Chapter 12 - Naomi Learns What She Was WorthNaomi met investigators with her own attorney.
She brought her phone.
Laptop.
Bank records.
Every message Trevor had sent her.
The interview lasted four hours.
When she returned, Elise was waiting in Grace’s office.
“How bad?”
Naomi sat down.
“They asked if I knew the invoices were fake.”
“What did you say?”
“The truth.”
Elise waited.
Naomi swallowed.
“At the beginning, no.”
“And later?”
“I knew I hadn’t done the work.”
Elise’s expression hardened.
Naomi did not look away.
“I told myself Trevor was correcting something Mom had denied me.”
“So you knew the invoices weren’t real.”
“Yes.”
Grace said quietly, “That matters.”
Naomi nodded.
“I know.”
She might face civil liability.
Possibly criminal exposure if prosecutors believed she knowingly participated in theft.
Her attorney was negotiating cooperation.
Elise felt conflicting emotions she could barely tolerate.
Naomi had been manipulated.
Naomi had also chosen.
Both things were true.
That afternoon, investigators obtained records for Hale Meridian voluntarily through a preservation agreement with Trevor’s bank pending legal process.
One detail immediately stood out.
The money had not remained invested.
Large amounts had moved again.
$400,000 toward a brokerage account.
$280,000 toward legal retainers and debt.
$310,000 toward a private investment fund.
And $125,000 to another individual.
Naomi stared at the name.
Rachel Kessler.
“Who is that?” Elise asked.
Naomi’s face changed.
“I don’t know.”
Grace searched public corporate records.
Rachel Kessler was a commercial real-estate consultant.
No obvious connection.
Naomi opened her messages.
She searched the name.
Nothing.
Then Elise remembered something.
“Trevor traveled to Chicago twice last year.”
Grace looked at her.
“For work?”
“That’s what he said.”
Adrian checked company travel.
Ward & Finch had no meetings scheduled in Chicago on either trip.
Naomi went pale.
“No.”
Elise looked at her.
“What?”
Naomi was staring at a photograph on social media.
Rachel Kessler at a restaurant.
In the background, reflected faintly in a mirror, was Trevor.
The photograph was dated nine months earlier.
Before N.W. Creative.
Before Trevor’s affair with Naomi.
Naomi stared at it.
“He told me I was the first person he had ever cheated with.”
Elise almost said something cruel.
Then stopped.
Because Naomi’s face was collapsing exactly as Elise’s had in the bedroom.
Grace continued searching.
A public property filing connected Rachel to a small investment partnership considering redevelopment projects.
One partner was linked to a private-equity group that had previously purchased family-owned design firms.
Adrian looked at the screen.
“This could be the buyer.”
Elise leaned closer.
The group was called Calder Rowe Capital.
The hard drive contained a valuation presentation prepared for an unnamed strategic buyer.
Initials appeared in the metadata:
CRC.
Calder Rowe Capital.
Naomi sank into her chair.
“He wasn’t planning to leave you for me.”
Elise looked at her.
Naomi whispered, “I wasn’t the plan.”
“No.”
Naomi began to cry.
“I was leverage.”
Elise knew exactly how that felt.
Grace placed another recovered document on the screen.
A draft indemnification agreement prepared three weeks earlier.
It named N.W. Creative as solely responsible for any inaccurate invoices.
Naomi read the paragraph.
Trevor had drafted language insulating Ward & Finch finance officers from reliance on vendor representations.
Meaning if the scheme collapsed—
he planned to argue Naomi had deceived the company.
Naomi covered her mouth.
“He was going to blame me.”
“Yes,” Grace said.
“And Elise.”
“Yes.”
Naomi stood.
For months, Trevor had told both sisters different versions of the same lie.
Elise was controlling Naomi.
Naomi was unstable.
Cecilia had intended different things.
The company owed money.
The affair meant love.
Every lie moved the same direction.
Toward Trevor.
Naomi wiped her tears.
“What do investigators need from me?”
Her attorney answered carefully.
“Everything.”
Naomi nodded.
Then she unlocked her phone.
“There’s one thing I haven’t shown them yet.”
Elise looked at her.
Naomi opened a hidden message folder.
Dozens of deleted screenshots appeared.
Trevor’s promises.
His instructions.
His threats.
May you like
And one message from six weeks earlier that made Elise stop breathing.
When the board removes her, we’ll finally be free of Elise for good.
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