Chapter 10 - The Woman at the Door
Sierra called the police before she called Lauren.
Later, that detail would matter to Lauren more than any apology.
For once, one of them had acted before asking Cole for permission to be afraid.
He pounded on Sierra's door for twelve minutes.
The building camera caught him trying his key. She had changed the lock that afternoon.
Through the door, he told her he owned the laptop, the apartment furniture, and the clothes on her back.
When officers arrived, he called it a misunderstanding over company property.
Sierra stayed behind the locked door and spoke through her lawyer on the phone.
The laptop was preserved for forensic copying the next morning. Nobody celebrated. Cole wasn't arrested just because he had shouted, and an email archive wasn't the same thing as a proven case.
But his chance to quietly recover the records was gone.
Two days later, the first review produced a message with an attachment titled Revised Authorization.
Cole had sent it to Sierra's Northlight address before she became his assistant full-time.
Keep the signed page. Replace page one with this version. Reed's credentials are still active for the upload.
Lauren read the message in Adrian's office.
Daniel sat across the table with his own lawyer.
For the first time since Christmas, they were in the same room with evidence that pointed directly at the person between them.
“She did it?” Lauren asked.
“My client says she assembled the document,” Sierra's attorney answered over the speakerphone. “She is prepared to describe what she did. Her own responsibility is being addressed separately.”
Sierra had not simply fallen into Cole's bed.
She had helped him put Daniel in a cell.
Lauren looked at him.
His face had gone empty in a way that frightened her more than rage would have.
“Daniel.”
He stood and walked out.
She found him beside the elevator, staring at the illuminated floor numbers.
“I can't give it back,” she said.
“No.”
“But I will tell them everything I know.”
He nodded without looking at her.
Back inside, Adrian had opened another attachment.
It was a draft statement prepared for Lauren after the building sale.
It claimed she had directed the disputed transfers and that Cole had followed her instructions.
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The payment he offered to restore wasn't reconciliation.
It was the price of her confession.
