His mouth opened.
Then closed.
The answer was obvious.
He did not know.
The affair.
The money.
The separation.
The public embarrassment.
He regretted consequences.
I was not sure he regretted choices.
“You should leave,” I said.
His face changed.
Not anger.
Something closer to fear.
“Evelyn.”
“I am not asking.”
For once, he listened.
He walked downstairs without another word.
I stayed upstairs.
Alone in the room we had shared.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from Richard.
The originals arrived.
We need to meet immediately.
There is something you need to see.
I drove to Richard’s office with my hands gripping the steering wheel tighter than necessary.
The entire way there, I kept thinking about the sentence in his message.
There is something you need to see.
Those words had a way of making the future feel like a threat.
When I arrived, Richard was waiting near the reception desk instead of inside his office.
That alone told me enough.
Richard Bell was not a man who stood around unless he was concerned.
He usually moved with the calm patience of someone who had already considered every possible outcome.
Today, his tie was slightly loose.
His coffee sat untouched on the table beside him.
“Evelyn.”
I walked toward him.
“What happened?”
He looked toward his office.
“Come inside.”
The door closed behind us.
On his desk were three folders.
One was mine.
One was labeled Hale Industries.
The third had no label.
That was the one I noticed first.
“What is that?”
Richard did not answer immediately.
He opened the folder and removed several pages.
“I had an outside document examiner review the signatures.”
My throat tightened.
“And?”
He placed the first page in front of me.
It was a copy of a corporate approval form.
My name appeared at the bottom.
My signature appeared beneath it.
Except it was not my signature.
I knew my own handwriting.
I knew the way my E curved slightly upward.
I knew the pressure I used when signing important documents.
This was close.
Too close.
But not mine.
“How many?”
Richard looked down.
“Seven documents so far.”
I stared at the pages.
“What were they for?”
“Investment approvals.”
“Amounts?”
He hesitated.
That was answer enough.
“How much?”
“Approximately two point four million dollars.”
The room went quiet.
Not dramatically.
Not like in movies.
Just quiet.
The kind of quiet where your mind tries to reject information before accepting it.
“Nathan did this?”
Richard folded his hands.
“I cannot say what Nathan personally did without further investigation.”
I looked at him.
“You think someone else forged my signature?”
“No.”
His honesty was immediate.
“I think someone did it under his direction or with his knowledge.”
I looked away.
For years, I had defended Nathan against people who said he was arrogant.
I had said he was ambitious, not cruel.
I had said he cared about results, not appearances.
I had built explanations for him because loving someone sometimes means becoming an expert at translating their behavior into something easier to accept.
Now I wondered how many translations had been lies.
“Why would he need my signature?”
Richard leaned back.
“Because your name still carries value.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“When you married Nathan, you became part of the company’s image.”
“I was not involved in the company.”
“Officially, no.”
He tapped the documents.
“But legally, your name appears on several older agreements.”
I looked at the pages again.
The details blurred.
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Because you trusted him.”
The answer hurt because it was simple.
I had trusted him.
That was the entire problem.
“I need to know everything.”
Richard nodded.
“That is what we are going to do.”
He opened the unlabeled folder.
Inside was a printed email chain.
The first name at the top was Nathan.
The second was Paige.
My stomach tightened.
“What is this?”
“Communication between their work accounts.”
“Were you able to access these legally?”
“Yes.”
That was all he said.
I did not ask for details.
I did not need every door opened.
Some doors were better left closed once you understood what was behind them.
I read the first message.
It was not romantic.
That almost made it worse.
It was practical.
Numbers.
Deadlines.
Transfers.
May you like
A discussion about moving money before a quarterly review.
Then I saw a sentence from Paige.
