Chapter 4 - CLARA KNEW THE APARTMENT WAS MINE
Clara hired a lawyer by sunrise.
Smart.
By noon, she asked to speak with investigators from Northbridge’s audit committee.
Even smarter.
Her loyalty to Reid lasted approximately twelve hours after the financing collapsed.
I attended only part of the interview.
My attorney insisted.
Clara looked very different without gala makeup.
Still beautiful.
Less certain.
“You knew the apartment belonged to Nora separately?” the investigator asked.
“Yes.”
I felt nothing.
Maybe I had expected the answer.
“Then why accept payment instructions directing proceeds to your account?”
“Reid said it was temporary.”
“You’ve said that. Why your personal account?”
She hesitated.
“Because he promised the funds would secure my interest in the expansion project.”
There it was.
Not innocent.
“What interest?” I asked.
Her lawyer shifted.
Clara answered anyway.
“Five percent of the new division.”
“And my six point eight million dollars was going to secure your five percent.”
“Yes.”
I stared at her.
“You understood that money came from my mother’s apartment.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“For what?”
“For not wasting time pretending you didn’t know.”
She looked away.
Then the investigator asked about the forged documents.
“I never signed Nora’s name.”
“Did you know Reid had documents bearing her signature?”
“Yes.”
“Did you question them?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Reid said she signed whatever he put in front of her.”
The room went still.
I looked at her.
“He said that?”
Clara’s face changed.
Maybe she finally heard how ugly it sounded.
“Yes.”
“What else did he say about me?”
Her attorney objected to relevance.
I agreed.
I no longer needed a catalog of insults.
Then investigators showed Clara the bridge-loan acknowledgment.
“Who uploaded this?”
Her face went pale.
“I did.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where did you get it?”
“Reid emailed it.”
“When?”
Six weeks earlier.
At 1:14 a.m.
The night my mother’s estate documents arrived at our apartment.
I remembered Reid insisting he would organize everything while I slept.
“You uploaded a document with my signature.”
“Yes.”
“Did you see me sign it?”
“No.”
“Did that bother you?”
“No.”
At least she was consistent.
Then Clara surprised everyone.
“I have messages.”
Reid had instructed her to process the collateral package.
He wrote:
Nora won’t understand the financing language. I’ll handle her.
Another:
Once Hale closes, she can complain all she wants. The deal will already be funded.
My chest tightened.
Clara continued scrolling.
Then stopped.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She turned the phone toward her lawyer.
He looked angry.
“Ms. Vale, we need a break.”
I knew enough to ask.
“What did you find?”
Clara looked at me.
Apparently she had never read this thread all the way back.
One message from Reid to Northbridge’s outside restructuring adviser:
After closing, Clara becomes expendable. Keep her authority narrow enough that we can blame execution failures on her if the Bennett issues surface.
Clara read it again.
Her face emptied.
Reid had planned to use her.
Just as he had used me.
May you like
That did not make us allies.
It made two women who finally understood the same man had assigned each of us a different function.
