Chapter 3 - Charlotte Makes Her First Mistake
Charlotte called me that afternoon.
Unlike Gavin, she did not shout.
She sounded amused.
“Sabrina.”
I said nothing.
“You really think delaying the deal changes anything?”
I started recording.
Charlotte continued.
“Gavin is angry, but he’ll solve it.”
Still I said nothing.
“You’ve always had this strange habit of confusing silence with strength.”
That almost made me laugh.
Six years of marriage had taught me otherwise.
Silence was not automatically strength.
Sometimes silence was fear.
Sometimes it was exhaustion.
Sometimes it was the moment before a person finally stopped accepting what everyone else had decided she deserved.
“What do you want, Charlotte?”
“I want you to stop embarrassing yourself.”
“By doing what?”
“Whatever you did with Crestview.”
I leaned back in the hotel chair Nathan had arranged for me.
“I haven’t spoken publicly about Gavin.”
“You don’t have to.”
Her voice sharpened.
“Crestview froze the closing less than twelve hours after you left the house.”
Interesting.
She knew the timing.
“Why are you calling me instead of Elaine Prescott?”
Charlotte hesitated.
Only for half a second.
But I heard it.
“Because this is personal.”
“No.”
I looked at the city through the hotel window.
“You made it personal when you lied about your car.”
She laughed again.
“You still care about that?”
“I care that you invented a story and Gavin attacked me because of it.”
“You can’t prove I invented anything.”
“Can’t I?”
Silence.
The laughter disappeared.
I continued.
“You said the scratches happened in the SwiftFreight parking lot.”
“So?”
“So parking garages have cameras.”
Charlotte recovered quickly.
“You weren’t there.”
“That’s exactly my point.”
Another pause.
Then she said something revealing.
“You should have just signed and disappeared.”
I felt my pulse change.
“Why?”
“Because you lost.”
“Did I?”
“Gavin chose me.”
I closed my eyes.
For years, that sentence might have destroyed me.
Now it felt almost childish.
“Then enjoy him.”
Charlotte breathed sharply.
“You think you’re clever.”
“No.”
I looked at the recorder running on my second phone.
“I think you talk too much.”
I ended the call.
Ten minutes later, Rachel Kim called me.
She had already received the recording.
“There’s more.”
Her tone had changed.
“What?”
“Crestview’s team reviewed SwiftFreight’s parking security archives.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“And?”
“Charlotte’s car wasn’t scratched at SwiftFreight.”
I sat upright.
“How do you know?”
“The damage was visible when she arrived that morning.”
For several seconds, I could not speak.
Rachel continued.
“Camera at the south entrance caught the driver’s side.”
“So she knew.”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell when the damage happened?”
“We’re working on it.”
I remembered Charlotte’s confidence.
Her smile.
The wine in her hand.
The way she had watched Gavin reach for his belt without even pretending to intervene.
“What else?”
Rachel hesitated.
“One of the cameras recorded Charlotte speaking to Mason in the garage before she drove to your house.”
My stomach tightened.
“When?”
“Thirty-seven minutes before she accused you.”
“What were they discussing?”
“No audio.”
Rachel exhaled.
“But Mason handed her an envelope.”
That changed everything.
May you like
Charlotte had not simply lied.
She might not have been acting alone.
