Chapter 3 - What Was MissingElise entered the code to the inner compartment.
Drawer 317 unlocked.
She pulled it open.
At first, nothing appeared disturbed.
Her mother’s estate binder was there.
Property records.
Insurance documents.
Corporate agreements.
A sealed folder containing the original shareholder restructuring for Ward & Finch Interiors, the luxury design company Elise’s mother had built over twenty-eight years.
Elise exhaled.
Then she counted again.
One folder was missing.
She knew exactly which one.
A blue envelope labeled:
EXECUTIVE AUTHORIZATION — ORIGINALS.
Her mother had explained it shortly before she died.
“If anyone ever challenges your voting control,” Cecilia Ward had told Elise, “those originals prove exactly what I intended.”
Elise had been twenty.
Naomi had been eighteen.
Their mother was dying of pancreatic cancer.
At the time, Elise had hated every conversation involving wills, shares or ownership.
Now she wished she had listened more carefully.
Ward & Finch was worth roughly forty million dollars.
Cecilia had left Elise fifty-five percent of the voting shares because Elise had already spent years working beside her.
Naomi received twenty-five percent of the economic ownership through a trust administered independently until her twenty-fifth birthday.
The remaining shares were owned by two longtime executives.
Naomi had always resented the arrangement.
Elise knew that.
But she had never imagined Trevor would care enough about those documents to steal one.
Her phone rang.
Naomi.
Elise watched it until it stopped.
Then another call arrived.
Trevor.
She rejected it.
A message followed.
We need to talk before you do something you can’t undo.
Elise read the sentence twice.
Not before I lose you.
Not please forgive me.
Before you do something you can’t undo.
She took photographs of the safe.
Then called Grace Whitaker.
Grace had been Cecilia Ward’s attorney for fourteen years.
She answered on the second ring.
“Elise?”
“I need you to come to the house.”
Grace heard something in her voice.
“What happened?”
“Someone was inside the estate safe.”
Silence.
“Do not touch anything else.”
“I already opened it.”
“What’s missing?”
“The executive authorization envelope.”
Another pause.
“Is Trevor there?”
“No.”
“Where is he?”
“I threw him out.”
“Elise, what happened?”
Elise looked toward the bedroom.
“My husband was in bed with Naomi.”
Grace said nothing.
“My sister was hiding in my wardrobe.”
“Elise…”
“And Naomi had the duplicate key to Drawer 317.”
Grace’s breathing changed.
“I’m coming now.”
Thirty-five minutes later, Grace stood in the study wearing a charcoal suit and an expression Elise had never seen before.
Fear.
She examined the safe.
“The missing originals matter,” Grace said.
“Why?”
“Because your mother revised the company structure six months before she died.”
“I know.”
“Trevor knows too.”
Elise looked at her.
“How?”
Grace hesitated.
“He was present for part of the transition.”
Elise frowned.
Trevor had worked for Ward & Finch before they became romantically involved.
He had joined the finance department when Elise was nineteen.
He became financial planning director two years later.
After Cecilia died, Elise promoted him to vice president of finance.
A decision that suddenly felt catastrophic.
Grace continued.
“The missing documents establish your mother’s reasons for giving you voting control.”
“Reasons?”
“Governance protections.”
“What protections?”
Grace looked uncomfortable.
“Cecilia was concerned someone inside the company was manipulating vendor expenses.”
Elise went cold.
“Who?”
“She never proved it.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Grace’s eyes met hers.
“Trevor was one of the people she was reviewing.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“No.”
“Elise—”
“He told me my mother believed in him.”
“She did at first.”
“He said she wanted him promoted.”
“She considered terminating him.”
Elise stood completely still.
Her mind jumped backward.
Trevor comforting her at her mother’s funeral.
Trevor bringing food to the mansion when she stopped eating.
Trevor telling her Cecilia would have wanted her to trust people.
Their first kiss.
Their engagement.
Their wedding.
Every memory rearranged itself.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Your mother became very sick very quickly. The internal review was never completed.”
Grace reached into her briefcase.
“There’s something else.”
She placed a printed accounting report on the desk.
Three payments were highlighted.
$185,000.
$240,000.
$310,000.
All paid by Ward & Finch during the previous four months.
The vendor listed on each line was:
N.W. Creative Consulting LLC.
Elise stared at the initials.
N.W.
Naomi Ward.
“I noticed these last week,” Grace said. “Trevor authorized all three.”
Elise looked at her.
“Naomi owns this company?”
“I don’t know.”
A notification sounded on Elise’s phone.
A message from Naomi.
Trevor said you were stealing from me. He said the company owed me money.
May you like
Then another.
Elise, I think I signed something I shouldn’t have.
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