Chapter 7
She placed them carefully on the table between us.
“I didn’t know,” she said.
I looked at the diamonds. Under the bright conference room lights, they seemed smaller than I remembered.
“I believe you didn’t know everything.”
Her eyes filled, though she did not cry. “That isn’t the same as saying I did nothing wrong.”
“No.”
“I accepted gifts from a married man. I accepted expenses I should have questioned. I believed what he told me because I wanted to believe it.”
“Why?”
She gave a faint, humorless smile. “Because he made me feel chosen.”
The honesty of it disarmed me.
She looked toward the closed door. “He told me your marriage was over in everything but paperwork.”
“I know.”
“He said you were staying together for appearances.”
“That part was convenient.”
“I’m sorry.”
The apology could not repair my marriage or erase the months of uncertainty, but it was the first sincere thing she had offered me.
I nodded once. “You should speak with Priya before you leave.”
“I will.”
Camilla stood, then hesitated. “Nora?”
“Yes?”
“Did you really buy Aurelia because of him?”
I thought of my mother’s advice, of the board’s desperate request, and of the employees applauding because they wanted to keep their lives intact.
“No,” I said. “I bought it because it was worth saving.”
She accepted that answer. At the door, she turned back.
“There’s something else you should know.”
I waited.
“Lucas Bell isn’t just Julian’s consultant.”
She glanced at the earrings lying on the table.
“I’ve seen him before. At Julian’s apartment. The night he told me he was working late.”
A chill moved through me.
“When was that?”
“Two months ago. I was leaving through the side entrance. Lucas was coming in with a banker I didn’t recognize.”
“What banker?”
“I don’t know his name.” She pressed her lips together, searching her memory. “But I remember the folder he was carrying. It had the Northstar Holdings logo on it.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Northstar’s logo.
At Julian’s apartment.
Two months ago.
Before I had ever told him Northstar was considering an investment in Aurelia.
I turned toward Daniel. “Could they have known about the acquisition?”
“Possibly,” he said. “But we haven’t found evidence that Northstar’s confidential information was accessed from our systems.”
“Then why would someone carry a Northstar folder into my home?”
Camilla shook her head. “I don’t know.”