The Woman He Erased

What Corinne Found

I stare at the message for a long moment before opening it, the garage quiet save for the sound of my cooling engine.

Camille Ward is not simply an employee. She's Marguerite's goddaughter, and for the past year, she's been listed as Damian's emergency contact on his corporate insurance records.

I reread the message twice, my gaze heavy with unfamiliar disappointment.

Instead of calling or texting Damian, I sit in my car for twenty minutes, the silence pressing against my ribs as I feel the weight of something old and very familiar settle in my chest.

In the end, it's easier to drive home and spend the night wide awake staring at the ceiling.

I confront him first thing in the morning, before the office opens, in the small conference room where we've spent the last several days holding our most private conversations.

"Camille Ward is your emergency contact,"I say, giving him the text message for reference.

His expression is carefully schooled to something like guilt, but it's all too familiar to me to mistake for anything other than a man bracing himself for the inevitable. "Where did you hear that?"

"Corinne pulled your insurance records while digging into her affairs. Is it true?"

"It is, but it's not what you think."

"I'm not asking you to explain it to me. I'm asking you to answer the damn question."

He exhales slowly, rubbing his temple as though he's already regretting this conversation. "After the divorce, I didn't have anyone else to list as my emergency contact. My mother was handling all of my personal affairs at the time, and I was very reluctant to give her any more control over my life than she already had. Camille offered, and I took it. She just started working here, and I figured a girl like her would at least be honest on a form, Elena. I filled it out in five minutes and never thought about it again."

"She's Marguerite's goddaughter."

"I didn't know that, either, until last night when you told me. If I'd known, I swear to God I would've kept every record of her employment sealed behind three layers of corporate encryption."

I want to believe him. If I hadn't spent the last five years learning how to be very good at seeing right through him, I might have even believed him, despite it all. "You understand, don't you? What this looks like. Someone very close to you, planted by your mother, quietly digging through your personal and professional life for the last year, and you never once thought to ask yourself why."

"I understand that it looks like I made a very careless mistake by trusting someone with as much access as I gave Camille. I understand that I'm living the same lesson over and over again, just in different ways."

Something in the way he says it makes it land heavier than it should, sharper somehow. "I'm not accusing you of sleeping with the devil, Damian." It's the closest I can get to saying it out loud, if only to hear him confirm it. "I'm accusing you of being incredibly careless with your power all over again. With me, again."

"That's fair," he says simply. "I've been very careless with it, yes. I would like the opportunity to be better about it, in regards to Camille, as well as you."

"Can't we talk about this more?" I ask before Corinne can knock on the door, her file tucked under her arm.

"I wish we had the time," Corinne replies. "The woman's financial records show transfers of money from an account held jointly with your mother, beginning fourteen months ago. So, not only does this not appear to be some kind of desperate move on Mrs. Cross's part, it proves without a doubt that she knew long before she was going to be fired."

"Fourteen months,"I echo, the words tasting vile on my tongue. "That's nearly two years before Reeves started investigating the thefts."

"This means," Damian says quietly, "that my mother anticipated something like this happening before it did. She always plans for her enemies to fall before she has to."

"How far does this go?"I ask, turning to Corinne.

"I don't know yet,"she replies. "I'd say we should be looking for another player, though. At the very least, one we haven't found yet. And Elena?" she hesitates, eyes searching mine carefully. "Camille requested to speak with you this morning, alone. She says it's something she wants to discuss before the board takes any action."

I turn to Damian, unsurprised when he doesn't tell me not to go. In fact, it's almost nice to hear him say it.

"Bring security with you, in case she decides to be unreasonable, and keep your phone on, so you aren't completely blindsided if she does. If Camille knew about it fourteen months ago, she doesn't want to have this conversation publicly. I sincerely doubt that means she's sorry."

I nod, gathering my things as I prepare to leave.

I think about the woman who works in an office I've come to know so well, the wife and mother that I once was to him, and how very little either knows about the man I once loved.

Whatever Camille Ward wants to say to me, I have a feeling it could change more than just everything for him.