Chapter 10 - when the mistress changed sides)
Jessica placed the box on the conference table.
Inside were printed messages.
Account ledgers.
Two laptops.
And a black notebook.
Dominic stared at her.
"What are you doing?"
Jessica looked at him with absolute calm.
"Surviving."
"You stupid little thief."
She smiled.
"Interesting choice of words."
Dominic moved toward her.
Daniel stepped between them.
Jessica looked at me.
"I want immunity."
"I'm not a prosecutor."
"I want your lawyers to tell the authorities I'm cooperating."
"Why should I?"
"Because the notebook contains account codes Victor never found."
Mara opened it.
Her eyes widened.
Jessica continued.
"Dominic had a second network."
"How much?"
"At least forty million."
Dominic laughed.
"She's lying."
Jessica turned toward him.
"I have the Zurich account."
Silence.
"And Luxembourg."
Dominic stopped smiling.
"And the property in Curaçao."
Mara looked up.
"Victor didn't know about those."
"No."
Jessica faced me.
"Dominic was preparing to leave the United States after the funeral."
I looked at him.
"With you?"
Jessica laughed.
"No."
That startled me.
She opened one of the laptops.
A photograph appeared.
Dominic beside a young woman I did not recognize.
"Who is she?"
Jessica answered.
"Sofia Rinaldi. Twenty-six. Daughter of an Italian shipping family."
Dominic's face became stone.
"He was negotiating a merger."
"Through marriage?"
Jessica nodded.
"He intended to divorce you, blame you for Helix, let the investigation destroy your credibility, and then marry Sofia after things settled."
I looked at Jessica.
"And you?"
Her smile was empty.
"I was supposed to disappear with ten million dollars."
"You received eleven."
"He planned to take most of it back."
Dominic scoffed.
"You really think Elena is going to save you?"
"No."
Jessica looked at me.
"I think Elena hates me."
"Correct."
"But hating me doesn't make Dominic innocent."
That was also correct.
We spent six hours reviewing Jessica's evidence.
The scale of the fraud was larger than Victor had known.
Dominic had bribed vendors.
Manipulated insurance contracts.
Moved company money into fake security programs.
He had even borrowed against future distributions from trusts he did not yet own.
At midnight, federal investigators arrived.
Dominic left with his attorney before they could question him.
He was not under arrest.
Yet.
Jessica gave a formal statement.
I watched through the glass.
Adrian stood beside me.
"You don't have to stay."
"I know."
"Then why are you?"
"Because every time I leave a room, someone lies about what happened inside it."
Adrian nodded.
An hour later, Daniel approached.
"We found something on Dominic's laptop."
"What?"
"A scheduled transfer."
"To where?"
"A Caribbean account."
"How much?"
"Thirty-five million."
"When?"
"Tomorrow morning."
Mara joined us.
"We stopped it."
Daniel shook his head.
"That's not the important part."
He handed me a printed authorization.
My signature was on it.
Again.
But this time the date was two days after Victor's death.
"What am I looking at?"
"Dominic planned to make it appear you transferred stolen money after Victor died."
I stared at the page.
Adrian exhaled slowly.
"If that had processed, prosecutors could have believed Elena attempted to move funds after learning about the investigation."
"He wanted me arrested."
Daniel nodded.
My anger became strangely quiet.
Dominic had not simply cheated.
He had not simply stolen.
He had spent years constructing an alternate version of me.
Unstable.
Dependent.
Dishonest.
Criminal.
A fictional wife designed to absorb his consequences.
Jessica emerged from the interview room.
She looked at the forged transfer.
"There's more."
"What more?"
She sat down.
"Dominic kept recordings of you."
My skin went cold.
"What recordings?"
"Arguments. Therapy conversations. Calls with your mother before she disappeared."
I looked at Daniel.
"Where?"
Jessica pointed toward Dominic's locked office.
"Hidden server."
Mara said, "We searched it."
Jessica shook her head.
"Not that server."
She walked to the wall behind Dominic's desk.
A framed photograph of Victor and Dominic hung there.
Jessica removed it.
Behind it was a biometric panel.
She pressed her thumb against it.
Nothing happened.
"He removed me."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Can it be forced?"
"Probably."
Mara called security technicians.
Twenty minutes later, the compartment opened.
A small server blinked inside.
It contained thousands of files.
Most were recordings.
One folder carried my name.
Another carried my mother's.
Another was labeled VICTOR.
And one was labeled JESSICA EXIT.
Jessica stared at it.
"What is that?"
Nobody answered.
She clicked.
A video began.
Dominic was sitting in his car.
His voice was calm.
"If Jessica becomes a problem after the funeral, use the Mercer contingency."
Jessica turned pale.
A second male voice asked, "Same procedure as Rebecca?"
May you like
Dominic answered.
"No. This time make sure she's actually dead."
