Chapter 8 - The Price of Silence
Camille asked to meet me the next morning.
“Alone,” she wrote.
“Unless you want this to get uglier.”
I sent the message to Rachel.
We agreed to meet in her conference room instead.
Camille could bring an attorney if she wanted.
She arrived without one, wearing sunglasses she did not remove until she sat down.
The bracelet was gone.
“I didn’t know he was going to throw you out,” she said.
“You laughed.”
She looked toward the window.
“I’m trying to help you now.”
She slid over a proposed settlement.
Adrian would abandon his request for the house.
I would acknowledge the mortgage, waive claims involving Bellwether, and stop cooperating with the company’s investors.
Rachel pushed it back.
“No.”
Camille ignored her.
“There’s enough money in the sale to make everybody happy.”
“Then why do you need my signature?” I asked.
Her jaw tightened.
For years, Adrian had treated my questions like social mistakes.
Camille had learned the same trick.
She let the silence stretch, waiting for me to fill it with an apology.
I waited longer.
Finally she said, “Because the buyer wants the disputes settled.”
“And how much do you get?”
“That’s confidential.”
Rachel closed the folder.
“Then this meeting is over.”
Camille stood.
At the door, she turned back.
“Your father is going to ruin him. Don’t pretend you’re innocent just because you let somebody else do the dirty work.”
After she left, I called Dad.
“I want the full investment file. Including anything that makes you look bad.”
He arrived that afternoon with his counsel and the requested records.
The file showed mounting warning signs, late reports, and Dad’s angry demand for repayment.
It also showed his fund had requested an audit before Adrian sought the Northbridge loan.
Dad had pushed.
Adrian had answered with another loan and a forged signature.
Neither fact canceled the other.
“I won’t bury your mistakes to prove his,” I told Dad.
“You shouldn’t.”
Rachel checked the draft sale documents obtained from the buyer’s counsel.
The proposed distribution sent the remaining proceeds to a company we hadn’t seen before.
May you like
Its manager was Camille.
After lender payments and that distribution, there would be nothing left for payroll.
