The board meeting was on Thursday at ten in the morning, two days before the gala.
I was not on the guest list. I was not supposed to know it was happening. But Bethany Cole had told me where it was, and I had spent the week preparing, and at nine forty-five I walked into the foundation building with a folder under my arm and a plan I had rehearsed so many times it felt like something I had already lived through.
The security guard at the front desk looked up when I came in.
"I'm here for the board meeting," I said.
"Your name?"
"Elena Voss."
He looked at his screen. Then he looked at me. "I don't have you on the list."
"I know," I said. "I'm here on behalf of the counsel's office. Bethany Cole asked me to deliver these documents."
That was true, in a way. Bethany had printed the d
