Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW MY SECRET
The wedding was officially over.
Nobody announced it.
Nobody needed to.
Guests simply began leaving.
Some avoided my eyes.
Others approached to whisper apologies.
I accepted none.
Not because I was angry with them.
Because I had bigger questions.
General Carver sent a secure vehicle.
I declined.
I wanted to leave in my own time.
Christian followed me outside.
“Camille.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“Please don't go.”
I turned.
“You don't get to ask me that.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you?”
“Because I'm afraid.”
I studied him.
“Of what?”
“That you're going to disappear.”
I almost smiled.
“I've been disappearing for three years.”
He looked down.
Then Martin approached.
“Mrs. Dupont, General Carver is waiting.”
I frowned.
“He is?”
Martin nodded.
“He said this was urgent.”
I drove to a secure government facility.
General Raymond Carver was waiting in a conference room.
He looked at me.
Then at the watch photograph on the table.
“Did Christian know someone was tracking you?”
“No.”
Carver nodded.
“That is what we needed to confirm.”
I sat.
“What happened?”
He opened a file.
“Someone accessed classified travel information connected to your deployments.”
“When?”
“Repeatedly.”
“From where?”
He slid a report across the table.
“From a private network belonging to Dupont Enterprise Group.”
My stomach tightened.
“Christian?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“We don't know yet.”
He pointed to another page.
“Someone used your husband's corporate credentials.”
I stared at the report.
“Could Christian have done it?”
Carver looked at me.
“Could he? Yes.”
“Did he?”
“We haven't established that.”
I appreciated the answer.
Carver continued.
“There is more.”
He showed me a photograph.
A woman.
The same woman from my wedding picture.
My mother-in-law's former assistant.
“Her name is Elise Laurent.”
I knew the name.
Christian had mentioned her once.
“She worked for his father.”
“She also worked for military contractors.”
I looked at him.
“That's not illegal.”
“No.”
Carver leaned forward.
“But she left one company under unusual circumstances.”
“Why?”
“She accessed personnel records without authorization.”
My chest tightened.
“Mine?”
“Not originally.”
“What did she search?”
Carver slid another page across the table.
My maiden name.
My mother's name.
And one old address.
I stared.
“That was my childhood home.”
Carver nodded.
“Exactly.”
I sat back.
“What would she want with my childhood home?”
“We don't know.”
Then my phone vibrated.
Christian.
I didn't answer.
A second message appeared.
I found Elise.
Then:
She says you were never supposed to see the trust.
I called him immediately.
“Where are you?”
“At my father's old office.”
“Why?”
“Because I found something.”
“What?”
His breathing was uneven.
“A file with your name.”
I stood.
“Don't open it.”
“Why?”
“Because we don't know who left it there.”
“Camille, it's about your mother.”
That stopped me.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“What does it say?”
Silence.
Then Christian whispered,
“It says she worked for my father.”
I closed my eyes.
“I knew that.”
“No.”
His voice sounded different.
“It says she wasn't his employee.”
“What was she?”
“I don't know.”
“Christian.”
He swallowed.
“The file says she was investigating him.”
I froze.
“Investigating him for what?”
“I don't know.”
“Then read it.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because the last page has your signature.”
My heart stopped.
“My signature?”
“Yes.”
“From when?”
“Before we met.”
I stared at the wall.
“That isn't possible.”
Christian's voice became quiet.
“Camille, I think someone has been manipulating both of us for years.”
Then I heard a sound behind him.
A door closing.
Christian whispered,
“Someone's here.”
The line went dead.
I immediately called back.
No answer.
Carver was already standing.
“What happened?”
I looked at him.
“Christian found a file about my mother.”
Carver's expression changed.
“Then we have a bigger problem.”
“Why?”
He looked at the photograph of Elise.
“Because Elise Laurent disappeared six years ago.”
I stared.
“Then who has been sending Christian those files?”
Carver didn't answer.
Instead, he pointed toward my phone.
A new message had arrived.
A photograph.
Christian's father's old office.
Empty.
The file was open on the desk.
And on the final page was my signature.
Under it were four words:
May you like
I AUTHORIZED EVERYTHING.
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