Chapter 2
Audrey did not attempt to force her way into the study.
That helped her.
She waited in the kitchen until police arrived.
Her explanation was simple.
Genevieve called her after the baby shower and said several foundation originals had mistakenly been left at Rowan and Isolde’s home.
Audrey was told to retrieve them before morning.
“Why the urgency?” police asked.
“Board meeting.”
“There is a board meeting tomorrow?”
Audrey hesitated.
“Yes.”
Rowan knew nothing about one.
That mattered.
Audrey carried a leather work bag.
Police did not search it without consent.
She voluntarily opened it.
Inside were document sleeves.
A foundation inventory form.
A tablet.
And a handwritten list.
Daniel photographed the list before Audrey left.
One line read:
I.M. study — blue folder / cabinet 2.
Isolde stared at the picture the next morning.
“That’s exactly where my copies are.”
Rowan looked toward her.
“Who knew?”
“You.”
“I learned last night.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“And maybe your mother.”
“Why maybe?”
Isolde lowered her eyes.
Three weeks earlier she had volunteered to help with the Mercer Family Foundation’s maternal-housing initiative.
It was supposed to provide emergency rent assistance, transportation, and prenatal support to low-income mothers.
Isolde had grown up with very little money.
The program mattered to her.
While reviewing a budget presentation, she noticed several invoices with identical project descriptions but different vendor numbers.
She asked the foundation accounting office.
Audrey answered.
“She told me they were rollover contracts.”
“Did you believe her?”
“At first.”
Then Isolde found another anomaly.
A company called Halcyon Family Strategies had received more than $900,000 for “maternal stabilization consulting.”
No one on the program team seemed to know what Halcyon actually did.
Isolde asked for supporting reports.
Nothing came.
Instead Genevieve called.
“What did she say?”
“She said foundation finances were complicated and I should focus on the baby.”
Rowan’s expression hardened.
“And then?”
“She asked whether I trusted her.”
“What did you say?”
“I said trust wasn’t an invoice.”
Despite himself, Rowan almost smiled.
Isolde continued.
Genevieve’s tone changed.
She reminded Isolde that people already whispered she married Rowan for money.
That involving herself in family finances would make those whispers worse.
Rowan’s face became cold.
“She said that to you?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Isolde looked exhausted.
“Because every disagreement between you and your mother becomes a war.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is.”
She looked directly at him.
“I wanted facts before I gave you a target.”
That landed.
Rowan did not like it.
He understood it.
Isolde copied the suspicious invoices and stored them in the blue folder.
She planned to give them to an outside accountant after the baby shower.
“Why wait?”
“Your mother chaired the shower.”
“So?”
“I thought I could survive one family event without detonating everything.”
Rowan looked away.
That plan had failed spectacularly.
His attorney, Katherine Wells, arrived before noon.
She reviewed Audrey’s handwritten inventory.
“Genevieve knew exactly what Isolde had copied.”
Rowan nodded.
Katherine continued.
“But knowing about suspicious invoices does not explain why she tried to retrieve them tonight.”
“Because she wanted evidence gone.”
“Maybe.”
Rowan gave her a look.
Katherine did not care.
“Or because she believes they contain confidential foundation material.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“I believe we prove things.”
Rowan leaned back.
Then Katherine showed him the emergency board notice.
It had been circulated at 9:58 p.m.
Forty minutes after the staircase incident.
Meeting time:
8:00 a.m.
Agenda:
Governance crisis involving chairman conduct and potential financial misconduct connected to spouse.
Rowan read the final words twice.
“Financial misconduct connected to spouse?”
Katherine nodded.
“Your mother wasn’t only planning to discuss you hitting her.”
May you like
Rowan looked toward Isolde’s blue folder.
“She was planning to discuss Isolde too.”
