Chapter 6 - Audrey Knew More Than She Said
We moved Maisie away from Rosemere before doing anything else.
My sister Claire took her to my house with Audrey.
Maisie protested because she thought leaving meant she had done something wrong.
I crouched beside her before she got into the car.
“You didn’t ruin anything.”
She touched the uneven blonde wig Audrey had placed in a shopping bag.
“Celeste said I did.”
“She was wrong.”
“Are you still getting married?”
“No.”
Maisie considered that.
Then she wrapped both arms around my neck.
“Okay.”
That one quiet word nearly destroyed me.
I stayed crouched after the car disappeared down the drive.
Brooke stood a few feet behind me.
“You ready?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
We went back inside.
Nolan had pulled every personnel file associated with the initials M.W.
There was no active employee.
But there had been one.
Melissa Winters.
Former finance administrator.
Terminated eighteen months earlier.
Not for theft.
Not misconduct.
She had resigned after her husband accepted a job in Arizona.
At least that was what her file said.
I remembered her vaguely.
Efficient.
Quiet.
Worked mostly behind the scenes.
Brooke searched state records.
Melissa still lived in Massachusetts.
Her husband had never worked in Arizona.
Nolan stared at the screen.
“That resignation story came directly from HR.”
“Who handled HR then?” I asked.
He thought.
“Celeste.”
Everyone looked at her.
Celeste shook her head.
“I processed the paperwork. Melissa wrote the resignation.”
“Do you still have the email?”
Nolan searched.
The message existed.
Sent from Melissa’s Rosemere account.
Brooke opened the technical header.
The email had been sent from inside the building.
At 9:14 p.m.
On a Saturday.
Melissa’s security badge showed no entry that night.
Celeste sat very still.
“You think Derek forced her out?”
“I think somebody wanted us to believe she left voluntarily.”
“Why?”
Nolan answered that.
“Melissa helped build our banking permissions.”
Brooke nodded.
“And she would know exactly where internal templates were stored.”
For the first time, we had someone capable of creating the forged amendment.
But finding a capable person wasn’t the same as proving involvement.
Brooke called Melissa.
No answer.
Again.
Voicemail.
Nolan searched her old emergency contact information.
Disconnected.
Then Celeste said something unexpected.
“Audrey knew Melissa.”
I turned.
“How?”
“They used to eat lunch together.”
That surprised me.
Audrey had worked for me before Maisie was born, first as a household assistant and then full-time as Maisie’s nanny.
She occasionally brought Maisie to Rosemere.
But I had never known she had friends among the office staff.
I called her.
Audrey answered immediately.
“Is Maisie okay?” I asked.
“She’s building a fort with Claire.”
“Do you remember Melissa Winters?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
“How well?”
Another pause.
“Well enough.”
Brooke moved closer to the phone.
“Audrey, we need the truth.”
Audrey exhaled.
“Melissa didn’t move to Arizona.”
We all stopped.
“You knew?”
“She asked me not to say anything.”
“Why?”
“Because she was scared.”
“Of Derek?”
“No.”
Audrey’s answer came immediately.
“Of Celeste.”
Celeste stood.
“That’s ridiculous.”
Audrey heard her.
“You’re there.”
“Yes,” Celeste snapped. “And you’re lying.”
Audrey’s voice remained steady.
“Melissa came to me after work one night. She said Celeste had been asking for bank authorization templates and shareholder documents months before Grant proposed.”
I stared at Celeste.
Her mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Brooke asked, “Why didn’t Melissa tell Grant?”
“She planned to.”
“What stopped her?”
“She received photographs of her son outside his school.”
Every person in the room went quiet.
Celeste went white.
“I never did that.”
Audrey continued.
“She believed someone was warning her.”
“Why did you keep this from me?” I asked.
“Because Melissa begged me. She thought disappearing would make whoever was watching her stop.”
“And did it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve spoken to her since?”
Audrey hesitated.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Celeste whispered, “What did she say?”
Audrey didn’t respond to her.
“She told me she had found something in the files she copied before leaving Rosemere.”
My pulse accelerated.
“What?”
“She wouldn’t say over the phone.”
“Where are the files?”
“I don’t know.”
“Audrey.”
“She said if anything happened around the wedding, I should check one place.”
Brooke asked, “What place?”
Audrey paused.
“Maisie’s old nursery at Rosemere.”
I frowned.
The estate had once included a private family suite upstairs.
After Maisie was born, I converted one small room into a nursery so she could stay near me during long workdays.
We hadn’t used it in more than a year.
“What am I looking for?”
“Melissa said you’d know when you saw it.”
Twenty minutes later, Nolan unlocked the unused nursery.
The furniture was covered in sheets.
Dust lay across the shelves.
I almost thought we had misunderstood.
Then I noticed a small wooden music box I had never seen before.
It sat beside Maisie’s old crib.
Inside was not a flash drive.
Not documents.
Not money.
It was a photograph.
Celeste.
Derek.
And Melissa Winters.
All three seated together at a Rosemere conference table.
The date printed at the bottom was seven months before Celeste and I ever started dating.
On the back, Melissa had written six words.
May you like
CELESTE WAS NEVER DEREK’S FIRST CHOICE.
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