Chương 7
She had disappeared for hours. She had driven without telling anyone, parking beside the river until darkness because she could not face the house. She had skipped meals. She had accused a security contractor of following her before she had proof.
Miriam saw the hesitation and pressed.
“She is not well.”
Nina closed the notebook.
“Mrs. Ashford,” she said, “you are speaking in front of a police officer about a protected party in an active investigation. Consider whether your family attorney would advise you to continue.”
Miriam’s face went still again.
Sienna carried the notebook downstairs herself.
At the foot of the back staircase, she stopped.
The marble had been polished. No stain remained.
She looked up at the landing.
Three nights earlier, Garrick had stood there holding the papers she had copied. His voice had been low. He had asked what she planned to do with them. She said the board would know by morning. He said she had no idea what she was destroying.
Then she had said his father would have despised him.
Garrick’s father had died believing his oldest son would protect the company.
The insult had found the hollow place in him.
He caught her by the blouse as she tried to leave. She twisted, scratched his throat, and saw surprise before rage. His hands hit her shoulders. For one instant they were both motionless.
Then the stairs vanished beneath her.
In the present, Officer Bell stood close enough to catch her if she swayed.
“Do you want to continue?” the officer asked.
Sienna looked at the steps.
“Yes.”
At Catherine’s house, Nina photographed every page of the notebook and placed the original in an evidence envelope for later transfer. Sienna watched the sealing process.
“I don’t remember writing some of these,” she said.
“That’s not unusual,” Nina replied.
“It sounds convenient.”
“It may sound many things. That is why corroboration matters.”
Nina had already requested preservation of security-system records, household employment schedules, medical communications, and digital account logs. Garrick’s attorneys objected to nearly everything. The security company reported that footage from the back staircase had been deleted according to the homeowner’s account settings.
“Can it be recovered?” Sienna asked.
“Possibly. Possibly not.”
“Who deleted it?”
“We don’t know.”
Sienna thought of Audrey closing her eyes at dinner.
She called her from the borrowed phone.
Audrey answered on the fourth ring.
“I can’t talk.”
“You left before the police finished.”
“I was sick.”
“Did you delete the video?”
Silence.
Sienna stood in Catherine’s kitchen while the dishwasher hummed behind her.
“Audrey.”
“I didn’t see him push you.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I saw you afterward.”
“Did you delete it?”
Audrey began breathing through her nose, small controlled breaths. “Garrick called me. He said the system had recorded you breaking into his study. He said you were trying to destroy the company. He gave me the administrator code and told me to remove the files before outside counsel arrived.”
“When?”
“The morning after you fell.”
“I didn’t fall.”
“I know.”
The words were barely audible.
Sienna closed her eyes.
“Why did you do it?”
“Because he told me to.”
“You’re thirty-five.”
“That doesn’t mean what you think it means in our family.”
Sienna almost shouted. Instead, she looked at the chipped mug from her studio, now sitting beside Catherine’s sink.
“Was there a video of the stairs?”
“I didn’t watch everything.”
“Was there?”
“A preview image. You were on the floor. Garrick was standing above you.”
“Did you save it?”
“No.”
“Did you tell the police?”
“No.”
“Will you?”
Audrey started crying, but quietly, as if even alone she feared being overheard.
“If I do, he’ll say I destroyed evidence. Mother will say I killed the company. Theo will—”
“Theo will protect himself.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand that you looked at me at dinner and knew.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
The difference between them filled the call.
Audrey whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Sienna ended the conversation.
She immediately regretted it. Then she regretted regretting it.
Catherine entered carrying a bag of groceries and found her gripping the counter.
“What happened?”
Sienna told her.
Catherine put down the bag. “Call Nina.”
“I’m not turning Audrey over to the police.”
“She admitted deleting potential evidence.”
“She was afraid of Garrick.”
“So were you.”
“That didn’t make everything I did right.”
Catherine took a breath and stopped herself.
The restraint made Sienna angrier than an argument would have.
“You want her because she completes the case,” Sienna said.
“I want the truth preserved before your husband frightens her into changing it.”
“He’s her brother.”
“He’s your husband.”
The words were cruel, and Catherine knew it immediately.
Sienna stepped back.
Catherine closed her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re accurate. That’s better, isn’t it?”
She walked upstairs before her mother could answer.
That evening, Garrick’s attorney sent Nina a settlement proposal.
Sienna would receive a furnished apartment, continued health insurance for two years, and a confidential financial payment. In return, she would state that her injury occurred during “mutual physical conflict,” withdraw opposition to a private separation process, return all company materials, and refrain from making public statements about Garrick or Ashford Holdings.
The amount was larger than anything Sienna had ever owned independently.
She read the figure twice.
Catherine stood at the far end of the living room, pretending not to watch.
Nina sat across from Sienna. “This is not an admission. It is an attempt to control exposure.”
“Would accepting it hurt the criminal case?”
“Yes.”
“Would it end the company investigation?”
“Not necessarily. But your cooperation matters.”
“What happens if I refuse?”
“They become more aggressive.”
“They already called me unstable.”
“They will become more specific.”
Sienna folded the proposal along the existing crease.
May you like
She thought about the empty half of the mansion closet. Her missing passport. The credit card that had stopped working that afternoon. The health insurance portal she could no longer access because the password had changed.
“What would you do?” she asked Nina.
