Chapter 19 - Camille ChoosesCamille could have stopped cooperating.
Her attorney made that clear.
Charges against Derek did not guarantee immunity for her.
In fact, prosecutors were evaluating Camille’s own conduct.
The fake invoices.
The money.
The notary preparation.
Her knowledge.
Camille sat in her attorney’s office and stared at the cooperation agreement.
“They’re not promising no charges.”
“No.”
“What are they promising?”
“That truthful cooperation will be considered.”
Camille laughed bitterly.
“So nothing.”
“Not nothing. But not immunity.”
Camille looked through the window.
“Derek said Allison would let me take all the blame.”
Her attorney did not respond.
Camille turned.
“Do you think she will?”
“I think Allison has consistently refused to lie for you.”
The sentence hurt.
Because it was true.
Camille signed anyway.
That evening, she asked Allison to meet at a coffee shop.
“I signed.”
Allison nodded.
“I heard.”
“I’m scared.”
“I know.”
Camille almost smiled.
“Now you’re saying it.”
Allison looked down at her coffee.
“What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.”
“Good.”
“I just wanted you to hear it from me.”
Allison studied her sister.
“What changed?”
Camille thought carefully.
“Dad’s letter.”
Allison waited.
“I spent years saying nobody understood me.”
Camille’s eyes filled.
“Then I found out Dad did understand. He just failed to say it properly.”
She wiped her cheek.
“And I realized I’ve been using other people’s failures to excuse my own.”
Allison leaned back.
“That’s a hard lesson.”
“I learned it very expensively.”
“Yes.”
Camille inhaled.
“Derek called me from another number.”
Allison’s shoulders tightened.
“What did he say?”
“That if I testify, he’ll tell everyone I planned the whole thing.”
“He already said that.”
“He said he has documents.”
“Do you believe him?”
Camille looked at Allison.
“No.”
That answer mattered.
Not because she trusted Allison.
Because she had finally stopped automatically trusting Derek.
Camille handed Allison a folded sheet.
“What’s this?”
“A list of every place we met.”
Allison’s face hardened.
“I don’t want it.”
“It’s not about the affair.”
Camille slid it closer.
“Some were places where Derek used company laptops or papers.”
Allison unfolded it.
Hotels.
The Bethesda apartment.
Restaurants.
St. Vincent.
One address stood out.
The Grant family house.
Allison looked up.
“You brought him there?”
Camille went pale.
“Once.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
Before the affair.
“Why?”
“He said he needed to check Dad’s desk for an old contract.”
“You let him into the house.”
“Yes.”
Allison felt anger return.
“What did he take?”
“I don’t know.”
They searched property records and old files again.
Nothing obvious was missing.
Then Helen remembered Thomas kept an emergency company seal in the desk.
The embossed corporate seal was ceremonial and not required for most modern transactions.
But it could make forged documents look authentic.
The seal was gone.
Police later found it during execution of a search warrant at Derek’s Bethesda apartment.
Along with blank Grant Medical Properties letterhead.
Copies of Allison’s signatures.
Stoneharbor documents.
And a handwritten list.
At the top:
Wellington.
Below:
A. exits management.
C. supports sale.
Debt cleared.
Alder funded.
D + C transition after 90 days.
Allison read the photographed page.
Her stomach turned.
D + C.
Derek and Camille.
A future written like a project plan.
Camille sat beside her.
“I didn’t know about that list.”
Allison believed her.
Not because she wanted to.
Because the evidence supported it.
Camille’s role had been terrible.
But Derek’s planning went further than she knew.
Owen looked at the handwriting.
“This was seized from his apartment.”
Mara nodded.
“Along with the corporate seal.”
Allison asked, “What happens now?”
May you like
Mara answered carefully.
“Now Derek has to decide whether he wants to keep pretending this is a marital misunderstanding.”
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