Chapter 11 - My Mother’s Sister
I sat across from Lauren.
For a minute, neither of us spoke.
“My mother had one brother.”
“That’s what Aunt Margaret wanted everyone to believe.”
Lauren still called my mother Aunt Margaret.
Her own mother had been my mother’s cousin.
Our family tree was small enough that I would have known about a sister.
Unless everyone agreed not to tell me.
“How do you know?”
Lauren wiped her face.
“Meredith contacted me three years ago.”
“Why you?”
“She knew I was close to you.”
“That doesn’t explain why you believed her.”
“She had photographs.”
“Of what?”
“Your mother. Our grandparents. Letters.”
“People fake documents.”
“She knew things.”
“What things?”
Lauren swallowed.
“Your grandmother’s nickname for Margaret. Where they lived before Boston. The scar on your mother’s knee. The music box your grandmother kept in the hall closet.”
Details.
Family details.
Possibly real.
“Why was she erased?”
Lauren shook her head.
“She wouldn’t tell me everything.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That Margaret stole Northstar from Conrad and cut Meredith out when she objected.”
“That sounds convenient.”
“I know.”
“Did you believe her?”
“At first.”
I leaned back.
“Then you helped her anyway.”
Lauren looked down.
“She said she wanted contact with you.”
“So you introduced me to Julian?”
“No. Not immediately.”
“Explain.”
“She asked me to help arrange a few social events where certain people would be present.”
“Certain people.”
“Julian was one.”
My stomach tightened.
“She said he was an executive who could help you understand what happened between Margaret and Conrad.”
“And you never mentioned her?”
“She made me promise.”
“Why?”
“She said if Conrad learned she was talking to you, he would disappear her again.”
Again.
That word mattered.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lauren.”
“I swear.”
She started crying harder.
“I thought she was scared.”
Maybe she was.
Manipulators can be afraid too.
People can be both victims and accomplices.
“What changed?”
“When did you realize Julian was part of something?”
“After your engagement.”
That hurt worse than I expected.
“You had months to tell me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“The weekend in Vermont.”
I remembered.
Lauren had become quiet.
She had asked whether I trusted Julian with finances.
I laughed.
I told her Julian could barely remember our utility passwords.
She dropped it.
“I was afraid,” she said.
“Of whom?”
“Richard.”
I stared.
“Richard Sloane?”
“He told me Meredith was unstable.”
“That would have been useful information.”
“He also said if I interfered, you would lose Northstar.”
“Why?”
“He said Conrad had a legal claim Margaret never resolved.”
The original settlement.
“He told me the safest thing was to let the marriage happen and make sure Julian never got direct access to your trust.”
“But you helped alter the trust.”
“I thought I was blocking him.”
I frowned.
“What?”
Lauren explained.
Richard asked her to deliver documents to room 1717.
She believed they replaced a broader marital amendment with a limited agreement protecting my separate property.
But when she entered the room after the announcement, she saw the red ledger.
My earring.
Forged transfer.
She realized she had been used.
“Why didn’t you take the ledger?”
“Because someone called the room.”
“Who?”
“Meredith.”
My pulse changed.
“What did she say?”
Lauren’s voice dropped.
“She told me to leave everything exactly where it was.”
“Why?”
“She said you needed to find it.”
Elaine and I exchanged a look.
That changed the framing.
If Meredith wanted me to discover the room, then why?
To expose Julian?
To direct me?
To frame someone?
Maybe all three.
“What else did she say?”
Lauren hesitated.
“She said, ‘Audrey needs to stop thinking her husband is the center of this.’”
My skin prickled.
That was true.
Julian was a participant.
Not the architect.
“Where is Meredith?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do you contact her?”
“She contacts me.”
“Phone?”
“Changes constantly.”
“Email?”
“Encrypted.”
“Give Elaine everything.”
Lauren nodded.
I studied her.
“What did Julian do when he grabbed you?”
“He wanted to know what I told you.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“He said if Morrow believed I switched sides, nobody could protect me.”
“Did he mention Naomi?”
Lauren’s face went pale.
“No.”
That was genuine.
I believed she had not known.
At least about Naomi.
Then Elaine’s phone buzzed.
Franklin.
He had decrypted another Project Widow file.
We returned upstairs.
The file was a series of audio transcripts between Conrad and an unidentified woman.
Dates ranged across three years.
The woman used the initial M.
Meredith.
One transcript:
CONRAD: JULIAN IS GETTING IMPATIENT.
M: GOOD. IMPATIENT MEN MAKE VISIBLE MISTAKES.
CONRAD: HE WANTS CONTROL.
M: LET HIM THINK HE WILL GET IT.
Another:
CONRAD: AUDREY CANNOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
M: NOT UNTIL SHE OWNS AURELIA.
My stomach tightened.
Not until.
Meaning Meredith always intended to reveal herself after the acquisition.
Why?
Another transcript answered part of it.
CONRAD: ONCE NORTHSTAR MONEY CLEARS THE MORROW DEBT, WE MOVE.
M: NO. ONCE AUDREY HAS MAJORITY CONTROL, WE SHOW HER THE ORIGINAL BOOKS.
Conrad:
YOU TRUST HER TOO MUCH.
Meredith:
I TRUST MARGARET’S DAUGHTER TO HATE BEING USED.
I sat back.
Meredith had participated in placing Julian.
Yet she also seemed to be preparing me to turn on Conrad.
Two-sided operation.
Or a family war.
Franklin opened the newest transcript.
Recorded two weeks earlier.
Conrad:
IF AUDREY DOESN’T SIGN THE TRUST AMENDMENT, JULIAN CREATES THE INCIDENT.
Meredith:
NO PHYSICAL HARM.
Conrad:
YOU DON’T CONTROL HIM.
Meredith:
THEN I’LL GIVE AUDREY SOMETHING SHE CAN USE AGAINST HIM.
The red ledger.
The hotel room.
Maybe the message from Camilla’s spoofed number.
Meredith was helping create the trap and helping me escape it.
Why?
Then the final line appeared.
Conrad:
YOU SOUND JUST LIKE YOUR SISTER.
Meredith:
MARGARET WAS RIGHT ABOUT ONE THING.
Conrad:
WHAT?
Meredith:
YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ALLOWED NEAR NORTHSTAR.
Franklin looked at me.
Meredith was not Conrad’s loyal partner.
She was working against him from inside his plan.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman spoke.
Older.
Calm.
“Audrey.”
I could barely breathe.
“Meredith?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“Are you my aunt?”
Another pause.
Then:
“I’m the reason your mother spent thirty years pretending she didn’t have a sister.”
The line went quiet.
And Meredith added:
May you like
“If you want Naomi alive, stop trusting Richard Sloane.”
📖 Find out why Meredith blamed Richard for Naomi’s disappearance—and what she claimed he did to my mother during Northstar’s original collapse in CHAPTER 12. 👇
