Chapter 5 - The Deal Allison Thought Would Save Her
The flash drive did not contain Catherine’s financial records.
It contained video.
Dozens of clips.
Hotel lobbies. Restaurants. Parking garages. Office entrances.
Jason meeting Rafael Fontana.
Jason meeting Victor Salerno.
Jason meeting Allison.
And, unexpectedly, Jason meeting a divorce attorney Catherine had never hired.
The footage showed Jason handing a thick envelope to a partner at a family-law firm three months before he served Catherine papers.
Daniel identified the attorney.
“Paul Mercer.”
Catherine frowned.
“Should I know him?”
“He specializes in high-asset divorce.”
“Jason’s lawyer?”
“No.”
“Then why was Jason meeting him?”
Daniel’s expression went flat.
“Because Mercer represents spouses who want to hide assets before filing.”
Catherine felt almost numb.
There were levels of betrayal beyond pain.
Eventually, the mind started treating them like paperwork.
“What else?”
The flash drive included spreadsheets.
One file was titled EXIT PLAN.
Catherine read it in Daniel’s office with Maya beside her.
The columns were brutal.
Catherine apartment leverage.
Studio line.
Moretti vendor route.
Reed transfers.
Salerno project.
Settlement target.
And beneath it:
Emotional instability narrative.
Catherine sat very still.
Maya closed the file.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Catherine opened it again.
“I want to see all of it.”
Daniel said, “You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do.”
She read.
Jason had assigned values to everything.
Her likely willingness to settle.
How much humiliation she would tolerate before folding.
Whether Allison’s presence would pressure her into signing quickly.
A note beside Catherine’s name read:
Public confrontation likely destabilizes.
She laughed.
Daniel looked concerned.
“He planned the restaurant.”
“Yes.”
“He brought Allison to destabilize me.”
“Yes.”
“He thought I’d sign because I was embarrassed.”
“Yes.”
Catherine leaned back.
“Then spilling coffee on Adrian Moretti might be the most financially responsible thing I’ve ever done.”
Maya snorted.
Daniel almost smiled.
The humor helped.
Then Allison asked to meet.
Catherine refused at first.
Daniel changed her mind.
“Not for closure,” he said. “For information.”
They met in a private conference room at Daniel’s office.
Allison arrived without makeup.
No perfect black dress.
No polished apology face.
She looked tired.
Catherine felt no satisfaction.
Just distance.
Allison placed a folder on the table.
“These are contracts Jason had me sign.”
Maya reviewed them.
Allison’s company had been used as a pass-through for consulting payments.
She received a percentage.
“How much did you keep?” Catherine asked.
Allison looked down.
“Eighty thousand.”
Catherine stared at her.
“You took eighty thousand dollars.”
“I thought it was legitimate.”
“You thought Jason was paying your six-month-old design firm eighty thousand dollars because you were brilliant?”
Allison flinched.
Catherine did not stop.
“You knew something was wrong.”
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised her.
“I knew something didn’t make sense.”
“Then why?”
Allison began crying.
Catherine stayed still.
“Because I was scared,” Allison said.
“Of Jason?”
“Of being nobody again.”
That answer was ugly enough to be true.
Allison explained.
She grew up with money, then lost it when her father’s company collapsed.
New York had become a performance she could barely afford.
Rent. Clothes. Connections.
Then Jason offered clients. Introductions. Money. Attention.
“He made me feel chosen,” Allison whispered.
Catherine understood more than she wanted to.
Jason was excellent at making dependency feel like specialness.
“That doesn’t excuse sleeping with my husband.”
“No.”
“Or taking money.”
“No.”
“Or sitting beside him while he tried to take my property.”
Allison looked up.
“I didn’t know about the apartment.”
“But you knew about the divorce.”
“Yes.”
“And you came anyway.”
“Yes.”
The room went quiet.
Catherine had imagined this conversation many times.
