Chapter 5 - LAUREN'S STORY
I wanted to hate Lauren Mitchell.
It would have been easier.
She had slept with my husband.
Worn my mother's pearls.
Sat in my seat.
Allowed Daniel to buy her a condominium with money that may have belonged to the company I helped build.
There was no version of this story in which Lauren was innocent.
But innocence and danger were not the same question.
When I walked into Robert's private conference room that evening, Lauren sat wrapped in a gray blanket with both hands around a cup of tea.
She looked nothing like the woman from the ballroom.
No champagne gown.
No diamonds.
No perfect makeup.
Her eyes were swollen.
Her blond hair was pulled into a messy ponytail.
And for the first time, I noticed how young she looked.
Thirty-one suddenly felt young.
Not too young to know better.
But young enough to have believed older, powerful men when they told her what the world would give her.
Daniel wasn't there.
I refused to let him come.
Rachel sat beside me.
Robert sat across from Lauren.
A criminal attorney named Maya Brooks was there too.
Maya represented Lauren.
I had expected to dislike her.
I didn't.
She had the calm expression of a woman who had heard every version of “this isn't what it looks like” and stopped believing all of them.
Maya spoke first.
“Lauren has agreed to answer questions, but I want to be clear that she may have criminal exposure.”
Lauren looked at me.
“I'll tell you everything.”
I folded my arms.
“Start with Richard.”
She nodded.
“Richard Harrison recruited me.”
“For what?”
“I was working at a real estate development firm in Miami.”
“Doing?”
“Executive operations.”
“Meaning?”
“I managed calendars, contracts, investor meetings.”
“Were you sleeping with your boss there too?”
Rachel touched my knee under the table.
Lauren's face went white.
I wasn't proud of the question.
I also didn't apologize.
“No.”
She swallowed.
“Richard approached me at a conference. He offered me almost twice my salary to work for Harrison.”
“Why?”
“He said Daniel needed structure.”
I laughed.
“That sounds like Richard.”
“After I joined, Richard asked me for reports.”
“On Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“Who he met. Which projects he personally reviewed. Whether he talked to outside accountants.”
“Did Daniel know?”
“No.”
“When did the affair start?”
Lauren's eyes dropped.
“Last November.”
Eleven months.
Exactly what Daniel had said.
“Who started it?”
“He did.”
Pain struck anyway.
I had asked.
I had wanted truth.
Truth rarely cares whether you're ready.
“Where?”
“New York.”
“A business trip.”
“Yes.”
I remembered.
Daniel had brought me perfume from that trip.
I wanted to throw up.
Lauren continued.
“He'd been drinking.”
“That isn't an excuse.”
“I know.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“So you were sober.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew he was married.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew me.”
“Yes.”
Good.
No hiding behind misunderstanding.
“Why?”
She looked at me.
For once, no tears.
No excuses.
“I wanted him.”
The honesty surprised me.
“I'd spent two years watching him walk into rooms where everyone listened. He was smart. He was funny when he wasn't performing for people.”
Her voice shook.
“And he was unhappy.”
I laughed coldly.
“Married men are often unhappy around women they want to sleep with.”
Lauren nodded.
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
“Yes.”
That answer landed harder.
“What did Richard think about your relationship?”
“At first, he encouraged it.”
Everyone went still.
I leaned forward.
“He what?”
“He told me Daniel became careless around me.”
Rachel whispered, “Jesus.”
Lauren continued.
“Richard wanted to know whether Daniel was planning to remove him from company accounts.”
“So he used you.”
“Yes.”
“And you let him.”
“Yes.”
“Then Daniel bought you an apartment.”
Her face tightened.
“I didn't ask for it.”
“You accepted it.”
“Yes.”
“With my company's money.”
“I didn't know that.”
“You never wondered how your married boss purchased a $2.8 million condominium?”
“I thought it was personal money.”
“And the pearls?”
Lauren's eyes filled.
“I swear I didn't know.”
“I believe you.”
She looked surprised.
“That doesn't forgive anything else.”
“I know.”
Maya placed a hand near Lauren's elbow.
Lauren continued.
“Three months ago, Daniel told me he wanted to leave.”
My stomach clenched.
“Leave me?”
“No.”
That surprised me.
“The relationship.”
I looked at her.
“He ended it?”
“He tried.”
Tried.
Only Daniel could turn fidelity into an attempted project.
“He said he was going to tell you everything after the anniversary.”
“Why after?”
“He wanted to fix the company first.”
The same story Daniel gave me.
