Chapter 2 - THE BRACELET ON HER WRIST
I recognized the bracelet immediately.
Not because I had bought it.
Because I had rejected the invoice.
Three months earlier, accounting flagged a $38,400 charge from Maison Leroux on an executive procurement card.
Camden told me it had been a client gift.
I had asked who the client was.
He said confidentiality prevented him from telling me until a deal closed.
I remember thinking that explanation sounded ridiculous.
Then my neurosurgeon called about my sister’s test results, and life distracted me.
Now the “client gift” was sitting on Lila Monroe’s wrist.
I pointed.
“That bracelet.”
Lila instinctively covered it.
“What about it?”
“Where did you get it?”
Camden stepped between us.
“Vivian, stop.”
I looked past him.
“Lila?”
She hesitated.
“Camden gave it to me.”
“When?”
“September.”
Exactly when the charge appeared.
I turned to Nora.
“Add Maison Leroux.”
She wrote it down.
Camden exhaled sharply.
“You are turning a marriage problem into a corporate witch hunt.”
“No.”
I looked at the bracelet.
“You turned corporate money into jewelry.”
“It was reimbursed.”
Nora flipped another page.
“No reimbursement appears.”
Camden glared at her.
“You’ve been digging through my expenses?”
Nora answered evenly.
“Chairwoman Pierce requested a targeted review of executive discretionary spending.”
“When?”
I said, “Four weeks ago.”
That finally destroyed his performance.
His face emptied.
Four weeks.
Long enough to gather records.
Long enough to make backups.
Long enough for him to wonder what else I knew.
I had not started investigating because of the affair.
Not exactly.
I started after an aviation fuel vendor called me personally about three invoices bearing authorization codes nobody recognized.
The affair made me suspicious.
The numbers made me careful.
There is a difference.
Jealous spouses confront.
Chairwomen audit.
Lila slowly removed the bracelet.
She held it toward me.
“Here.”
I did not take it.
“I don’t want it.”
Her face hardened.
“You clearly do.”
“No, Lila.”
I looked at Camden.
“I want the accounting entry.”
That silenced her.
Camden stepped closer.
“You’re embarrassing yourself.”
I smiled.
“Am I?”
He lowered his voice.
“Do you really want six junior executives watching you act like this?”
I looked around the hangar.
Every single one of them was pretending not to listen.
“They work for the company.”
“They work for me.”
There.
Another mistake.
Malcolm Reed, the actual CEO, chose that exact moment to walk through the hangar doors.
He was sixty-one, calm, and had worked for my father before Pierce Aero existed.
“Not according to payroll,” he said.
Camden turned.
Malcolm handed Nora another folder.
“Legal is ready.”
Camden stared.
“Legal?”
Malcolm nodded.
“Temporary suspension of executive access pending internal review.”
Lila whispered, “Camden?”
He ignored her again.
“This is insane.”
Malcolm’s voice did not change.
“Your building access remains active. Corporate cards, fleet privileges, procurement approvals, and expense authority are suspended.”
“You cannot do that.”
I finally removed my wedding ring.
Not dramatically.
I just pulled it from my finger and placed it inside my coat pocket.
Then I said:
“I already did.”
Camden’s face changed.
For the first time, the man who had laughed when his mistress asked whether I carried luggage understood that he might be the one walking out with nothing.
But then Malcolm leaned toward me.
“Vivian.”
Something in his tone made my stomach tighten.
“What?”
“The aviation review found something unrelated to Lila.”
Camden suddenly looked very still.
Too still.
Malcolm opened the folder.
“There are payments to a company called Northstar Aviation Consulting.”
I had never heard of it.
“How much?”
“Two point three million over eighteen months.”
Lila stopped breathing.
So did I.
“Who owns it?”
Malcolm looked directly at Camden.
May you like
“That’s what we’re trying to determine.”
Camden’s silence told me he already knew.