In every fantasy, Allison had the perfect excuse or Catherine had the perfect devastating line.
Reality was less satisfying.
Allison had done a selfish thing for selfish reasons.
There was no grand mystery in that.
“What do you want from me?” Catherine asked.
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Jason offered me a deal.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What deal?”
Allison took out her phone.
A message from Jason:
Tell investigators Catherine approved the transfers. Say she used you to hide income. I’ll cover your legal fees and keep your name out of the property case.
Maya photographed the screen.
Catherine stared.
“When did he send this?”
“Last night.”
Jason was under temporary financial restraints and already under investigation.
Still bargaining.
Still building narratives.
“What did you say?”
Allison opened another message.
No.
Then Jason:
Think carefully. Catherine will bury you to save herself.
Catherine almost laughed.
Same script again.
Every woman against every other woman.
Jason in the middle as translator.
Allison said, “That’s when I realized he told me the same things about you.”
“What things?”
“That you would destroy me. That you were jealous. That you were unstable.”
Catherine looked away.
Allison’s voice broke.
“He made us enemies before either of us knew there was a war.”
Catherine did not forgive her.
But she understood the mechanism.
Daniel asked whether Allison would testify.
“Yes.”
“Even if it exposes your own conduct?”
Allison swallowed.
“Yes.”
That mattered.
After she left, Catherine sat alone for a while.
Adrian arrived near six.
He had been scheduled to meet Daniel about Moretti Logistics documents.
He found Catherine by the conference-room window.
“Bad day?”
“Educational.”
“That usually means bad.”
She looked at him.
“Do you ever forgive betrayal?”
The question surprised both of them.
Adrian took his time.
“Sometimes.”
“What decides?”
“Whether forgiveness requires access.”
Catherine frowned.
“Explain.”
“You can stop carrying anger and still not hand someone the keys again.”
She thought of Allison. Jason. Her own younger self.
“That’s annoyingly useful.”
“I have moments.”
Catherine smiled.
Then she noticed his shirt.
White.
No coffee stains.
“New shirt?”
“I own several.”
“That sounds excessive.”
“I plan for risk.”
She laughed.
The sound felt unfamiliar.
Easy.
Then Adrian’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward her.
A property company linked to Victor Salerno had just filed suit against Moretti Logistics over the Queens warehouse parcel.
The complaint alleged Adrian had verbally agreed to sell.
Catherine read the filing.
The attached exhibit was an email.
From Adrian’s account.
To Salerno.
Agreeing to the deal.
Adrian said, “I never sent that.”
Catherine studied the metadata.
Then something caught her eye.
The email had been copied to Jason Bennett.
Her pulse quickened.
“Jason forged this too.”
“Maybe.”
Catherine looked at Adrian.
“No.”
“What?”
“Not maybe.”
She pointed to the date.
“I remember that night.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“The charity dinner?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Jason borrowed my phone to ‘send himself a picture.’”
Adrian went still.
Catherine continued.
“My phone had your business card photo in the camera roll from the event program.”
“That doesn’t give him my email.”
“No. But it gives him your identity and contact pattern. If he had access to the home network, he could have built a phishing path.”
Maya, overhearing, came closer.
“What model phone?”
Catherine told her.
Maya’s expression sharpened.
“If Jason had your device and access to a shared home network, he could have captured saved credentials or synced contacts.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Catherine looked at him.
For the first time, the damage had moved in both directions.
Jason had not only used Adrian’s company to steal from Catherine.
He may have used Catherine to attack Adrian.
That mattered because it changed the balance between them.
She did not owe Adrian for helping her.
He needed her evidence too.
They were not rescuer and victim.
They were two people standing on different sides of the same fraud.
Catherine extended her hand.
“Partners?”
Adrian looked at it.
Then at her.
“Legally defined?”
“Don’t ruin the moment.”
His mouth curved.
May you like
He took her hand.
“Partners.”
