Chapter 4 - The Woman Wearing My Coat
The hallway footage loaded in the hotel security office.
Elaine stood on my left.
Franklin stood on my right.
The manager paused the video at the moment room 1717 opened.
A woman stepped into view.
Blue coat.
Dark hair.
My height.
For half a second, I understood how a busy hotel employee could mistake her for me from behind.
Then she turned.
My stomach dropped.
“Lauren.”
Elaine looked at me.
“Who is she?”
“My cousin.”
Lauren Hale and I had grown up close enough to feel like sisters.
When my mother died, Lauren had spent three weeks sleeping in my guest room because I couldn't stand silence.
She knew where I kept spare keys.
She knew my birthday.
She knew Richard Sloane.
She knew Julian.
And she had borrowed my blue coat at Christmas.
I had not seen it since.
The footage showed Lauren entering 1717 at 8:46 p.m.
Fourteen minutes after Malcolm called my name on stage.
She stayed inside for ninety-one seconds.
Then she emerged without the handbag she carried in.
“Can you track where she went?” I asked.
The security manager switched camera angles.
Lauren took the service elevator to level six.
Then disappeared into a corridor leading toward conference rooms and hotel administration offices.
Not guest exits.
Elaine frowned.
“What reason would your cousin have to be here?”
“She told me she was in New York.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
I called Lauren.
No answer.
Again.
Straight to voicemail.
I sent one message.
I SAW YOU ENTER 1717.
The message showed delivered.
Then read.
No reply.
Franklin asked, “Does she have any connection to Aurelia?”
“Not officially.”
“Northstar?”
“No.”
“Julian?”
I hesitated.
Lauren had introduced us.
Three years earlier, at a museum fundraiser.
I remembered teasing her that she had finally found a man boring enough for me.
She had laughed.
Julian later claimed they barely knew each other.
Now that memory felt different.
“Lauren introduced us.”
Elaine swore softly.
I looked back at the monitor.
“Find every camera angle from the ballroom entrance.”
The manager searched.
At 7:11 p.m., Lauren entered through a side lobby.
Not alone.
Richard Sloane walked beside her.
My mother’s former attorney.
The witness on the forged marital agreement.
He carried a leather briefcase.
They spoke near the elevators for less than a minute before separating.
Richard entered the ballroom.
I had not seen him.
But with two hundred guests, I could have missed him.
Lauren went upstairs.
Franklin leaned closer.
“Pause.”
Richard was wearing a silver tie bar shaped like a small compass.
I remembered it from childhood.
My mother had given it to him after a major court victory.
The red ledger listed initials.
MC.
Maybe not Richard.
But suddenly I no longer trusted my assumptions about anyone.
My phone buzzed.
Lauren.
One text.
DON’T CALL ME AGAIN. JULIAN KNOWS YOU FOUND THE ROOM.
A second followed.
HE THINKS I HELPED YOU.
Then:
I DIDN’T.
I typed immediately.
WHERE ARE YOU?
No response.
I tried calling.
Her phone went dead.
Elaine said, “Send the messages to me.”
I forwarded them.
Franklin kept searching the footage.
“Here.”
Another camera.
At 7:24, Camilla exited elevator seventeen.
At 7:29, Julian joined her.
They entered room 1717 together.
At 7:51, Julian left.
At 8:04, Camilla left wearing my diamond earrings.
At 8:46, Lauren entered.
Timeline.
Sequence.
Purpose.
We needed to know what happened between 7:29 and 7:51.
The manager checked the room telephone records.
One outgoing call at 7:44.
To Aurelia’s executive office line.
Elaine’s face changed.
“That number forwards to the on-call corporate assistant.”
“Who was on call tonight?” I asked.
She checked her phone.
Then looked up.
“Naomi Kent.”
I knew Naomi.
Julian’s executive assistant.
Quiet.
Efficient.
She had worked for him for five years.
She had recently requested a department transfer.
Julian denied it.
“Call her,” I said.
Elaine did.
Naomi answered on the second ring.
Her voice sounded breathless.
“Ms. Porter?”
“Where are you?”
Silence.
“Naomi?”
“I left the hotel.”
“Why?”
Another pause.
Then she said, “Because Mr. Vance told me to destroy the payment archive.”
Franklin and I looked at each other.
Elaine kept her voice calm.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
“I copied it.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where?”
Naomi heard my voice.
“Ms. Vance?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then she whispered, “You need to know something about your cousin.”
“What?”
“The woman in the blue coat wasn’t working for Julian.”
I tightened my grip on the phone.
“Then who was she working for?”
Naomi started to answer.
A car horn blasted on her end.
Then another sound.
Brakes.
Her breath caught.
The call dropped.
We called back.
No answer.
Then the hotel security manager pointed at another screen.
Aurelia’s ballroom camera.
Lauren was no longer on level six.
She had returned downstairs.
She was standing beside Julian.
May you like
And he had one hand wrapped tightly around her arm.
📖 Find out why Julian grabbed Lauren after she warned me about him—and what Naomi’s copied payment archive revealed before her phone went silent in CHAPTER 5. 👇
