Chapter 11
One message stopped me.
You should just take the cash and buy a house somewhere else. Family businesses are nothing but drama.
I had laughed and told her she sounded like Grant.
She had replied with a laughing emoji.
Joan set the bowl in front of me and waited while I put down the phone.
"Was any of it real?" I asked.
She sat across from me.
"Some of your memories may have been real. That doesn't obligate you to excuse what she chose later."
It was kinder than telling me our entire friendship had been a lie. It was harder, too, because there was no clean way to sort eleven years into honest and dishonest moments.
Avery called after nine.
I let it go to voicemail. She called again, then sent a message asking to meet alone.
I answered that anything relevant could go through counsel. I would not meet her without someone else present.
Her next message said, I'm pregnant, Tessa. I need someone to think about the baby.
I read it twice before responding.
The baby should have care and safety. That doesn't require me to accept a false accusation or stop an investigation.
I did not debate whether her pregnancy was real. I did not need access to her ultrasound, and I wasn't going to repeat her mistake by making someone's private health information a public contest.
Ten minutes later, Grant called Reed, who was staying at his own house. Reed forwarded the voicemail to Linnea and told me what it contained.
Grant said Northline was Avery's operation. He had approved payments because he trusted her, and he was shocked that she might have misrepresented the work.
According to him, the video had been a joke she had twisted against his wishes.
I wondered whether Avery had heard how quickly her partner could turn a shared plan into her individual fault.
The answer arrived the following morning.
She contacted Linnea through an attorney of her own and offered relevant messages, provided the exchange happened formally.
Among them was one she had sent Grant after learning about the review.
You cannot tell them Northline was my idea. I kept your instructions.
PART 6 — WHAT THE WEDDING WAS HIDING
Avery's attorney delivered the messages two days later, together with records intended to establish where they had come from.
Linnea did not forward every intimate exchange to us. She provided the material relevant to the accusation, the business payments, and the plan to make Reed sell his shares.