Chapter 9 - WHAT THEY PUT IN MY PURSE
The USB drive sat on the white hospital blanket.
Tiny.
Ordinary.
Dangerous.
My father called his attorney.
“Bag it.”
I almost laughed.
“Do we carry evidence bags around now?”
The attorney pulled one from his briefcase.
Apparently, yes.
He used gloves.
I watched.
“What’s on it?”
Dominic was still on speakerphone.
“I don’t know.”
I snapped,
“That answer is getting old.”
“I’m serious.”
He took a breath.
“My mother said if the police searched your purse, they’d find enough to keep you busy.”
My father looked at the phone.
“Busy how?”
Dominic didn’t answer.
My father’s voice hardened.
“Dominic.”
“Company files.”
I felt sick.
“What kind of files?”
“Internal Mercer documents.”
Peter, standing near the door with a police detective, went pale.
“Which documents?”
Dominic said,
“The accounting backups.”
Peter swore.
The detective stepped closer.
“Meaning?”
Peter rubbed both hands over his face.
“If those are copies of the manipulated ledgers, they could make it look like Vivienne had access to the fraud.”
I stared.
My father’s face went blank again.
That dangerous blankness.
Eleanor hadn’t only planned to accuse me of stealing a ring.
She planned to frame me for financial crimes.
The wedding humiliation was the distraction.
I sat down.
For the first time that night, I felt afraid.
Not embarrassed.
Not angry.
Afraid.
Dominic whispered through the phone,
“I didn’t know she put the drive in your purse.”
“But you knew something was going to happen.”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why didn’t you stop it?”
His answer came after a long silence.
“Because I thought if you got scared enough, you’d sign.”
There it was.
The ugliest truth of all.
Not fear.
Not confusion.
Not family pressure.
He wanted me frightened.
I wiped at my face.
I hadn’t realized I was crying.
My father moved toward me.
I shook my head.
He stopped.
Good.
I needed the space.
“Dominic.”
“Yes?”
“I loved you.”
He made a sound.
“Vivienne—”
“No.”
My voice broke.
I hated that too.
“I need you to hear the tense.”
Silence.
“Loved.”
He started crying openly now.
I listened for three seconds.
Then ended the call.
The detective took the evidence bag.
“We’ll have digital forensics examine it.”
Peter stared at me.
“There’s something else.”
I looked at him.
“Of course there is.”
He almost smiled.
Almost.
Then he didn’t.
“Mercer Development has a board meeting at nine tomorrow morning.”
“So?”
“Eleanor plans to remove Dominic.”
I blinked.
Peter continued.
“She’s blaming everything on him.”
My father frowned.
“Can she?”
“She controls enough voting shares.”
I looked at Peter.
“And then?”
“She files for emergency restructuring.”
My father understood before I did.
“That would bury the records.”
Peter nodded.
“Not all of them.”
He looked at me.
“But enough to make prosecution harder.”
I stood.
My father immediately said,
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
“You’re in a hospital gown.”
“I own pants.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“I noticed.”
“Vivienne.”
I picked up my phone.
“The board meeting is at nine?”
Peter nodded.
I looked at the clock.
5:12 a.m.
I smiled.
May you like
For the first time, it didn’t feel forced.
“Then we have four hours to ruin Eleanor’s morning.”