Lauren's mouth twisted.
“I got angry.”
“So you told Richard.”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“He said Daniel was panicking and would change his mind.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“Daniel stopped sleeping with me.”
A strange, humiliating relief moved through me.
I hated it.
“How long ago?”
“Ten weeks.”
Her pregnancy was nearly twelve weeks.
I did the math.
Of course.
Lauren saw me doing it.
“I don't know if the baby is his.”
Silence.
I looked up.
“What?”
Her face burned red.
Maya closed her eyes as though she'd hoped we wouldn't reach this part yet.
“Whose else could it be?”
Lauren whispered, “Richard's.”
Nobody spoke.
I genuinely wondered whether I'd misheard.
“Daniel's father?”
“Yes.”
Rachel muttered something unprintable.
My brain refused to process it.
“You slept with my husband and his father?”
Lauren covered her face.
“I didn't know what I was doing anymore.”
I stood.
Rachel stood too.
“Claire.”
I walked toward the window.
Chicago stretched below us.
Tiny lights.
Tiny cars.
Thousands of lives that had nothing to do with mine.
For one ridiculous second, I envied all of them.
“How long?”
Lauren whispered, “Richard and I were involved before Daniel.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Before I moved to Chicago.”
The pieces shifted.
“He didn't recruit you at a conference.”
“Yes, but we'd already met.”
“How?”
“I was dating someone who worked for him.”
I stared.
“And Richard sent his mistress to become his son's assistant.”
“Yes.”
“Then you started sleeping with Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“Did Richard know?”
“Yes.”
“And he encouraged it.”
Lauren began crying.
“Yes.”
I looked at Maya.
“Is this woman telling the truth?”
Maya said carefully, “She has messages.”
Lauren handed Robert her phone.
He connected it to a display.
Texts.
Hundreds.
Richard.
Instructions.
Praise.
Threats.
One message sent six months ago:
Keep him distracted. Claire must not return to the office.
Another:
If Daniel starts asking about Doyle accounts, tell me immediately.
Another:
You know what happens if you choose him over me.
Then one sent five days earlier.
The test result changes everything. If it's my grandson, Harrison stays in the family.
I felt sick.
“Grandson.”
Lauren nodded.
“He wants a paternity test.”
“Why would he care whether the child is yours with Daniel or his?”
She stared at the table.
“Because either way it's Harrison blood.”
That wasn't the answer.
I could hear it.
“Why does the sex matter?”
She started crying again.
“Richard's trust.”
Robert looked up sharply.
“What trust?”
“His father created a family trust decades ago. Richard receives income, but full control of several properties transfers through the oldest male descendant.”
I frowned.
“Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“Then Daniel already qualifies.”
“Only after Richard dies.”
“So?”
“Richard changed something.”
Robert's expression hardened.
“You can't simply rewrite an irrevocable trust.”
“He didn't rewrite it.”
Lauren looked at me.
“He has been trying to prove Daniel isn't his biological son.”
The room went silent.
I stared.
“Excuse me?”
Lauren wiped her face.
“Richard believes his wife had an affair.”
Daniel's mother, Helen.
Dead nineteen years.
“He thinks Daniel isn't his?”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“Years.”
“Then why build his entire business around him?”
“Because he didn't know.”
“Know what?”
Lauren's voice dropped.
“Patrick Doyle found old blood records.”
The dead accountant again.
“Richard has been trying to quietly test Daniel's DNA.”
Rachel stared.
“This family makes daytime television look understated.”
I couldn't disagree.
“Where does Ellie fit?”
Lauren looked at me.
“If Daniel isn't Richard's biological son, Ellie isn't part of Richard's bloodline.”
The wrong heir.
My stomach turned.
“But if the baby is Richard's—”
“Then it's his biological child.”
“Not grandson.”
Lauren nodded.
“His son.”
I sat down.
The horror of it spread slowly.
Richard didn't simply want an heir.
He wanted to replace Daniel.
With a baby.
His own child with his son's mistress.
“Does Daniel know?”
“No.”
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
“Why tell me?”
Lauren looked at me with raw fear.
“Because Richard told me this morning that if the baby isn't his, there is no reason for me to remain protected.”
Maya said quietly, “We interpreted that as a threat.”
I believed her.
My phone buzzed.
A message from Ellie.
Mom, Grandpa Richard is at school.
Every drop of blood left my face.
A second message appeared.
He says Dad asked him to pick me up.
Then:
May you like
Did Dad tell you?
I was already running.”
