Chapter 2 - WHAT HER MOTHER WANTED BURIED
Julian recovered first.
He set the insignia down carefully, as though touching it had been the mistake rather than breaking into his wife's safe.
“You need to lie down.”
Genevieve almost laughed.
Victoria gathered her purse.
“I'm leaving.”
“No,” Genevieve said.
Victoria stopped.
“You came into my home knowing my husband planned to use my hand while he thought I was unconscious. You can stay another thirty seconds.”
Julian moved between them.
“Gen, don't turn this into something insane.”
“You brought your girlfriend into my house.”
Victoria's jaw tightened.
Julian didn't deny it.
That hurt more than Genevieve expected.
The affair had been the easiest part of the plan to prove. Hotel charges, deleted dinner reservations restored from a shared calendar, a photo Victoria had carelessly posted with Julian's watch reflected in a window.
Genevieve had cried about it once.
Then she'd discovered the money.
“You thought that case contained access instructions for my trust,” she said.
Julian lowered his voice. “You're thirty-eight weeks pregnant. You're exhausted. We can have this conversation tomorrow.”
“You didn't think I was too pregnant to steal from five minutes ago.”
Victoria looked toward the elevator.
Genevieve let her go.
She needed Julian more than she needed Victoria.
When the elevator doors closed, Julian's polished expression cracked.
“How long have you been setting me up?”
“Long enough.”
“Does your mother know?”
That question mattered.
Genevieve studied him.
“Why would she?”
His eyes shifted toward the sealed document.
There.
Just for a second.
Then he shrugged. “Her signature is on it.”
The document was real, although it had nothing to do with accessing Genevieve's trust. It was an engagement letter authorizing an outside forensic accountant to review certain transactions involving Alder Row Hospitality, the family company.
Genevieve had signed it three days earlier.
Eleanor had signed that afternoon.
At least, Genevieve believed she had.
Her mother had returned the signature page through the family office without calling her.
That silence now felt louder than Julian's lies.
Genevieve picked up the silver oak.
Her grandfather, Thomas Alden, had commissioned four of them in the 1980s when he reorganized the family's records after a fire at their original Napa property. The insignias weren't keys. They held no legal authority.
They were markers.
One had been mounted inside each of four archival cabinets containing original partnership records, insurance histories, loan files, and old board books.
Eleven months earlier, the oak from Cabinet Three had disappeared.
Nobody had reported a break-in.
Julian had joined Alder Row's Napa redevelopment project twelve months earlier.
Genevieve called her mother.
Eleanor answered on the fourth ring.
“Is everything okay?”
“No.”
Genevieve looked at Julian.
“I found Granddad's missing silver oak.”
Silence.
Not surprise.
Silence.
“Where?” Eleanor asked.
“In my penthouse.”
Julian looked away.
Genevieve continued. “Julian recognized it.”
Her mother exhaled slowly.
“Genevieve, don't do anything tonight.”
That wasn't what Genevieve expected.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you're about to have a baby, and there are things you don't understand.”
“Then explain them.”
“Not over the phone.”
Julian's shoulders relaxed.
Genevieve saw it.
A tiny movement.
But unmistakable.
Her husband had just heard her mother's fear and taken comfort from it.
“Mom,” Genevieve said, “did Julian have access to Cabinet Three?”
Another silence.
Then Eleanor said, “I authorized it once.”
Genevieve gripped the phone.
“For what?”
“Insurance inventory.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because it wasn't your department.”
Genevieve looked at the man she'd married.
Julian's expression had become unreadable again.
Eleanor lowered her voice.
“Come to Napa tomorrow. Alone. And please, Gen—don't call the board.”
The line went dead.
Genevieve stared at her phone.
Julian gave her a tired smile.
“See? There's an explanation.”
There was.
Just not the one he wanted.
May you like
Because Genevieve had served on Alder Row's governance committee for four years.
Insurance inventory had never required access to Cabinet Three.
