Chapter 4 - The Key Eleanor Should Never Have Had)
Neither woman moved.
Eleanor held the laptop against her body.
Emma looked from the computer to her face.
“What are you doing?”
Eleanor recovered quickly.
“You left this in the living room.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“I found it there.”
“It was on my desk.”
“You must be mistaken.”
Emma almost laughed.
Instead she walked forward and held out her hand.
“Give it to me.”
Eleanor’s eyes hardened.
“You are becoming very unpleasant.”
“My computer.”
“I came here because my son is distressed.”
“My computer, Eleanor.”
For a moment Emma thought she might refuse.
Then Eleanor handed it over.
Emma inspected the lid.
“Why are you here?”
“I have a key.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I wanted to speak to you.”
“At almost ten at night?”
“You’re awake.”
“How did you know Julian left?”
Silence.
There.
A tiny hesitation.
Emma saw it.
Eleanor placed her handbag on the console.
“I know my son.”
“Did he call you?”
“He doesn’t need to.”
Emma unlocked the laptop.
She immediately checked the security log.
The machine had been opened six minutes earlier.
Wrong password entered twice.
Then a successful login.
Emma’s pulse quickened.
She had changed the password that morning.
Nobody knew it.
Or should have.
“What were you looking for?”
Eleanor laughed.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“You opened my laptop.”
“I moved it.”
“The activity log says otherwise.”
For the first time, Eleanor’s composure slipped.
Only slightly.
Emma continued.
“Do you know something interesting about computers? They remember things people hope they won’t.”
Eleanor picked up her handbag.
“You sound paranoid.”
“And you sound nervous.”
“I’m going home.”
“No.”
The word surprised both of them.
Emma walked to the elevator and stood between Eleanor and the call panel.
“You’re going to tell me why you were in my office.”
Eleanor looked at her pregnant stomach.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“No.”
Eleanor’s voice dropped.
“You need to be very careful about turning Julian against his family.”
“I’m not the one doing that.”
“You think because he married you, you became equal to his mother?”
Emma stared at her.
“This is not a competition.”
“It always is.”
The admission came too fast.
Eleanor realized it immediately.
Emma did not react.
Eleanor stepped closer.
“You met Julian when he was already successful. You walked into a life built by other people and started behaving as though you created it.”
Emma almost corrected her.
Almost.
Instead she asked, “What life did I walk into?”
Eleanor gave her a pitying smile.
“This one.”
She gestured around the penthouse.
Emma felt a strange calm.
“Interesting.”
Eleanor’s eyes narrowed.
Emma stepped aside.
“You can leave.”
Eleanor hesitated, suspicious of how easily Emma had changed.
Then she pressed the elevator button.
Before the doors closed, Emma said, “I’m changing the locks tomorrow.”
Eleanor smiled.
“Julian will change them back.”
The elevator doors shut.
Emma remained there until the display showed lobby.
Then she called security.
The lock system was electronic.
Every entry had a record.
Building management provided access history within an hour because Emma was the registered owner.
Eleanor had entered the penthouse twenty-seven times during the previous three months.
Nine entries occurred when neither Emma nor Julian was home.
Two happened after midnight.
One happened the same night the unauthorized quarter-million-dollar transfer had been approved.
Emma sent everything to Claire.
Claire called immediately.
“We have enough to freeze access.”
“Do it.”
“To the account?”
“To everything.”
Claire paused.
“You understand what happens when they notice?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
Emma looked toward the nursery.
“Yes.”
The next morning, Claire’s team changed authorization credentials on Meridian Residential Holdings.
Building security deactivated Eleanor’s key.
Emma changed every password.
Then she waited.
It took six hours.
At 4:17 p.m., Eleanor called.
Emma let it ring.
At 4:19, she called again.
At 4:23, Julian called.
Emma answered.
“What did you do?”
His voice was furious.
Emma sat calmly at her desk.
“What are you talking about?”
“My mother can’t enter the apartment.”
“Correct.”
“You disabled her key?”
“Yes.”
“Turn it back on.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“She entered while we were gone.”
“She’s family.”
“She went through my office.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I have records.”
Julian went silent.
Emma waited.
Then his tone changed.
“What records?”
There it was.
Not surprise.
Fear.
Tiny, almost invisible.
But fear.
“What do you think I found, Julian?”
“I have no idea.”
“Then why do you sound worried?”
“I don’t.”
He hung up.
Emma stared at the phone.
Ten minutes later Claire messaged her.
The frozen Meridian account had triggered an attempted login.
Three failed attempts.
The source device belonged to Eleanor.
But the next login attempt came from somewhere else.
Vale Capital.
May you like
Julian’s office.
And whoever sat at Julian’s computer was trying to access the same account.
