CHAPTER 4 - THE WOMAN IN MY ROBE
CHAPTER 4 - THE WOMAN IN MY ROBE
Camille Rowan did not go home.
She went directly to O’Hare International Airport.
Russell’s team tracked her car to the private terminal used by Calder Development executives.
A chartered aircraft had filed a flight plan for Toronto.
Camille arrived six minutes before federal agents blocked the gate.
She did not have the redevelopment folder with her.
She had Victor’s passport, three phones, and a flash drive hidden inside a makeup case.
The folder had disappeared.
Victor learned about her arrest while sitting inside Hartwell Tower.
His anger changed into panic.
“She wouldn’t leave without telling me.”
I almost laughed.
He had said something similar about me once.
During the fourth year of our marriage, I spent a night in the hospital after collapsing from exhaustion.
Victor did not visit until the next afternoon.
When I asked why he had not come sooner, he told me I should have called more clearly.
Now Camille had abandoned him, and he could not understand why betrayal had failed to announce itself politely.
Arthur dismissed the other directors and kept only Daniel, Victor, Russell, and me inside the boardroom.
Daniel remained composed.
Victor paced near the windows.
“You need to get her out,” he said.
Arthur looked up from the documents.
“Who?”
“Camille.”
“She attempted to leave the country with stolen corporate material.”
“She didn’t steal anything.”
“Then why did she have your passport?”
Victor stopped pacing.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel spoke gently.
“Victor, you should say nothing further without criminal counsel.”
Victor turned on him.
“Stop pretending you’re protecting me.”
Daniel leaned back.
“I am trying to prevent an emotional man from making his situation worse.”
“You recruited me.”
“For what?”
“The Calder meetings.”
Daniel’s eyebrows lifted.
“Do you have proof?”
Victor said nothing.
Daniel’s confidence told me he already knew the answer.
There had been no written instructions.
No emails.
No signed orders.
Victor had allowed pride to replace caution.
Daniel had praised him, invited him into private rooms, and made him feel chosen.
Victor had never asked why.
Men like Daniel did not need to force ambitious people into traps.
They only needed to make the trap look like a promotion.
My phone rang.
It was the federal investigator assigned to Camille’s detention.
I placed the call on speaker.
“Ms. Hartwell, we completed a preliminary review of the flash drive.”
“What did you find?”
“Internal Hartwell documents, employee records, property acquisition schedules, and copies of personal identification.”
“Whose identification?”
There was a pause.
“Yours.”
Victor looked at me.
The investigator continued.
“There are scanned copies of your driver’s license, marriage certificate, old medical records, and several documents under the name Olivia Lane.”
My skin went cold.
“Why would she have those?”
“We were hoping you could tell us.”
I looked at Victor.
He shook his head.
“I never gave her your records.”
“Did she ever use your computer?”
“Yes, but not for that.”
“How do you know?”
“She said she was checking travel dates.”
Russell stepped closer to the speaker.
“Was anything else found?”
“Yes.”
The investigator’s voice became more cautious.
“There is a draft agreement transferring voting rights in a Hartwell family trust.”
My father stood.
“That is impossible.”
“The document bears Ms. Hartwell’s signature.”
“I never signed such an agreement,” I said.
“We suspected that.”
“Who receives the voting rights?”
The investigator answered.
“Daniel Cross.”
No one moved.
Daniel looked at me.
Then he smiled.
It was not the smile of an innocent man.
It was the smile of someone who had expected the truth to arrive and had prepared for it.
He reached inside his jacket.
Russell moved instantly.
Two security officers pinned Daniel’s arms before his hand cleared the fabric.
They removed a phone from his pocket.
Its screen displayed an active call.
Someone had been listening.
Russell ended it.
Daniel straightened his jacket.
“You are making a serious mistake.”
My father walked toward him.
“No, Daniel.”
Arthur’s voice was low.
“I made my serious mistake thirty-two years ago when I decided you were family.”
Daniel’s eyes hardened.
“You built Hartwell Group with my work.”
“I paid you for your work.”
“You gave the future to her.”
He looked at me with open contempt.
“To a girl who abandoned the company to play poor.”
I stood.
“And yet you needed my forged signature.”
For the first time, Daniel lost control.
“You have no idea what this company requires.”
“Then explain it while the police are listening.”
Daniel laughed.
“You think Camille was trying to escape?”
Russell’s hand tightened around his arm.
Daniel looked directly at my father.
“She was delivering your daughter’s signature before midnight.”
“To whom?” Arthur asked.
Daniel’s smile returned.
“To the person who actually controls Calder Development.”
My father’s face changed.
I had never seen fear there before.
Not even when my mother was dying.
He whispered one name.
“Evelyn Shaw.”
The room seemed to tilt.
May you like
Evelyn Shaw had been my mother’s closest friend.
She had also died eleven years earlier.
