Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN I THOUGHT WAS MY ENEMYSabrina agreed to meet Margaret first.
Not me.
That was smarter.
Every emotional part of me wanted to look the supposed other woman in the eyes and demand answers.
Margaret wanted sworn facts.
We met eventually in a private conference room three floors above her office.
Sabrina looked nothing like I expected.
I had seen polished photographs online: immaculate hair, tailored dresses, corporate confidence.
The woman who walked into the conference room looked exhausted.
No makeup.
Hair tied back.
Oversized coat.
She checked the hallway twice before closing the door.
Then she saw me.
“I’m sorry.”
Those were her first words.
I folded my arms.
“For what?”
“For not contacting you earlier.”
“Were you sleeping with my husband?”
“No.”
“You understand why I’m asking.”
“Yes.”
“Were you ever?”
“No.”
I studied her face.
“I saw messages.”
“What messages?”
“Dominic called you beautiful.”
She closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“You sent him hearts.”
“I was trying to keep him cooperative.”
That sounded convenient.
Margaret intervened.
“Start from the beginning.”
Sabrina opened a laptop.
“Hale Meridian started experiencing major losses eighteen months ago. Dominic concealed them from investors.”
“How?”
“Moved liabilities between subsidiaries. Delayed invoices. Recorded projected contracts as if revenue were more certain than it actually was.”
Margaret asked, “Illegal?”
“Some of it may have crossed that line. I’m not qualified to make the legal conclusion.”
Good answer.
Sabrina continued.
“When I questioned discrepancies, Dominic told me the board knew. Later I discovered they didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you leave?”
“I tried.”
She pushed a document toward us.
A resignation letter.
Dated eleven months earlier.
“What happened?” I asked.
“He threatened me.”
“With what?”
She looked embarrassed.
“Financial misconduct.”
“Yours?”
“Documents carrying my electronic approval.”
Margaret leaned forward.
“You didn’t authorize them?”
“No.”
Now I understood her fear.
Dominic had done to her what he was trying to do to me.
Create documents.
Create leverage.
Make the victim look complicit.
“So the apartment?” I asked.
“Corporate housing.”
“At almost twelve thousand a month?”
“Dominic moved me there after I said I was going to regulators. He told me the company needed me nearby during restructuring.”
“Why did he guarantee it personally?”
“I didn’t know he had until later.”
“And Victoria?”
Sabrina’s expression changed.
“She handles more of Dominic’s finances than anyone realizes.”
That surprised me.
Victoria presented herself as a wealthy widow who lived on investments left by Dominic’s father.
Apparently those investments had declined years ago.
Dominic had been financing her lifestyle.
The lunches.
Travel.
Jewelry.
Memberships.
All of it.
“Why the Florida house?” I asked.
Sabrina turned the laptop toward me.
“Dominic needed somewhere to account for money transferred out of several subsidiaries.”
“Why put your name on it?”
“He didn’t.”
I frowned.
“The LLC lists you.”
“He created the filing using my information.”
Margaret asked, “Without permission?”
“Yes.”
Sabrina clicked another file.
“Then he created draft documents transferring the LLC to Audrey.”
My stomach tightened.
My name appeared on an unsigned assignment.
Next to it was a signature block.
A digital copy of my signature had already been inserted.
I stared.
“He was going to say I owned it.”
“Yes.”
“And the nursery?”
Sabrina looked at me.
“That was Victoria.”
“What?”
“She supervised the furnishing.”
“Why?”
“I heard her tell Dominic it would support the story.”
“What story?”
Sabrina hesitated.
Then answered.
“That you had secretly prepared to leave New York with Leo.”
Everything clicked.
A Florida house.
A nursery.
Money routed through entities.
My signature.
Dominic could claim I transferred money to purchase a hidden residence, then planned to flee with our child.
His emergency custody filing would suddenly look less absurd.
The scheme wasn’t perfect.
But desperate people don’t need perfect plans.
They need enough confusion to survive another day.
“How did you learn this?”
“I copied documents.”
Sabrina connected an external drive.
Thousands of files appeared.
Emails.
Contracts.
Messages.
Spreadsheets.
Margaret’s expression became very serious.
“Where did you obtain these?”
“Company systems I was authorized to access.”
“Do not access anything else,” Margaret said immediately. “And do not modify these files.”
Sabrina nodded.
“I stopped three weeks ago.”
I looked at her.
“Why contact me now?”
Her eyes went to my stomach.
My incision was hidden beneath my dress, but she knew.
“The hospital video.”
My face tightened.
“You saw it?”
“Everybody at the company did.”
She looked down.
“When Dominic left you there, I realized he was accelerating the plan.”
