Chapter 7 - THE PATTERN INSIDE THEIR MARRIAGEElena authorized a limited forensic review.
Her attorney negotiated the scope.
Only data relevant to the procurement inquiry.
Only specified dates.
No unrestricted access to personal photographs, messages, medical information, or family communications.
The review took a week.
During that time, Elena began remembering things she had previously dismissed.
Julian borrowing her tablet because his battery was dead.
Julian asking why procurement documents had strange naming codes.
Julian once joking that married couples shouldn’t have “corporate secrets.”
Victoria texting Elena at odd hours with questions she could have asked at work.
The Saturday Victoria unexpectedly visited their house because she had “left sunglasses after dinner.”
There had been no dinner.
Elena had been out with Hannah the evening before.
At the time she assumed Victoria mixed up weekends.
Now the memory bothered her.
So did one other thing.
Victoria had known Elena’s tablet PIN.
Not because Elena told her.
Because Julian had.
Merritt & Cole’s forensic team discovered several procurement files had been exported from Victoria’s authorized account.
Within minutes, Elena’s home tablet accessed the same folders.
The pattern repeated three times.
Victoria obtained information legitimately.
Julian then entered Elena’s account.
That created a second trail.
Why?
At first Elena assumed convenience.
Then Andrew showed her something stranger.
One exported document from Elena’s tablet had never appeared in Ward Collaborative’s proposal.
Neither had Victoria discussed it with Julian, according to her interview.
“So why open it?” Elena asked.
“We don’t know.”
It was a competitor’s insurance certificate.
Completely useless to Julian.
Another file was an internal schedule.
Also irrelevant.
Another contained employee assignments.
Nothing that helped Ward Collaborative price its bid.
Elena looked at Andrew.
“These weren’t things he needed.”
“No.”
“So he wasn’t only looking for information.”
Andrew said nothing.
Elena understood before he confirmed it.
“He was creating activity.”
“That’s one possibility.”
“On my account.”
“Yes.”
Not enough to prove intent.
But enough to change the pattern.
Julian had accessed valuable information.
Then he had continued accessing unrelated information through Elena’s account.
Activity that could later make Elena appear involved.
At Hannah’s condo that evening, Elena looked at Julian’s message from the night of the assault.
You’re involved too, whether you understand that yet or not.
She had read it as a threat.
Now it looked almost like a description of something he had already arranged.
Her attorney called with another development.
“Ward Collaborative’s lender has frozen additional draws on its operating line pending review.”
Elena sat down.
“Because of the bid?”
“The loss of the Cumberland House project triggered concern. The lender is asking for updated financials.”
“What happens?”
“That’s Julian’s problem unless there are joint guarantees.”
Elena had signed none.
She checked with Leah anyway.
Their house had a mortgage in both names, but Julian’s business debt was separate.
Elena’s savings were not collateral.
For once, his financial crisis could not automatically become hers.
She made a decision that night.
The next morning she met Leah and signed the petition beginning divorce proceedings.
Her hand shook once.
Then stopped.
When Julian was served several days later, he called her twelve times.
Elena answered only after her attorney advised her she could choose to speak if she felt safe.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Ending our marriage.”
“Elena, we haven’t even talked.”
“We talked while your hand was on my face.”
“That is not seven years of marriage.”
“No.”
She looked down at the petition.
“It’s what made me finally look at the other seven.”
Julian’s breathing changed.
Then he said something that confirmed her growing suspicion.
“If you divorce me now, everybody will assume you had nothing to do with the bid.”
Elena gripped the phone.
“Shouldn’t they?”
Julian said nothing.
May you like
She ended the call knowing the next question was no longer whether he had used her professional access.
It was whether he had always intended her to share the blame.
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