Chapter 3 - Olivia Had Used Different Words
Grant had never heard Olivia describe anyone named Camille.
That became Camille’s first defense.
“If I was supposedly so important, why didn’t your wife ever mention me?”
Grant hated that the question was reasonable.
Ruth did too.
So she refused to guess.
Instead, they called Olivia’s younger sister, Hannah.
Grant asked only one question.
“Did Olivia know a woman named Camille?”
Silence.
Then Hannah said:
“What did she do?”
Grant closed his eyes.
That reaction told him everything.
Hannah arrived at the estate before midnight.
She walked into the library, saw Camille seated across the room under security supervision, and stopped.
“Oh my God.”
Camille looked away.
Hannah did not.
“You.”
Grant turned toward Olivia’s sister.
“You know her.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Hannah sat slowly.
“College.”
Not best friends.
Not exactly.
They had shared a close social circle for several years.
Camille was smart, charming, funny, and intensely competitive with Olivia.
At first the competition seemed harmless.
Same internship.
Same charity committees.
Similar dresses.
Similar vacation plans.
Olivia joked about it.
Then things became uncomfortable.
Camille started showing up places without being invited.
She repeated private conversations to other people.
She introduced herself to Olivia’s professional contacts as though their lives overlapped more than they did.
When Olivia became engaged to Grant, Camille became especially strange.
“She wanted Grant?” Hannah asked.
“No.”
That surprised him.
“At least Olivia never believed that.”
“Then what did she want?”
Hannah struggled to explain.
“Olivia used to say Camille didn’t want her things. She wanted her place.”
Grant stared.
There was a difference.
A disturbing one.
Camille did not covet one man, one house, or one job.
She became fixated on whatever made Olivia feel chosen.
Friendships.
Professional respect.
Family closeness.
Eventually Olivia cut contact.
Completely.
That had happened years before Grant married her.
Grant asked:
“Why didn’t Olivia tell me?”
“She did. Just not using Camille’s name.”
Hannah reminded him of conversations he had forgotten.
Olivia occasionally joked about “an old friend who thought boundaries were personal attacks.”
Once she said:
“If a blonde woman ever appears claiming she knows everything about me, run.”
Grant had laughed.
He assumed it was exaggeration.
At the time, Camille’s hair had been dark brown.
She wore it short.
Her appearance now was different enough that old descriptions meant nothing.
Then Hannah said something else.
“Camille didn’t always use Camille.”
Grant frowned.
“In college everyone called her Millie.”
Grant went still.
That name he remembered.
Not well.
But Olivia had mentioned Millie.
More than once.
The woman Olivia said copied everything.
The woman she eventually cut off.
Grant looked across the library at his current wife.
May you like
And realized Camille had not only hidden that she knew Olivia.
She had married him knowing he already possessed warnings about her under another name.
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