“Why?”
“Because he told executives you were already living separately.”
I felt sick.
“For how long?”
“Months.”
“He told people we were separated while I was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Sabrina hesitated.
“He said you were emotionally unstable.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was again.
The story had been planted everywhere.
Friends.
Coworkers.
Legal filings.
He had been preparing witnesses before there was anything to witness.
Dad had joined the meeting quietly twenty minutes earlier.
Now he spoke.
“Did Mr. Hale discuss Audrey’s father?”
Sabrina looked at him.
She clearly recognized him.
“Constantly.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“He believed Audrey had no influential family support.”
Dad almost smiled.
Sabrina continued.
“He once said… I’m sorry.”
“Say it,” Dad replied.
“He said Audrey’s father was ‘some washed-up federal clerk who couldn’t scare a parking attendant.’”
I covered my mouth.
Margaret failed to hide a smile.
Dad adjusted his cuff.
“Well.”
I looked at him.
“That’s all?”
“What would you like me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
He considered.
“I’ve been insulted more creatively.”
For the first time in days, I laughed until my incision hurt.
Sabrina laughed too.
Then she started crying.
The change was so sudden that the room fell silent.
“I’m sorry.”
She wiped her face.
“I’ve been scared for a year.”
I looked at her differently.
Not as a rival.
As another person Dominic had selected because he believed fear would make her manageable.
“What did he threaten you with?”
She took a breath.
“He said if the company failed, he’d make sure investigators believed I engineered the transfers.”
“Does he have evidence?”
“Fake evidence.”
She looked toward me.
“Just like he created against you.”
I understood why she had contacted me.
Alone, each of us could be dismissed.
The bitter wife.
The disgruntled employee.
Together, our stories formed a pattern.
Margaret spent four hours reviewing Sabrina’s files.
She found messages from Dominic instructing staff to backdate approvals.
Messages from Victoria discussing transfers.
Draft correspondence designed to appear as though I had requested funds.
And one email that made my entire body go cold.
Dominic had written it six weeks before Leo’s birth.
Once Audrey delivers, timing becomes easier. She’ll be medically limited, emotional, and dependent. We need everything ready before she starts asking questions.
The recipient was not Sabrina.
It was Victoria.
Her reply:
Good. Mothers are easiest to control when they’re afraid of losing the baby.
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
My hands began trembling.
Dad stood behind me.
He didn’t touch me.
He knew I needed room.
I whispered, “She said that about me.”
Nobody answered.
I had spent six years trying to earn Victoria’s approval.
Hosting holidays.
Remembering birthdays.
Sending flowers.
Taking her to appointments after knee surgery.
When Dominic’s father died, I slept on her sofa for four nights because she said she was afraid to be alone.
And this was what she thought of me.
A mother easiest to control through fear.
Something changed inside me.
The grief remained.
But underneath it, something stronger appeared.
Resolve.
I looked at Margaret.
“What happens now?”
“These documents potentially implicate corporate and financial misconduct. We preserve them properly. We notify appropriate counsel. Sabrina obtains independent representation.”
“And the divorce?”
“We continue.”
“And custody?”
“We use only what is legally relevant and admissible.”
I nodded.
No shortcuts.
No military influence.
No threats.
Facts.
Dominic had built his trap out of documents.
Documents would dismantle it.
At 7:30 that evening, my phone buzzed.
Victoria.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
Her voice was sweet.
“Audrey, sweetheart.”
I nearly laughed.
“What do you want?”
“I think emotions have gotten out of control.”
“Whose?”
“Everyone’s.”
“No. Be specific.”
A pause.
“Dominic is devastated.”
“Interesting.”
“We need to protect Leo.”
“Agreed.”
“That means avoiding scandal.”
There it was.
Not apology.
Damage control.
“What are you asking?”
“Meet me tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“Because there are things about Dominic you don’t understand.”
I looked at Margaret.
She shook her head.
I said, “Talk to my attorney.”
Victoria’s voice hardened.
“Do not make the mistake of thinking your father can save you.”
I stared across the room at Dad.
He heard every word through speakerphone.
“I don’t need him to save me.”
“You have no idea what Dominic has on you.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What does he have?”
Victoria laughed softly.
“Ask yourself why he was so confident filing for custody.”
The line disconnected.
I looked at Margaret.
“What does that mean?”
She didn’t answer immediately.
Then Sabrina whispered from across the table.
“I might know.”
Everyone turned.
She looked terrified again.
“There was one file I couldn’t open.”
“What file?”
“A video archive.”
My skin prickled.
“Of what?”
“It was labeled with Audrey’s name.”
May you like
And beneath it was a date.
The night my mother died.
