Chương 5
Victoria took them back.
She left them outside the chapel instead.
Emily remained at the confidential residence. Victoria visited every day until Denise quietly suggested that every other day might be healthier.
“For whom?” Victoria asked.
Denise looked at her.
Victoria switched to every other day.
On the days she did not visit, she walked too far, reorganized a kitchen cabinet, and read documents Mara had not asked her to read. She researched trauma, coercive control, evidentiary procedure, concussion recovery, and the effects of public harassment. She made lists. She deleted them. She made new lists with fewer headings.
Emily rejected the secure phone Victoria offered because it came through a military-approved vendor.
“I bought it personally,” Victoria said.
“It has a case that could survive a truck.”
“That is a useful feature.”
“It weighs more than my first laptop.”
“Your first laptop was cheap.”
“You bought it.”
“Yes.”
They stood in the townhouse kitchen. Emily’s bruises were turning yellow around the edges. The swelling at her eye had decreased enough that she no longer wore sunglasses indoors.
On the table lay unopened mail forwarded by her attorney. Jason had filed a petition asking the court to preserve access to marital property and had accused Emily of removing confidential business information from the guest house. The language was restrained, almost dull. That made it frightening in a different way.
“What information?” Victoria asked.
Emily looked at Denise, who excused herself to check the dryer.
“Remember when I said I found something?”
Victoria sat down.
Emily remained standing. “I found transfers from the Bennett charitable foundation into a consulting company Derek controls.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know exactly. More than two million over three years.”
Victoria’s first reaction was not shock. It was doubt.
“Why would you have access?”
“I was chairing the hospital fundraising committee. The Bennett foundation pledged matching funds. I reviewed the disbursement schedule because the first payment was late.”
“And you saw the transfers?”
“I saw invoices. At first I thought they were legitimate. Then I noticed the descriptions were copied from other vendors. Same punctuation. Same misspelling.”
“Did you download anything?”
“A spreadsheet and twelve invoices.”
“To where?”
“My personal cloud account.”
“Did Jason know?”
“He saw me looking at them.”
The room seemed to become quieter.
“What happened?”
Emily folded her arms loosely, protecting her ribs. “He told me the consulting company managed donor strategy. I said I wanted to ask Derek about it. Jason said I was embarrassing him. We argued before dinner. At the dinner he acted normal. On the drive back, he said we should sleep in the guest house so we wouldn’t wake his mother.”
“Was Evelyn at the estate?”
“Yes.”
“And Derek?”
“Yes.”
“Did they know what you found?”
“By then, yes.”
Victoria’s mouth went dry. “Did the assault happen because of the records?”
Emily looked toward the kitchen window. The neighboring townhouse had a child’s red bicycle leaning against the fence.
“It happened because Jason hurt me,” she said. “The records were what he was angry about.”
Victoria nodded once.
Emily’s voice sharpened. “Do you understand the difference?”
“I think so.”
“No, you think motive makes it make sense. It doesn’t. He had grabbed me before. He shoved me into a cabinet in June because I changed the password on our streaming account and he thought I was hiding something. He punched a wall because I ordered the wrong kind of tile. He didn’t need two million dollars to become dangerous.”
Victoria looked at the table.
“He told me he was under pressure,” Emily continued. “He apologized. He bought things. He cried once. I thought crying meant he understood.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Emily laughed without humor. “Because you would have arrived in uniform.”
The answer was accurate enough to hurt.
“I could have helped.”
“You would have taken over.”
“If taking over got you out—”
“I wasn’t ready to leave.”
“He was hurting you.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
Emily’s face changed.
Victoria heard her own words after they had already done damage.
Emily stepped back from the table. “You should go.”
“Emily.”
“I said you should go.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You always apologize like you’re documenting an error.”
“That’s not fair.”
“No, it’s not. Neither was what you said.”
Victoria rose. “I am trying to understand why you stayed.”
“I stayed because I was ashamed. Because he was kind after. Because everybody liked him. Because you liked him. Because I had just lost a pregnancy and couldn’t get through a grocery store without forgetting why I was there. Because he said I was unstable, and some days I was. Because leaving a marriage is not stepping through a door and becoming correct.”
Victoria stood in the kitchen with no defense that would not make the harm worse.
Emily pointed toward the front hall.
Victoria left.
She sat in her car for twenty minutes before starting the engine. The townhouse windows reflected a flat gray sky. A delivery driver carried paper bags to the wrong door, checked his phone, and carried them back.
Victoria wanted to call Mara. She wanted to call Emily’s attorney. She wanted to inform someone about the financial records, secure the cloud account, preserve passwords, and prevent the Bennetts from framing Emily as a thief.
Instead she called Denise.
“I said something cruel.”
Denise was silent for a moment. “Is Emily safe?”
“Yes.”
“Then give her space.”
“How much?”
“That is a very colonel question.”
“I don’t know how else to ask.”
“Wait until she contacts you.”
“What if she doesn’t?”
“Then you will have to live through not being in control.”
Victoria looked at the steering wheel. “I dislike you.”
“That’s fine.”
Emily called the next evening.
“I gave Mara access to the files,” she said without greeting.
“Good.”
“My attorney says the foundation issue may become separate from the assault case.”
“That makes sense.”
“You don’t have to sound careful.”
“I am being careful.”
May you like
“I can tell.”
Victoria waited.
