Chapter 10 - Camille’s ConfessionCamille’s formal interview lasted four hours.
Mara arranged for separate counsel to represent her.
That mattered.
Allison refused to let anyone later claim she had pressured her sister.
By evening, Camille had signed a preservation agreement and surrendered copies of two phones, her laptop, and cloud-account credentials to her attorney.
Then she asked Allison to stay.
They sat alone after everyone else left.
Camille looked exhausted.
“I loved him.”
Allison’s expression did not change.
Camille corrected herself.
“I thought I did.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because I don’t want to hide behind money.”
Allison leaned back.
Camille stared at her hands.
“The first time happened in the Bethesda apartment.”
Allison wished she had not asked by staying.
“He’d been helping me with payroll,” Camille continued. “I was crying. He told me you never understood what it felt like to disappoint Dad.”
“That sounds like him.”
“He said he did.”
Allison almost laughed.
Derek had been Thomas Grant’s favorite success story once.
A talented accountant from a working-class family who married the founder’s eldest daughter.
Thomas respected him until he stopped.
“He kissed me,” Camille said.
“Did you stop him?”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell the story like gravity did it.”
Camille swallowed.
“I kissed him back.”
Allison looked toward the window.
“Good. Keep the verbs accurate.”
Camille winced.
“I went back three days later.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know.”
“A few times a week.”
Allison closed her eyes.
Eleven months.
A few times a week.
Her marriage disintegrated mathematically.
“Did he promise to leave me?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After Wellington sold.”
There it was again.
The property was the finish line for everything.
“What did he say would happen?”
“That you’d take your share and walk away from the company.”
Allison turned.
“Why would I?”
“He said you were tired.”
“I never said that.”
“I know.”
“He planned my life for me.”
Camille nodded miserably.
“He said after the sale, he’d divorce you.”
“And marry you?”
Camille’s silence answered.
Allison felt a strange pain.
Not jealousy.
Insult.
Derek had constructed a replacement marriage with her sister while still sleeping beside her.
“Is that why you let the hospital call you Mrs. Hale?”
Camille began crying again.
“He said it was temporary.”
“Marriage?”
“No. The lie.”
“You enjoyed it.”
Camille looked up.
Allison saw the answer before hearing it.
“For a while.”
The honesty was brutal.
“I hated myself afterward.”
“Not enough to stop.”
“No.”
Allison stood.
She needed air.
Camille said, “There’s one thing he was terrified of.”
Allison turned.
“What?”
“A backup drive.”
“What backup drive?”
“He said your father used to keep offline backups because he didn’t trust cloud accounting.”
Allison remembered.
Thomas had been old-fashioned about security.
Every quarter, he required a controller to create an encrypted archive stored off-site.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Derek?”
“He thought Dad stopped doing it before he died.”
“Why?”
“Because he searched the office.”
Allison stared.
“When?”
“After the funeral.”
The same period Camille gave him the green file.
“He couldn’t find it,” Camille said.
“Why did he care?”
“He said old books could be misread.”
Allison almost smiled.
Fraudsters always feared records they had not edited.
She called Owen.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
“My father kept quarterly offline archives.”
“I know.”
Allison froze.
“What?”
“I found references in the accounting manual.”
“Where are they?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Who would?”
Owen paused.
“Your father’s former controller.”
Allison knew the name.
Helen Ward.
Retired.
Seventy-one years old.
Had worked for Thomas for twenty-six years.
Allison hadn’t spoken to her in over a year.
She called.
Helen answered on the fifth ring.
“Allison?”
“Helen, I need to ask you something about Dad.”
A pause.
“Is this about Derek?”
Allison stood completely still.
“How did you know?”
Helen exhaled slowly.
“Because your father made me promise something.”
“What?”
“If Derek ever took control of the company records…”
Helen stopped.
May you like
Then said:
“I was supposed to give you the key.”
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