Chapter 4 — What Tessa Knew

Nora stared at her sister.

For fourteen months, she had believed Evan’s comments about her body were the reason he left. She had believed Tessa either agreed with him or had chosen not to care. Now Tessa stood in her wedding dress, telling Nora that humiliation had been a cover for something else.

“What did he get from me?” Nora asked.

Tessa glanced toward the ballroom.

“No,” Nora said. “Look at me.”

“Your work.”

“I know he used a line from my work. Tell me what you know.”

Tessa swallowed. “Before you broke up, Evan asked me to take a small drive to his office. He said it had files you’d lent him for a presentation.”

“A drive from where?”

“Your apartment.”

Nora felt the corridor narrow around her. “You came to my apartment?”

“You gave me a key for emergencies.”

“That was not an emergency.”

“I didn’t understand what he was doing.”

“But you knew he was taking something from me.”

Tessa’s eyes dropped. “I knew you hadn’t asked me to bring it.”

Nora took out her phone and opened a voice-recording app. She held the screen where Tessa could see it.

“I want to record this conversation,” she said. “You can say no.”

Tessa looked at the red button. “Are you going to play it for everyone?”

“I’m going to find out what happened. You can decide whether you want to tell me on record.”

Tessa hesitated, then nodded. Nora pressed record and stated the date, their names, and Tessa’s agreement.

“When did you take the drive?” Nora asked.

“Three years ago. A Thursday in October, I think. I had lunch with you the next day.”

“Did Evan give it to you at my apartment?”

“He’d left it in an envelope under your kitchen sink. He texted me where to find it.”

Nora remembered that lunch. Tessa had arrived early and offered to let herself in while Nora finished a call upstairs. Nora had been glad to see her.

“Do you still have his texts?”

“I changed phones. The messages might be in a backup.”

“Did you open the envelope?”

“No.”

“Did you see anyone receive it?”

“I gave it to a woman at the reception desk at Calder Vale. She told me to sign for the delivery.”

“Do you remember her name?”

“No.”

Nora let the silence sit between them. From the ballroom came a burst of applause and the opening notes of another song.

“When did you learn what was on the drive?” Nora asked.

“I still don’t know exactly. Last year, before you found out about us, I heard Evan arguing on the phone. He said your North Pier files had done their job and he didn’t want to hear about them again.”

“Who was he talking to?”

“I don’t know.”

“You never told me.”

Tessa’s voice broke. “You already hated me.”

“I didn’t know you’d gone into my apartment and carried my files to his office.”

“You hated me for Evan.”

Nora stopped the recording. She needed Tessa to understand the difference.

“I loved you,” she said. “That’s why what you did hurt.”

Tessa pressed her lips together. Nora didn’t wait for an answer.

Dante stood by a window at the far end of the corridor. Nora walked to him.

“Tessa says she delivered a drive from my apartment to Evan’s office,” she told him. “I recorded her account with her consent.”

Dante looked past Nora at Tessa, who had not moved. “Was she told what was on it?”

“She says no. I need to check her dates and messages.”

“Do you want to leave?”

“In a minute. I’m going to ask the insurance specialist at our table for the toast video first.”

Nora got the woman’s number and asked her to send the original recording rather than a clip. Then Nora sent a brief email to herself listing what she knew, separating Tessa’s claims from things she could verify. By the time she and Dante reached the car, Maya had called back.

“I went through my old calendar,” Maya said. “I can’t access the project system tonight, but I found the date of the account alert. It was Thursday, October nineteenth.”

Nora leaned forward. “Tessa was at my apartment that morning.”

“That doesn’t tell us what was downloaded. IT closed the alert after you confirmed you’d worked from home.”

“I remember confirming it. I didn’t check the individual file list.”

“You weren’t told there was one.”

Nora looked out at the estate disappearing behind the car. “On Monday, can you ask the agency to preserve whatever records remain? I’ll have a lawyer contact them.”

“I’ll speak to the records manager. Nora, don’t ask me to send you client material.”

“I won’t.”

When the call ended, Dante said, “I can have my counsel contact the agency tonight.”

“I’m calling my own lawyer in the morning.”

“I meant to preserve the files, not take charge.”

“I know. My name is on that download alert. I have to make the request myself.”

Back at her apartment, Nora wrote down everything she remembered about October nineteenth. Evan had borrowed her laptop earlier that week. Tessa had come over on Thursday. At some point Nora had gone upstairs for a call. She remembered a short burst of kitchen noise afterward, Tessa saying she had knocked over a glass. None of it proved what had been copied.

She searched her old messages with Tessa. Their lunch plan was there. So was a photograph Tessa had sent from outside Nora’s building that morning:

Here early. Let me know when I can come up.

Nora forwarded the exchange to her lawyer, Priya Shah, with a request to speak as soon as possible.

Then she examined the wedding seating chart again. Evan had put her with colleagues who knew the old deal. He had quoted her memo while watching for a reaction. Perhaps he wanted her to accuse him publicly with nothing but one sentence to support it.

At 1:12 a.m., an email appeared from Evan.

I heard you questioned Tessa tonight. Please don’t turn our wedding into another grievance about your work. You gave me access to your laptop when we were together. If you’ve forgotten what you shared, that’s hardly my fault.

Nora read it twice.

Evan had not asked what work she meant.

She forwarded the email to Priya without replying.