Chapter 4 - The Housekeeper's Envelope
Dana did not let Thomas start calling people.
“First, we preserve what Clara can lawfully access. Then we find out who created this company.”
Clara surrendered her phone for a careful copy of the messages and attachments.
Giving up the device made her hands shake.
Richard had inspected it every night.
Now someone was asking permission before touching the screen.
At noon, the housekeeper called.
“Clara? It’s Elena Ruiz.”
Clara sat upright.
“Are you at the house?”
“No. He fired me this morning.”
Richard had been released with conditions that included staying away from Clara.
Elena hesitated.
“There’s something I should have told you.”
They met at Dana’s office.
Elena carried a grocery bag with an envelope folded inside.
“He told me to shred the household mail if your name was on it,” she said.
“Why would you do that?”
Elena’s face tightened.
“He said you had asked him to handle everything. Later, when I questioned him, he said I could be accused of stealing.”
She placed the envelope on the desk.
“I kept this one because it said past due.”
Inside was a notice concerning a private loan secured against the estate.
Clara’s supposed signature appeared again.
The house was not simply Richard’s trophy.
It was part of something collapsing.
“Did you see him hurt her?” Dana asked.
Elena stared at Clara.
“I heard a crash last winter. I went upstairs. He was holding her against the closet.”
She remembered telling Elena it was nothing.
“You don’t have to protect that lie anymore,” Clara said.
Elena began to cry.
Before leaving, she produced a small brass key.
“Your desk in the morning room. You asked me to hold the spare after he started keeping yours.”
Clara closed her fingers around it.
Inside that desk was a notebook.
Dates, injuries, fragments of conversations.
Dana arranged for Clara to retrieve personal belongings with police present.
By evening, Richard’s attorney had sent a letter.
It accused Clara of helping manage the very company she said she did not own.
Attached was a photograph of her standing beside Richard at an investor dinner, smiling.
Beneath it, his attorney had written: Your client was an enthusiastic participant.
May you like
Clara stared at the photograph.
She remembered the bruise hidden beneath that smile.
