Chapter 8 - I Let Them Believe I Was Losing My Mind
Eleanor didn't come to work Friday morning.
She sent the board an email saying she was ill.
I knew better.
At nine o'clock, I entered Hawthorne Risk Advisory for the first time since the attack.
People stared.
Some hugged me.
Others looked away.
Daniel's campaign had worked better than I wanted to admit.
Rumors had spread.
Rachel had suffered a breakdown.
Rachel had attacked someone.
Rachel had become paranoid.
Rachel couldn't remember basic conversations.
I heard whispers stop when I walked past.
So I gave them exactly what Daniel wanted.
I acted uncertain.
At reception, I deliberately called an employee by the wrong name.
In the elevator, I asked what floor my office was on.
By 9:30, half the building believed the rumors.
By 10:00, Daniel knew.
At 10:15, he arrived.
He found me sitting alone in the executive conference room.
“Rachel.”
I looked up.
“Daniel?”
The relief on his face was almost insulting.
He sat beside me.
“What are you doing here?”
“I don't know.”
He touched my hand.
I let him.
“You shouldn't be working.”
“I wanted to remember.”
His voice softened.
“There's nothing you need to remember.”
Behind the mirrored glass wall, Maya and two federal investigators were listening.
Daniel didn't know.
He leaned closer.
“You can still sign the authorization.”
“What authorization?”
“The papers we discussed.”
I frowned.
“I don't remember.”
His thumb stroked my hand.
“That's okay.”
He removed documents from his briefcase.
Another power of attorney.
“You trust me, don't you?”
I looked into the eyes of the man I had married.
Then I smiled faintly.
“Yes.”
Daniel relaxed.
He gave me a pen.
I lowered it toward the signature line.
Then stopped.
“What happens to my company?”
“I'll take care of it.”
“You?”
“Temporarily.”
“And the money?”
“Protected.”
“From who?”
His expression changed.
I whispered, “From Blackridge?”
The color drained from his face.
I dropped the confused act.
Daniel stared at me.
I sat straighter.
“My memory is fine.”
He stood.
The conference-room door opened.
Maya entered.
Behind her were two investigators.
Daniel didn't run.
Men like Daniel rarely believe consequences apply to them.
He smiled.
“Is this supposed to frighten me?”
“No,” I said. “It's supposed to document you.”
One investigator introduced himself.
Daniel immediately requested an attorney.
Smart.
But not smart enough.
Because while he had been concentrating on me, Claire's flash drive had revealed the identity of the person who created Blackridge.
Not Claire.
Not Daniel.
Eleanor.
My executive assistant.
The woman who had sat ten feet from my office for nine years.
The woman who knew every weakness in our internal systems.
Eleanor had built Blackridge before Daniel ever became involved.
And according to the files, Daniel hadn't seduced Eleanor into crime.
Eleanor had recruited Daniel.
The betrayal I thought began inside my marriage had actually begun inside my company.
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And before the day ended, I would discover why.
It had started eleven years earlier, on the very first day I opened Hawthorne Risk Advisory.
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