Chapter 2 - The Message Camilla Swore She Never Sent
Julian moved toward the stage before Malcolm finished speaking.
Not quickly enough to look panicked.
But quickly enough for me to know he was.
“Audrey,” he called softly.
The microphone picked up his voice.
Half the ballroom heard him.
Malcolm turned.
“So the timing was deliberate,” Julian said, forcing a smile. “Very theatrical.”
I looked at him from the stage.
“You mean the acquisition?”
“I mean humiliating your husband in front of his employees.”
His employees.
Not Aurelia’s employees.
Not our employees.
His.
That one word explained more about Julian than any argument we had ever had.
I took the microphone.
“No one announced your name, Julian.”
A few people shifted uncomfortably.
“That’s because I was told tonight was about recognizing leadership.”
“It is.”
His smile cracked.
Behind him, Camilla kept glancing toward his phone.
I saw it.
So did Franklin.
Julian raised his voice.
“If this review is connected to strategy expenditures, then I should be involved in the discussion.”
Elaine Porter answered before I did.
“You are involved.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.”
That shut him up.
I did not want the ballroom to become a public trial.
Not yet.
Northstar had acquired Aurelia to stabilize it, not destroy employee confidence in one night.
So I kept my remarks short.
I spoke about protecting jobs.
Restoring financial controls.
Completing the product recovery plan.
I did not mention my marriage.
I did not mention the earrings.
I did not mention Julian’s hand on my wrist.
But when I finished, the applause lasted longer than his dignity did.
The second I stepped from the stage, Julian caught my elbow.
Not hard this time.
Too many people were watching.
“We need to talk.”
“Release me.”
He did.
Camilla approached.
Her face had changed.
The smugness was gone.
“What did you do?” Julian asked her.
She blinked.
“What are you talking about?”
He showed her the phone.
I stood close enough to read the message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE MOVED THE VENDOR FILES BEFORE TONIGHT.
Camilla stared.
“I didn’t send that.”
“It came from your number.”
“I’m holding my phone.”
She pulled it from her clutch.
Julian took it.
The message wasn’t in her sent folder.
He checked again.
Then looked around the ballroom as though the sender might be watching.
I said nothing.
He turned on me.
“Was this you?”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I didn’t know the message existed until you opened it.”
Camilla’s eyes narrowed.
“Someone spoofed my number.”
Possibly.
Or someone had access to her account.
Either way, the timing mattered.
Malcolm joined us.
“Julian, Elaine needs you in the executive conference room.”
“Tonight?”
“Now.”
Julian laughed once.
“I’m not walking into some interrogation while my wife stages a takeover.”
Malcolm’s expression cooled.
“Your wife completed a lawful acquisition.”
“Without telling me.”
“That sounds personal.”
“It becomes corporate when she uses it to target me.”
I finally spoke.
“The forensic review began before Northstar knew who authorized the questionable payments.”
Julian stopped.
That was true.
Franklin’s team had initially flagged several vendor relationships without executive names attached.
Only after Northstar entered exclusivity did we receive complete approval logs.
That was when Julian’s name surfaced.
He looked at me.
“How long have you known?”
“About the vendor payments?”
His throat tightened.
“Yes.”
“Six days.”
Camilla whispered, “Julian…”
He turned on her.
“Not now.”
Her face hardened.
That was the first visible fracture between them.
Elaine approached carrying a slim gray folder.
“Conference room.”
Julian looked at the exit.
Then at me.
Then at the phone in his hand.
He suddenly slipped it into his pocket.
Too quickly.
I noticed.
“What else did the message say?”
“Nothing.”
“Show me.”
“No.”
Camilla stared at him.
“You showed me.”
Julian ignored her.
I stepped closer.
“What are you hiding?”
“It’s my phone.”
“That answer sounds familiar.”
His eyes flicked toward my wrist.
He remembered grabbing me.
For a second, anger flashed.
Then he smiled.
“Fine.”
He unlocked the screen.
The first message was still there.
YOU SHOULD HAVE MOVED THE VENDOR FILES BEFORE TONIGHT.
A second had arrived.
THIS TIME, BURN THE RED LEDGER.
Julian immediately locked the phone.
Franklin Shaw looked up.
“Red ledger?”
“No idea what that means.”
Camilla’s face emptied.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
I saw it before she turned away.
“Camilla.”
She looked at me.
“What red ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
Julian said sharply, “She just told you.”
I kept my eyes on Camilla.
“You reacted.”
“I reacted because this is insane.”
“Then look at me and tell me you’ve never seen it.”
Her mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Elaine’s tone hardened.
“We’re done discussing this in public.”
Julian nodded too quickly.
“Yes. We are.”
He started toward the conference room.
Camilla followed.
I caught Elaine’s eye.
“Separate them.”
Julian heard me.
He turned.
“You don’t get to order people around because you bought fifty-eight percent of a company.”
Malcolm said quietly, “Actually, regarding an internal investigation, she does.”
Julian’s face reddened.
Then Franklin stepped beside me.
He lowered his voice.
“We found a reference to a red ledger in one of the vendor email archives.”
“When?”
“Forty minutes ago.”
My pulse changed.
“What kind of reference?”
“A deleted attachment index.”
“Can it be recovered?”
“We’re trying.”
“Who deleted it?”
He hesitated.
“That’s the problem.”
“Whose credentials?”
He looked across the room at Camilla.
“Yours.”
I went still.
“My credentials?”
“Northstar administrator credentials.”
I had not even possessed full Aurelia administrator access until the acquisition closed that afternoon.
Yet someone had apparently used my credentials to delete a file before I formally owned the company.
I looked at Julian.
He was watching me now.
Not triumphant.
Interested.
Like he had just discovered I was standing in the same trap he was.
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One photograph.
A red leather ledger resting on a hotel-room bed.
May you like
Beside it sat one of my missing diamond earrings.
📖 Read why my stolen earring appeared beside the red ledger in a hotel-room photograph—and whose room key opened that door in CHAPTER 3. 👇
