Chapter 6: What Chloe Knew
Elena had booked a room at a small hotel two miles from the one Julian had reserved — paid for with her own account, under her own name, with no connection to anything shared between them.
She sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Chloe's business card.
Chloe had pressed it into her hand at the baggage carousel, quietly, while Julian was retrieving his suitcase.
She hadn't said anything.
Just held it out, and Elena had taken it.
Elena turned it over now.
*Chloe Marsh.
Marketing Specialist.* A personal cell number written in pen on the back.
She called it.
Chloe picked up on the second ring.
"I wasn't sure you'd call," Chloe said.
"I wasn't sure either," Elena said.
"Are you alone?"
"Yes.
I'm at a coffee shop near the airport.
I couldn't—" A pause.
"I couldn't go to the hotel."
"The Brickell condo," Elena said.
"Did you know where the down payment came from?"
Silence.
Long enough that Elena thought the call might have dropped.
"He told me it was an investment account," Chloe said finally.
"His own.
He said he'd been building it for years before you were married."
"It was our joint money," Elena said.
"Built over twelve years.
Including the years I ran my studio at a loss while he was getting his career established."
Another silence.
"I didn't know," Chloe said.
Her voice had changed.
Something in it had gone flat.
"I swear to you, I didn't know."
"I believe you," Elena said.
"But I need you to say that to my lawyer."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that if you're willing to give a statement confirming what Julian told you about the source of the funds, it strengthens the fraud case considerably.
It also means the complaint focuses on him and on Daniel — not on you."
Chloe was quiet for a moment.
"And if I don't?"
"Then my lawyer proceeds without your statement.
It takes longer.
The outcome is probably the same." Elena paused.
"But I think you're angry, Chloe.
I think you've been sitting in that coffee shop for two hours being angry.
And I think you deserve to do something with that."
A long breath on the other end of the line.
"He told me you were cold," Chloe said.
"He told me you cared more about your business than your family.
That you'd checked out of the marriage years ago."
Elena said nothing.
"You don't seem cold," Chloe said.
"I'm not," Elena said.
"I'm just organized."
Something that might have been a short, broken laugh came through the phone.
Then: "What do I need to do?"
"I'll send you Patricia Hale's contact information.
She'll call you today.
You tell her exactly what Julian told you — about the money, about the marriage, about all of it.
You tell her the truth."
"Okay," Chloe said.
Then, quieter: "I'm sorry.
For what it's worth."
"It's worth something," Elena said.
And she meant it.
She ended the call and sat for a moment in the quiet of the hotel room.
Then she picked up her phone again and sent Patricia a text: *Chloe Marsh will cooperate.
Expect her call today.
Get everything.*
Patricia replied in under a minute: *Daniel Reeves was served twenty minutes ago.
His lawyer called us already.*
Elena set the phone down on the bedside table.
She looked at the window.
Outside, Miami was bright and indifferent, full of people who had no idea what was happening in a small hotel room two miles from the water.
May you like
Her own reflection looked back at her from the dark edge of the glass.
She looked, she thought, remarkably like herself.
