Chapter 6 — The Wife They Put on Trial

“Answer it,” Nate said.

“I don’t know what I’d say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. Let her explain.”

The phone stopped.

A message followed.

Please. They’re threatening Dad. I didn’t know what else to do.

I turned the screen toward him.

His face hardened.

“Who is they?”

I called her.

She answered before the first ring finished.

“I’m sorry.”

“Who threatened your father?”

“Audrey, I can fix—”

“Who?”

A pause.

Then, very quietly, “Victor.”

Nate moved away from the table, giving me room without leaving the kitchen.

“What did he tell you?”

“That the support he promised was gone unless I corrected the story. That Dad’s creditors would act immediately. That I’d ruined everything.”

“So you decided I could pay for it.”

“I didn’t think they’d print all of it.”

“What part did you think would be harmless?”

She started crying.

I looked at the coffee Nate had brought me.

It had my name written on the lid.

Such a small thing.

I had been happy about it five minutes earlier.

“Call Mara,” I said. “Tell her exactly what happened. I’m not keeping another secret for you.”

“Audrey—”

“If you want to help me, tell the truth while someone else can hear it.”

I ended the call.

Nate reached for his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Contacting the publicist.”

“And then?”

“Getting the statement withdrawn.”

“It’s already out.”

“We can contain the spread.”

“You can’t make everyone unread it.”

His hand closed around the phone.

“I know.”

“Then stop treating that as the answer.”

He looked at me.

For a moment, I thought we would fight.

Instead, he put the phone down.

“All right. Tell me what you need.”

“I need the review to continue. I need my work records preserved. And I need to know what Victor intends to do with this.”

“I can answer the last one.”

He showed me a meeting notice.

An extraordinary session of the group’s audit committee and selected directors had been scheduled for the next afternoon.

The listed concerns included procurement irregularities, confidential disclosures, and executive conflicts.

Under supporting materials was my name.

By noon, Evelyn had invited me to the house.

I went because I wanted to hear what she would say before somebody called it kindness.

She received me in a sitting room overlooking the garden.

There was an envelope beside her teacup.

“I’m sorry about the article.”

“Which one?”

Her face tightened.

“All of it.”

I sat.

She pushed the envelope toward me.

“This would let you take some time away. Somewhere private. We can handle the announcements carefully.”

I didn’t touch it.

“What announcements?”

“That the marriage was a mistake made under unusual pressure.”

“Whose mistake?”

“Please don’t make this adversarial.”

“Then don’t ask me to leave without saying why.”

She looked toward the garden.

“Nathaniel’s position is difficult. Your involvement with Sophie, your employment, the accusations about Victor—”

“My report.”

“Yes.”

“Not accusations. A report.”

Evelyn folded her hands.

“There is an amount in that envelope that could change your life.”

“My life changed when your family put my name outside a room.”

“I believed I was helping everyone.”

“You were helping your son.”

“I’m his mother.”

“I know.”

The answer seemed to hurt her.

It hurt me too.

For a foolish moment after the wedding, I had thought her soft voice might mean I had gained someone.

Now she was offering me enough money to make losing her look unreasonable.

I stood.

“I won’t sign anything here.”

“Audrey.”

“If the company has questions about my work, I’ll answer them. If Nate has questions about our marriage, he can ask me himself.”

I left the envelope on the table.

Mara met me that afternoon in her office.

She had already spoken to Sophie.

“She’s frightened,” she said.

“That seems to happen whenever someone else needs her to be honest.”

“She has provided additional material.”

“What material?”

“A complete conversation with Victor. She recorded it while trying to clarify what he expected before the wedding. She says she kept it because she was afraid he would deny his promises.”

I stared at her.

“Why didn’t she give us that first?”

“Because she was still hoping to avoid involving her father.”

I pressed my fingers against my eyes.

Mara waited.

When I lowered my hands, she slid a pad toward me.

“We’re not building a response out of anger. We’re building it out of what can be established.”

For the next two hours, we organized dates.

My review request.

The notification withdrawing it.

The earlier warehouse query Nate had located.

My leave letter.

The payments predating the wedding.

I didn’t possess the full company files. I didn’t need to. The reviewers could inspect those themselves.

What I had was a sequence that Victor’s story could not comfortably contain.

Mara requested my attendance at the meeting and submitted a description of the supporting material through the agreed review channel.

Then she asked, “Do you want Nate beside you?”

I thought of the car.

The kitchen.

The hand that had waited for permission before touching mine.

