Chapter 11 - THE MISTRESS BECOMES THE TARGET|
Sarah found Chloe waiting outside Evelyn's office, clutching a phone and looking over her shoulder every few seconds.
"You said Charles Bennett was alive," Sarah said. "What proof do you have?"
Chloe opened her phone and showed her a photograph taken through the window of a restaurant.
An older man sat at a corner table, wearing a dark coat and reading a newspaper.
His face was partly obscured, but the resemblance to Daniel was unmistakable.
"When was this taken?" Evelyn asked.
"Yesterday."
"Where?"
"At a private restaurant outside Milwaukee. Richard Hale arranged the meeting."
Chloe explained that Daniel had asked her to contact Richard after discovering the letter in the storage unit. Richard had promised to explain the financial transfers and help Daniel protect the company.
Instead, he had instructed Chloe to attend a meeting alone.
When she arrived, Charles Bennett was waiting.
"He told me Daniel had ruined everything," Chloe said. "He said the company was his, the money was his, and that I had been useful until I became a liability."
Sarah studied her.
"Why would he involve you?"
"Because he thought I could persuade Daniel to sign a document transferring control of the remaining assets."
"Did you sign anything?"
"No. I left."
Evelyn took notes.
"Did he threaten you?"
Chloe nodded.
"He said if I talked, he would make sure I was blamed for the missing money."
Sarah felt an uncomfortable flicker of sympathy.
It did not erase what Chloe had done at the gala.
But it made the larger picture clearer.
Chloe had been used as a distraction, Daniel had been used as a public figurehead, and Sarah had been positioned as the unstable wife whose signature could justify the transfer of assets.
Charles Bennett had apparently designed a scheme in which everyone could be blamed except the person controlling the money.
Evelyn advised Chloe to provide the information to investigators through her attorney.
Chloe agreed.
Before leaving, she turned toward Sarah.
"I know I have no right to ask you for anything."
"Then don't."
Chloe nodded.
"But I need you to know something. Daniel wasn't the only person who laughed at you that night. Charles was watching from a private balcony."
Sarah went cold.
"What?"
"He was there. He had been invited by the event's organizers, but he stayed out of sight. He watched the entire incident on a monitor."
"Why?"
Chloe shook her head.
"I don't know."
Sarah remembered the ballroom, the shattered glass, and Daniel's laughter.
The humiliation had felt like a personal betrayal.
Now it seemed possible that someone had wanted to provoke her into reacting publicly, hoping to make her appear unstable before the financial investigation began.
Evelyn immediately contacted the hotel's management and requested that any relevant footage be preserved.
That evening, an investigator confirmed that Charles Bennett's death certificate had been filed using documentation that appeared legitimate.
But the medical examiner's original report could not be located.
Sarah sat quietly after the call ended.
"How can someone fake a death so thoroughly?"
Evelyn answered carefully.
"Money, influence, and people willing to look the other way can create a convincing story. But eventually, records contradict each other."
Sarah looked at Chloe's photograph again.
"Then let's find the records."
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Because if Charles Bennett was alive, the question was no longer whether Daniel had lied about the company.
It was who had been controlling him all along.
