Chapter 7 - OLIVIA’S PRICE
Olivia contacted Evelyn through her attorney.
She wanted to make a deal.
Daniel recommended that Evelyn attend the meeting but allow law enforcement to control the discussion.
They met in a private conference room at the district attorney’s office.
Olivia no longer looked like the confident woman in the pink robe. She wore a plain navy suit and no jewelry. Her dark red lipstick was gone.
She avoided Evelyn’s eyes.
“I didn’t know everything,” Olivia began.
“You knew enough to ask when my house would become yours.”
Olivia flinched.
“Ethan said you were divorcing him.”
“Did he also say I had agreed to give you my grandmother’s home?”
“He said the mansion would be transferred as part of a company restructuring.”
“And you believed you deserved it?”
Olivia looked down at her hands.
“I believed Ethan had built the plan.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Silence stretched between them.
Finally, Olivia spoke.
“No. I didn’t deserve it.”
She explained that she had met Ethan two years earlier at a private business event. At first, he hired her to help create financial presentations for his development firm.
Their relationship became personal several months later.
Ethan told her Evelyn controlled every aspect of his life. He claimed he had sacrificed his career to support an ungrateful wife.
Olivia wanted to believe him because his story allowed her to view herself as a rescuer rather than a participant in an affair.
Then Ethan showed her the mansion, the hotels and the lifestyle he promised they would share.
“He said you would never let him leave with what he deserved,” Olivia said.
“What did he deserve?”
“Half.”
“Half of an inheritance he didn’t build?”
Olivia closed her eyes.
“When you say it that way—”
“There is no other way to say it.”
Olivia admitted she helped create the management entity Ethan planned to use. She had also introduced him to an investment group willing to issue the fraudulent loan.
But she insisted she did not know Ethan had copied Evelyn’s signature until the night of the confrontation.
“Why did you mention the forged pages?”
“Because I saw them in the folder. Your signature was already on three documents, but Ethan said you were signing the agreement the next day.”
Evelyn remembered Ethan’s face when Olivia revealed that detail.
That single sentence had weakened his entire defense.
Olivia slid a small storage drive across the table.
“This contains backups of every message he sent me.”
“Why didn’t investigators find them on your devices?”
“Because Ethan told me to delete everything after the mansion.”
“So you hid a copy.”
Olivia looked at her.
“I stopped trusting him when he left me alone with the police.”
Evelyn almost smiled at the irony.
Olivia had trusted a man who built relationships out of deception, then felt betrayed when he deceived her.
“What do you want in exchange?” Evelyn asked.
“A recommendation for reduced charges.”
“I don’t control that.”
“I know. But your cooperation matters.”
Evelyn pushed the drive toward Daniel without touching it.
“I won’t lie for you. I won’t tell anyone you were innocent.”
“I understand.”
“But I will tell them you provided evidence before the trial.”
Olivia nodded.
As the meeting ended, she spoke again.
“There’s something else.”
Evelyn stopped at the door.
“Ethan never planned to stay with me.”
“How do you know?”
“I found a lease application for an apartment in Zurich. One bedroom. He submitted it under another name.”
The answer did not surprise Evelyn.
Ethan had intended to steal the company, sacrifice Olivia if necessary and disappear with the money.
No one had been his partner.
May you like
Everyone had been a step in his escape plan.
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