“Yes.”

“Make sure he understands you’re answering for yourself.”

“He will.”

I hoped I wasn’t lying.

Nate arrived at my apartment after nine.

He had called first.

I let him in.

“My mother spoke to you,” he said.

“Yes.”

“I told her not to contact you again about leaving.”

“Did she tell you about the money?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“I told her it wasn’t hers to offer.”

He stood beside the table where my notes lay in neat piles.

“I can postpone tomorrow.”

“No.”

“It would give us time.”

“It would give Victor time.”

“Audrey, they’re going to ask personal questions.”

“I know.”

“They may use Sophie’s statement.”

“I know.”

His voice changed.

“I hate that I let you walk into this.”

I looked up.

“You didn’t let me. I made a choice.”

“Without knowing enough.”

“So did you.”

He accepted that with a small movement of his head.

I stepped closer.

“What happened yesterday doesn’t make the kiss a mistake.”

His eyes lifted to mine.

“I wasn’t going to ask.”

“You were thinking it.”

He exhaled.

“Yes.”

I touched his wrist.

“I’m still angry. I’m still frightened. But I’m not ashamed of wanting you.”

He turned his hand beneath mine and held it.

“You don’t have to prove anything to me tomorrow.”

“That’s good,” I said. “Because I’m not doing this for you.”

His thumb moved once over my knuckles.

For the first time, that answer didn’t seem to disappoint him.

Victor was already seated when we entered the conference room.

He glanced at Nate’s hand against the small of my back, then at Mara beside me.

“This was intended as an internal meeting.”

Mara placed her folder on the table.

“My client has been named in the materials. Her attendance was confirmed yesterday.”

The committee chair indicated our seats.

I sat between Mara and an empty chair.

Nate took the empty one.

The finance reviewer joined by video. Two directors watched from the far side of the table.

Victor began with the acquisition.

Integration pressures. Unfamiliar processes. The difficulty of distinguishing genuine concerns from personal agendas.

Then he reached me.

“Mrs. Blackwell’s access requires careful consideration, particularly in light of recent evidence that she engineered the circumstances of her marriage.”

“My name is Audrey Bennett,” I said.

He smiled faintly.

“Of course.”

The chair raised a hand.

“Let’s address the payment review first.”

Victor leaned back.

I opened my notes.

“There are four payments under review. All were approved before the wedding. My report identified repeated freight references, not a motive.”

“Which you subsequently linked to me,” Victor said.

“Your approval was attached.”

“Integration approvals are not evidence of wrongdoing.”

“I agree.”

That made him pause.

“The reviewer can determine whether the payments were valid. What I’m asking you to examine is why the review was withdrawn.”

The woman on the screen spoke.

“We have confirmed an earlier query concerning two of the same references. That query did not proceed to central finance.”

Victor turned toward her.

“I wasn’t aware—”

“We’re still establishing the instruction path.”

I placed the notification before the chair.

“My employment access was suspended the morning after my report was withdrawn. I asked that both events be preserved. I’m asking again now.”

One director leaned forward.

The chair made a note.

Nate spoke.

“When Audrey showed me the withdrawal, I questioned her intentions before examining the records. That was my error. Her marriage to me does not invalidate her work.”

I didn’t look at him.

If I did, I might lose the steady line of my breathing.

Victor’s smile disappeared.

“Her intentions are exactly what we need to discuss.”

He signaled to the assistant beside the screen.

Sophie’s recorded statement began.

I heard my friend say that I had encouraged her to leave.

That I had always been interested in Nate.

The assistant stopped the video.

Victor looked at me.

“Would you like to deny helping her escape?”

“No.”

The room went still.

“I gave her my car,” I said. “She was frightened and wanted to leave. I won’t pretend otherwise.”

“So you admit—”

“I admit giving her the keys. I don’t admit knowing why you wanted her gone.”

His expression changed.

Only slightly.

Enough.

Mara opened the second folder.

“We have supplied the complete file and its accompanying messages to the review team. Sophie Whitmore has authorized its use and agreed to confirm its origin through counsel.”

Victor looked at the chair.

“This is an ambush.”

“No,” I said. “This is the part Sophie left out.”

The assistant loaded the audio.

Nate’s hand rested on the table beside mine.

He didn’t reach for me.

I didn’t need him to.

The chair nodded.

“Play it.”

A brief rustle filled the speakers.

Then Victor’s voice, unmistakable.

“Sophie, listen carefully. You must be gone before Nathaniel comes upstairs.”