Chapter 5: What Vivienne Knew
The others filed out.
Grace paused at the door and gave Charlotte a look that said be careful.
Charlotte nodded once.
Vivienne didn't sit.
She stood near the window with her arms crossed over her chest — not the way she had stood in the lobby, which had been performance, but the way a person stands when they are trying to hold themselves together.
"I didn't know who you were," Vivienne said.
"I know."
"Gerald told me you were a woman who had been harassing hotel staff.
That you'd been removed from the property twice before." She stopped.
"He told me to make sure you left.
He said it needed to look — he said it needed to look like a guest complaint.
Not like—" She stopped again.
"Not like he was having me removed," Charlotte finished.
Vivienne's jaw tightened.
"Yes."
Charlotte studied her.
"How long have you been with Gerald?"
"We're not — it's not like that.
He's my father's business partner.
He's been in my family's life since I was a child." She looked at the table.
"I trusted him."
"So did my mother."
The words landed.
Vivienne didn't flinch, but something shifted behind her eyes.
"What he asked me to do today," Vivienne said slowly, "was not the first time.
There have been other things.
Small things, I told myself.
Carrying a message.
Signing something as a witness.
Being present at a meeting so it looked — so it looked more legitimate." She exhaled.
"I didn't ask enough questions."
"No," Charlotte said.
"You didn't."
"I'm telling you this because I want you to know I had no idea who you were.
And because—" She reached into the pocket of her blouse and placed a small USB drive on the conference table.
"Three months ago, Gerald asked me to store some files for him.
He said they were backup copies of company records.
He said his own server had been compromised." She looked at the drive.
"I'm not an idiot.
I looked at them."
Charlotte didn't move.
"I don't know exactly what all of it means," Vivienne said.
"But there are emails.
Internal communications between Gerald and two other men.
There are wire transfers.
And there are references to someone they call the original document." She pushed the drive an inch closer to Charlotte.
"I think that's your mother's real will."
Charlotte picked up the drive.
"Why are you giving me this?" she asked.
Vivienne looked at her directly for the first time since entering the room.
"Because what he did to you in that lobby today — what he used me to do — I won't carry that." Her voice didn't shake, but it was close.
"And because whatever Gerald is, I'm not that."
Charlotte turned the drive over in her hand.
It was small.
Lighter than it should have been, given what it apparently contained.
"You'll need to make a statement," Charlotte said.
"To my attorneys.
And likely to investigators."
"I know."
"It won't be easy.
Gerald has resources.
He'll say you fabricated it."
"I know that too."
Charlotte set the drive on the table in front of her.
"Why did you come back to this room?
You could have walked out of the building and said nothing.
Gerald is already being held downstairs.
You were never officially part of this."
Vivienne was quiet for a moment.
Then she said, "My mother died when I was nineteen.
My father handed everything to Gerald to manage because he didn't know how.
By the time I was twenty-five, half of what she left was gone and Gerald had a very good explanation for all of it." She paused.
"I believed him then too."
The room held that for a moment.
"I'm sorry," Charlotte said.
And she meant it.
"Don't be." Vivienne straightened.
"Just make sure he can't do it to anyone else."
Charlotte picked up the drive again and walked to the door.
She opened it and called Grace back in.
"We have new evidence," she said.
"And a witness."
Grace looked at Vivienne.
Vivienne looked back without flinching.
"I'll need to record your statement," Grace said.
"Are you willing?"
"Yes," Vivienne said.
Grace set her recorder on the table.
Charlotte stepped back to the window while Grace began.
Below, the lobby moved on — guests checking in, a porter crossing the marble floor with a luggage cart, the orchids standing white and still under the chandeliers.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket.
She looked at the screen.
It was a message from Diane, who was still downstairs.
*Gerald asked to speak to you privately.
He says he has information you don't have.
He says it changes everything.
His words.*
Charlotte read it twice.
She typed back: *Tell him I'll be down in ten minutes.*
She put the phone away and looked at the city through the glass.
Gerald Foss had been cornered for less than an hour and he was already trying to negotiate.
May you like
That meant there was something he hadn't told her yet.
And whatever it was, he believed it was worth something.
