Chapter 8 - CAMILLE CAME TO DELPHINE'S ROOM WITHOUT A DRIVER
Camille knocked on Odette’s screen door at 8:20 one evening.
Alone.
No designer car.
No assistant.
Odette looked at her shoes.
Then at Delphine.
“Rich trouble.”
Accurate.
Camille asked to speak privately.
Delphine said:
“Kitchen is private enough.”
Josie sat at the table drawing.
Camille noticed her hearing device.
Then signed awkwardly:
HELLO.
Josie blinked.
Signed back.
BAD.
Camille looked confused.
Delphine laughed despite herself.
“You signed ‘cold soup.’”
“I took one class.”
“Apparently.”
Tension broke slightly.
Then Camille placed a folder down.
“My father’s journals.”
Delphine stared.
“I found them after leaving Elias.”
Thomas Ashford had documented Hion Ridge.
At first proudly.
The loans expanded port influence.
Then guilt.
By later years, he realized the structure was predatory.
He wanted out.
Harold Vane Sr. refused.
Salvatore Ferraro also wanted to unwind.
So Thomas and Salvatore secretly planned to dismantle Hion Ridge.
Then the Aaron incident happened.
Not theft.
Aaron had discovered duplicate cargo invoicing connected to Harold.
Harold forged the receipt framing Aaron.
Thomas initially believed it.
Then discovered the hospital alibi.
He wrote:
Aaron was used. I confronted Harold. He said one dockworker matters less than stability.
Delphine’s eyes filled.
Then:
I owe the Aubrey family more than money.
But Thomas died before acting.
Heart attack.
Natural.
No murder.
The journal passed to Harold Jr.
He never showed Camille those pages.
Only selective settlement documents.
He used her grief.
Then Camille said:
“I’m sorry.”
Delphine looked at her.
“For?”
“For treating you like you were invisible.”
Fair.
“For trying to use Elias.”
Also fair.
“For letting Harold turn your husband into a thief in my head.”
That mattered.
Delphine nodded.
Not forgiveness.
Acknowledgment.
Then Camille said:
“There’s more.”
Thomas had left a separate beneficiary account.
Intended for families harmed by Hion Ridge.
Harold Jr. became trustee.
Never distributed it.
Current balance:
$4.8 million.
There.
Restitution money.
Again hidden.
Then Delphine asked:
“Why bring this to me instead of Elias?”
Camille looked ashamed.
“Because I don’t know if he’ll believe anything from me.”
He might not.
Then:
“And because your husband is named first.”
Aaron Aubrey.
Designated initial claimant.
Not because he was special.
Because his case exposed the fraud.
Delphine stared.
This could clear their debt.
Pay restitution.
Maybe more.
Then Josie tapped her wrist.
Signed:
MOM SAD.
Delphine smiled.
“Yes.”
Then Camille looked at Josie.
“Her surgery…”
“No.”
Delphine’s voice sharpened.
“Do not turn guilt into money.”
Camille stopped.
Then nodded.
“Okay.”
Good.
She was learning too.
Then headlights appeared outside.
Not Elias.
Police.
Two detectives.
They had come for Camille.
Not to arrest her.
To inform her that Harold Vane Jr. had been found at the airport carrying company documents and a one-way ticket to Switzerland.
He was attempting to leave.
And among the documents was a signed copy of the marital continuity transfer.
May you like
Elias’s signature already on it.
The signature had been forged.
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