Chapter 5 - LAUREN’S FIRST MISTAKE
The board suspended Matthew pending investigation.
He retained his shares but lost access to company systems, staff, and accounts.
Lauren’s employment was also suspended.
She had served as vice president of strategic communications for three years.
Her job gave her control over the company’s public story.
It also gave her access to every photograph, interview, and biography that removed me.
Thirty minutes after the board meeting, a gossip website published photographs of my injuries.
The article claimed I had staged them during a marital dispute.
The images came from inside the hospital.
Only medical staff, police, my father, and Arthur had seen me.
The photograph was taken while I slept.
Lauren had arranged it.
Hospital security traced the access to a contract nurse who had received money from Larkspur Family Holdings.
The nurse was detained before leaving the building.
Her phone contained messages from Lauren.
“Get the worst angle.”
“Make her look unstable.”
“Show anything that suggests intoxication.”
The nurse found no evidence of alcohol or illegal drugs.
So Lauren added a false caption claiming I had been treated for a substance-related fall.
That was her first serious mistake.
The hospital released a formal correction.
Detective Ortiz added witness tampering and unlawful medical photography to the investigation.
The public story changed.
Former NexusCore employees began posting about me.
One engineer shared an old email in which I solved a problem Matthew later claimed as his breakthrough.
A designer posted photographs of me sleeping beneath a conference-room table during the first product launch.
An investor remembered that every difficult question had been answered by the quiet woman seated beside Matthew.
My erasure had worked only while everyone believed silence meant agreement.
Now people were comparing memories.
Lauren called me that evening.
I answered with Detective Ortiz recording.
“You destroyed his company,” she said.
“No.”
“He did.”
“You think the board will give it to you?”
“I think the board will examine the evidence.”
Lauren laughed.
“You still sound like a consultant.”
“And you still sound like a woman repeating Matthew’s promises.”
Her breathing changed.
“He loves me.”
“He has a wife.”
“He was leaving you.”
“With forged documents?”
“With a child he hid?”
“You could never give him a family.”
The sentence struck exactly where she intended.
Matthew and I had tried to have children.
Two pregnancies ended before the first trimester.
After the second loss, he refused counseling and blamed my career.
Lauren knew.
He had given her my grief as entertainment.
I kept my voice steady.
“Your son is innocent.”
“You are not.”
She became quiet.
Then she said something unexpected.
“If you believe Matthew planned all of this alone, you never knew your father either.”
The call ended.
I looked toward Richard.
He was standing by the hospital window.
May you like
“What did she mean?”
My father did not answer quickly enough.
