Chapter 11 - The Other Woman Who Wasn’t the StoryThe woman’s name was Serena Walsh.
For one hour, Marlowe thought Gavin had another affair.
Then Evelyn verified the receipt.
Serena was not a lover.
She was a corporate-restructuring attorney.
The hotel meeting had lasted three hours.
Gavin had paid from his personal account.
Marlowe almost laughed when Evelyn told her.
“Somehow that’s worse.”
Serena agreed to speak after Evelyn sent a formal request.
She was cautious.
“I can’t disclose privileged communications.”
“Was Gavin your client?” Evelyn asked.
“Initially.”
“Did he ask about Hale Development?”
Serena paused.
“I can say he requested general information about shareholder disputes.”
Marlowe leaned forward.
“What kind?”
“Removing directors.”
“Anything else?”
“Minority oppression claims. Proxy authority. Emergency governance.”
Marlowe felt her stomach tighten.
“Did he ask about declaring a shareholder incompetent?”
Serena’s eyes changed.
“That question is too specific.”
“Which means yes.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Serena closed her notebook.
“I terminated the consultation.”
“Why?” Evelyn asked.
“Because I became uncomfortable with the factual assumptions he wanted me to make.”
“What assumptions?”
Serena looked at Marlowe.
“That a principal shareholder could be portrayed as emotionally unstable based primarily on information supplied by a spouse.”
Marlowe felt cold.
Serena continued.
“I told him courts require evidence. Not marital opinion.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked what kind of evidence would matter.”
Marlowe looked at Evelyn.
The voice memo.
The emails.
The deliberate documentation.
Gavin had been building exactly what Serena told him he would need.
“Did you help him?”
“No.”
“Why meet at a hotel?”
“My office was under renovation. The hotel has conference suites.”
Daphne’s implication had been wrong.
Or intentionally misleading.
Marlowe wondered if her mother had hoped to redirect attention toward sexual betrayal because financial betrayal was worse.
Before leaving, Serena said one more thing.
“Mrs. Mercer.”
Marlowe turned.
“After I declined representation, your husband asked whether I knew anyone less ‘conservative.’”
“Did you refer him?”
“No.”
“But he may have found someone.”
“Yes.”
That afternoon, Evelyn searched Gavin’s payments.
A firm in Nevada had received $26,000 from him.
Not illegal.
But suspicious.
The firm specialized in shareholder activism.
Gavin had been planning beyond the coastal sale.
Marlowe went home to the mansion that evening for the first time since the wardrobe.
The court had granted temporary exclusive occupancy while the divorce proceeded.
She stood in the bedroom doorway.
Copper walked inside.
He approached the wardrobe.
Stopped.
Looked at it.
Then looked at Marlowe.
She opened the doors.
Empty.
“Nothing there.”
Copper wagged his tail.
Marlowe almost cried.
She sat on the floor.
The house was silent.
On the bed was the place where her marriage had ended.
But now she understood the marriage had been corrupted before it began.
She pulled the bedding off.
Every sheet.
Every pillow.
Everything Gavin and Daphne had touched.
Then she noticed something beneath the bed.
A single pearl earring.
Her mother’s.
Marlowe held it in her palm.
A tiny object.
Worth maybe a few hundred dollars.
Yet it represented years of lies.
She put it in an evidence envelope.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
“Marlowe Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“This is Daniel Royce with First Atlantic Bank’s fraud department.”
Her pulse changed.
“We’ve identified another transaction using your authorization.”
“How much?”
“Not millions.”
He paused.
“One hundred twenty thousand dollars.”
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
Marlowe sat very still.
May you like
The forged $4.8 million loan had not been the first attempt.
Gavin and Daphne had already successfully stolen from her once.
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