Chapter 3 - What the Cameras Saw
Elaine did not deny being in my office.
She did something worse.
She smiled.
“Of course I was there.”
Grant snapped his head toward her.
“Mom.”
“What?” Elaine said. “We’re not criminals because we walked into an office.”
Tessa stared at her.
“The alarm was disabled.”
Elaine’s smile faded.
Simone turned to security.
“Pull the footage.”
Grant laughed nervously.
“There won’t be footage. That hallway camera has been broken for months.”
I looked at him.
“How do you know that?”
His face froze.
The security supervisor answered.
“It was replaced eleven days ago.”
Grant stopped breathing.
Not literally.
But close enough.
The supervisor opened his laptop.
He logged into the cloud archive.
Elaine began talking.
“This entire situation is being blown out of proportion. Grant believed his wife was mishandling corporate accounts. As a shareholder, he had a duty—”
“Eight percent,” I said.
“What?”
“You keep saying shareholder like he owns the building. He owns eight percent of non-voting stock.”
Grant glared at me.
“You seem to be enjoying this.”
“No. I’m finally understanding it.”
The footage loaded.
Timestamp: 11:42 p.m.
Three nights earlier.
There was Grant.
He entered the employee corridor.
Twenty seconds later came Elaine.
Then someone else.
A man carrying a laptop bag.
I recognized him.
Mason Whitmore.
Grant’s cousin.
One of the two cousins standing inside the store with us right now.
Everyone turned.
Mason looked like he might faint.
Grant stared at him.
“Don’t say anything.”
Mason laughed once.
A frightened, ugly sound.
“You told me we were checking inventory.”
Elaine hissed, “Mason.”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“No, I’m not going down for this.”
Simone closed the store entrance.
“Mr. Whitmore, perhaps you should explain.”
Mason pointed at Grant.
“He said Claire was stealing.”
Grant lunged verbally, not physically.
“You idiot.”
“He said we needed evidence before corporate buried it because Claire was Jonathan’s favorite.”
Elaine’s eyes flashed.
“Mason, shut your mouth.”
Mason kept going.
“He gave me Claire’s security key. Told me to log in from Grant’s laptop.”
My throat tightened.
“You accessed my account?”
“I thought we were proving what you had already done.”
Grant shook his head.
“He’s lying.”
Mason reached into his coat.
David Park stiffened.
“Slowly.”
Mason pulled out his phone.
“I saved the messages.”
Grant went completely still.
That was the second time that morning I watched my husband realize he had underestimated someone.
Mason unlocked the screen.
There were texts.
Grant: USE CLAIRE LOGIN.
Mason: WHY?
Grant: BECAUSE COMPLIANCE ONLY LOOKS AT AUTHORIZED USER.
Mason: THIS FEELS WRONG.
Grant: MOM SAYS DO IT.
Elaine slapped the phone out of his hand.
It hit the floor.
The whole boutique gasped.
Simone picked it up.
Elaine realized what she had just done in front of compliance, counsel, security, staff, and customers.
Her voice softened.
“I was upset.”
Jonathan spoke through the phone.
“Elaine, leave the store.”
She lifted her chin.
“No.”
“Then security will escort you.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“I already did.”
Two security officers stepped forward.
Grant finally looked at me.
For the first time, the arrogance was gone.
“Claire, please.”
That word almost made me laugh.
Please.
After seven years of dismissing my work.
After letting his mother humiliate me.
After apparently using my credentials to funnel suspicious transactions.
Now he remembered please.
I looked at Mason’s recovered phone.
“What vendor were they moving the credits through?”
Mason swallowed.
“Hartcrest.”
“I know that.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You don’t understand.”
He looked toward Elaine.
“Hartcrest isn’t a real outside vendor.”
The boutique went completely silent.
I asked:
“Then who owns it?”
May you like
Mason pointed at my mother-in-law.
“She does.”
