Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN MY COAT
The penthouse service elevator required a physical override after midnight.
Camila did not have one.
Someone inside security had given her access.
Sofia locked the elevator at the forty-second floor.
Then she sent two female security officers upstairs.
I entered the resort through the staff entrance with Naomi beside me.
No one tried to remove me this time.
Employees moved quietly through the lobby.
Some looked ashamed.
Others looked relieved.
Julian followed until the new head of security stopped him.
“Mr. Vale, you must remain in the public area.”
“I hired you.”
“The trust appointed my employer.”
Julian stared at the man.
Power disappears quickly when people realize the title has ended.
I took the private lift to the penthouse.
The doors opened onto the suite I had designed after my grandmother died.
Her photographs lined the hall.
Her handwritten recipes remained inside the kitchen cabinet.
I had turned one room into a small archive of family pieces.
Camila stood near the bedroom doors with two suitcases.
My coat hung open around her black dress.
The emerald pendant was in her right hand.
Two officers stood between her and the elevator.
She smiled when she saw me.
“You’ve become dramatic.”
“Put the pendant on the table.”
“Julian gave it to me.”
“It wasn’t his.”
“He said everything in this place belonged to him.”
“He says many things.”
Her smile tightened.
“You think freezing a few cards changes what happened?”
“No.”
“Finding you in my bathroom changed what happened.”
She placed the pendant against her throat again.
“It suits me better.”
One of the officers moved forward.
I raised my hand.
I wanted Camila to choose.
She could return the pendant.
Or she could be recorded refusing to surrender documented trust property.
The penthouse cameras were already saving every second.
“Camila, that pendant is listed in the Laurent family inventory.”
“It is insured separately.”
“It was reported stolen eleven months ago.”
“You are now holding it on camera.”
She looked toward the ceiling.
The color left her face.
“Julian said the cameras were disabled.”
“He disabled the interior live feed.”
“He did not disable the legal archive.”
My family had installed offline recording after an attempted burglary years earlier.
Julian knew about the system.
He had apparently forgotten.
Camila placed the pendant on the table.
“I didn’t steal it.”
“Then explain how you received it.”
“He gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Our first anniversary.”
I almost laughed.
“You had an anniversary?”
“Julian and I have been together for three years.”
The affair was older than I expected.
She watched my reaction.
She wanted pain.
I gave her a question instead.
“Did he tell you I was refusing to divorce him?”
“Yes.”
“Did he show you divorce papers?”
“He said lawyers were preparing them.”
“Did you see them?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you the resorts would become his after the divorce?”
“He said they already were.”
Camila’s confidence began slipping.
“He told me you had no real role.”
“He said your father gave him the first resort because you were too weak to run it.”
“My father leased him management rights because I asked.”
“He said you inherited debt.”
“I inherited land.”
“He said your family name had no remaining value.”
“My family name owns the trademark on every sign downstairs.”
She looked toward the suitcases.
“What happens to me?”
“That depends on what is inside those bags.”
The officers searched them.
The first held clothing.
Jewelry.
Cash.
And six bottles of wine taken from the trust collection.
The second held hard drives, financial binders, and a laptop from Julian’s office.
Naomi opened one binder.
It contained vendor payments to a company called CP Luxury Advisory.
CP.
Camila Price.
More than four million dollars had been paid over eighteen months.
“What services did you provide?” Naomi asked.
Camila folded her arms.
“Brand consulting.”
“For which properties?”
“All of them.”
“Name one project.”
She said nothing.
Naomi opened another file.
The payments came from maintenance reserves.
Money intended for roofs, elevators, kitchen equipment, and fire systems.
Camila had been paid while three resorts delayed safety upgrades.
I looked at her.
“Did you know where the money came from?”
“Julian handled the accounts.”
“You signed the invoices.”
“He told me to.”
“That is not an answer.”
She looked toward me.
“You’re going to blame me for everything because your husband chose me.”
“No.”
I picked up the emerald pendant.
“I am going to hold each person responsible for what they chose.”
An officer removed my coat from Camila’s shoulders.
She looked suddenly ordinary.
Not because the coat had made her beautiful.
Because she had worn my life as though it proved she had won.
Without it, she was a woman standing beside two suitcases of evidence.
Naomi turned on the recovered laptop.
The screen requested a password.
Camila’s face changed.
She knew it.
Julian had given her access to his financial files.
Before she could speak, the penthouse phone rang.
Sofia answered downstairs and transferred the call.
A male voice came through the speaker.
“This is the night auditor from the Zurich property.”
“We have a problem.”
“Someone has attempted to move forty-two million dollars from the European reserve account.”
The authorization request had been submitted using Julian’s credentials.
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It had been sent nine minutes after his access was supposedly suspended.
Someone had created a duplicate executive profile.
