Chapter 12 - The File Box
“Daniel,” Chloe called.
He quickened his pace.
I reached the records-room door just as he did. He stopped, one hand on the handle, with the box pressed against his chest.
“What’s in it?” I asked.
“Files Richard asked me to return.”
“Then he can ask the board’s lawyers for them.”
Daniel looked from me to Denise. His expression changed.
Denise walked over and took the box from him. “I told you I’d bring everything,” she said.
Inside were printouts, a flash drive, and a manila envelope labeled with Valerie’s name. Denise said Richard had left the box at the Vance estate after the wedding. Daniel had come to collect it when she told him she intended to turn it over.
“I scanned the affidavit from Chloe’s laptop,” she admitted. “Richard said it was part of the routine disclosure packet. I should have read it.”
Chloe looked at her mother. “You should have asked me.”
“I know.”
The board’s attorney arrived, took custody of the box, and made a record of where each item had come from. We waited while she copied the drive.
It held drafts of the letter sent to Valerie. One early version was written as a note from Richard’s office. A later version spoke in my name. There was also a spreadsheet tracking Valerie’s attempts to contact me: office visits, registered letters, a call after Lucy’s birth, and the school where Valerie worked.
Daniel sat down heavily when he saw it.
“I handled the mail,” he said. “Richard told me the lawyers were forwarding it to Carter.”
“You never checked?” I asked.
“I believed him.”
I knew too well how easy that was.
Maya came in to review the relevant files. When she reached the final sheet of the spreadsheet, she stopped scrolling.
“What does this column mean?” she asked Daniel.
It listed dates beside the words contact discouraged.
Daniel read down the page. “Those were calls to her employers. Richard asked me for the numbers.”
Valerie’s first school had let her go a month before Lucy was born. She’d never known why.
Maya called her to explain what the records showed. I could hear Valerie’s voice through the speaker, tight with anger.
“I was seven months pregnant,” she said. “I thought they fired me because I kept getting sick.”
Maya promised to send her every document.
The board attorney opened one last file. It was a scanned note from Richard to Daniel, dated the day after Lucy’s birth.
May you like
No more messages to Carter until after the Vance agreement.
The Vance agreement had been signed that morning.
