Chapter 9 - MIA’S NOTEBOOK
I wanted to hate Mia completely.
That would have been easier.
Hatred likes simple stories.
Good person.
Bad person.
Victim.
Villain.
Mia refused to fit cleanly into any one box.
She had betrayed me.
She had lied to me.
She had entered my home under false pretenses and slept with my husband.
Nothing she said could erase that.
But when she finally met with Daniel and investigators three days later, she looked nothing like the girl from my jacuzzi.
No makeup.
No expensive clothes.
No Julian beside her.
Just a frightened twenty-year-old carrying a notebook.
She did not ask me to forgive her.
That helped.
“I knew what I was doing was wrong.”
She sat across from me in a conference room.
“I’m not going to pretend I didn’t.”
I said nothing.
She continued.
“But I didn’t know everything.”
“Tell me what you knew.”
She looked at Daniel.
Then back at me.
“Grant found me when I was nineteen.”
Her real father was alive.
Her mother worked at a grocery store in Tennessee.
There were no younger siblings depending on her.
She had been working promotional jobs and struggling with debt.
Grant introduced her to Julian.
Julian told her I was abusive.
Controlling.
Cold.
He said I had humiliated him for years.
“He showed me messages.”
“Fake?”
She nodded.
“He said you would eventually destroy him financially.”
“So you decided to help him destroy me first.”
Mia lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
I appreciated the lack of excuse.
She said the original job was simple.
Work in the house.
Observe me.
Write down anything useful.
How much I drank.
When I lost patience.
Whether I yelled.
Whether I took medication.
Whether I complained about Julian.
The notebook contained dates.
Descriptions.
Most were absurdly ordinary.
Harper irritated after long workday.
Harper raised voice when delivery wrong.
Harper drank two glasses of wine at dinner.
Harper cried in bathroom after fertility clinic call.
My chest tightened at that last line.
“You followed me?”
“I heard you.”
“You wrote it down.”
“Yes.”
I turned the page.
Each observation had notes in another handwriting.
Julian’s.
Not enough.
Need stronger incident.
Try again.
Create conflict.
Then Beatrice’s handwriting appeared.
Use household authority angle.
Make her look classist.
Mia pointed to a page.
“That was the lilies.”
I stared at her.
“You knew I was allergic.”
Her face broke.
“The first time, no.”
I said nothing.
“I swear.”
“The second time?”
She started crying.
“Yes.”
There it was.
Not innocence.
Not misunderstanding.
Choice.
“Julian said he only wanted to scare you.”
My voice became quiet.
“And the anniversary?”
“He wanted you recorded screaming at me.”
“I know.”
Her eyes widened.
“You found the camera?”
“Yes.”
She looked sick.
Then she reached into her bag.
“There’s another recording.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What recording?”
Mia placed her old phone on the table.
“I started recording Julian after I realized he was lying to me too.”
“About what?”
“He told me after the divorce he would marry me.”
I almost laughed.
Of course he did.
Mia continued.
“Then I heard him talking to Grant.”
She unlocked the phone.
“He called me disposable.”
The recording played.
Julian’s voice.
Once Harper is contained, Mia becomes a liability.
Grant asked,
“What are you going to do with her?”
Julian laughed.
“She’ll sign an NDA or learn what happens when poor girls challenge rich families.”
Mia stared at the table.
“I thought I was becoming part of his life.”
I looked at her.
“You were helping him dismantle mine.”
“I know.”
For the first time, I allowed my anger to show.
“You ate at my table.”
“I know.”
“I paid you more because I thought your family needed help.”
“I know.”
“I gave you a home.”
Her tears fell faster.
“I know.”
“And every time you looked at me and said thank you, you were reporting on me.”
“Yes.”
The room went quiet.
I wanted to hurt her with words.
Instead, I asked the only question that mattered.
“What did Beatrice know?”
Mia wiped her face.
“More than she says.”
She opened the blue notebook to the final pages.
There were notes about bank meetings.
The forged documents.
A planned meeting with a notary.
A list of assets.
Then one sentence in Beatrice’s handwriting.
If Harper becomes suspicious, move before anniversary.
I looked at Daniel.
“What does move mean?”
Mia answered.
“I never knew.”
Then she remembered something.
“Wait.”
She flipped backward.
“There was a storage unit.”
My pulse quickened.
“What storage unit?”
“Beatrice and Julian kept documents there.”
“Where?”
Mia gave us the address.
Daniel wrote it down.
Then Mia said,
“There’s something else inside.”
“What?”
She looked straight at me.
“A copy of a letter Julian wrote six months before he married you.”
My chest tightened.
“What letter?”
May you like
Mia swallowed.
“One where he tells Grant exactly why he proposed.”
