Chapter 7 - MY MISTRESS KNEW EVERYTHING
“Elise, tell me the truth. Were you sleeping with me because you wanted me, or because Victor told you to?”
The question hung between us.
Elise Warren sat across from me in a private conference room at Nora Patel's law office.
She looked nothing like the woman I'd met at expensive restaurants and hidden hotel suites.
Her makeup was minimal. Her hands rested tensely in her lap. And for the first time, she seemed unable to look me directly in the eyes.
Nora sat beside me.
Elise had brought her own attorney, a quiet man who'd already spent fifteen minutes discussing the importance of accurate statements and preserving evidence.
Finally, Elise answered.
“Victor didn't tell me to sleep with you.”
I waited.
“But he encouraged me to become close to you.”
My stomach tightened.
“How?”
“He put me on projects that required late meetings with you. He arranged business trips. He suggested that you needed someone who understood the pressure you were under.”
I stared at her.
“And you went along with it?”
“At first, I thought he was helping my career.”
Her voice shook slightly.
“Then you started paying attention to me.”
I looked down.
I remembered the first dinner.
Elise had laughed at my jokes.
She'd admired my ambition.
She'd told me Claire was fortunate to have a man who worked so hard.
I'd enjoyed being admired.
At home, Claire had been asking difficult questions about my businesses.
Elise asked me about my successes.
I'd chosen the conversation that made me feel important.
“What did Victor promise you?” I asked.
“A promotion. A larger department. Access to investment partnerships.”
“And what did you give him?”
Elise looked toward her attorney.
He nodded for her to answer truthfully.
“Information.”
I felt my jaw tighten.
“What kind?”
“Your schedule. Places you met me. Sometimes copies of expense reports.”
I sat back.
“You were reporting our affair?”
“Yes.”
The answer was quiet.
Almost unbearable.
“Did you know he was photographing Claire?”
Elise's eyes filled.
“Not at first.”
“When did you find out?”
“About six weeks before she disappeared.”
I leaned forward.
“And you didn't warn her?”
She shook her head.
“Victor told me Claire was gathering confidential information and might be working with people who wanted to destroy the company.”
“So you believed him?”
“I wanted to believe him.”
Nora spoke for the first time.
“Ms. Warren, what exactly was inside the folder you carried into Mr. Hale's office?”
Elise swallowed.
“Photographs of Daniel and me. Records of our hotel reservations. A summary of Claire's meetings with employees. And notes about her charity.”
My hands clenched beneath the table.
“Why would Victor need photographs of my affair?”
Elise looked at me.
“Because he said Claire wouldn't trust you once she saw them.”
The room became painfully quiet.
I heard the air conditioner humming overhead.
Elise continued.
“He said she was becoming a problem. That she had documents she didn't understand and could damage the company if she went to regulators.”
“And destroying my marriage would stop her?”
“He believed it would make her easier to discredit.”
I stared at Elise.
She was crying now, but quietly.
“I didn't know how far he'd go, Daniel.”
I wanted to hate her.
Part of me did.
But another part understood something important.
Victor might have encouraged our relationship.
Elise might have enjoyed the opportunities it created.
Neither fact changed my responsibility.
Nobody had forced me to take off my wedding ring before entering a hotel room.
Nobody had forced me to lie to Claire.
Those had been my decisions.
“You didn't make me cheat,” I said finally.
Elise looked startled.
“I know.”
“But you helped turn my betrayal into a weapon against my wife.”
She lowered her head.
“Yes.”
Nora asked about the documents Elise had brought.
They included emails from Victor requesting information about Claire's movements, internal expense summaries, and a memorandum prepared for a possible campaign to challenge Second Door's financial integrity.
One email was especially revealing.
Victor had written:
If Claire Carter presents her materials to outside counsel or regulators, we must be prepared to establish that she is personally compromised and financially unreliable.
Elise had replied:
What exactly do you want me to provide?
Victor's answer was chilling.
Whatever makes her husband the last person she can trust.
I read those words twice.
Then I placed the document on the table.
For years, I'd treated loyalty as something people owed me.
Now I understood how easily loyalty became manipulation when nobody was allowed to question the person demanding it.
“Why are you telling us this now?” I asked Elise.
She wiped her cheek.
“Because I saw the newspaper accuse Claire of stealing charity money.”
“And?”
“And I helped make that possible.”
Her voice broke.
“I can't pretend I didn't.”
Nora explained that Elise's cooperation would not automatically protect her from consequences.
Her attorney agreed.
There were questions about false expense classifications, confidential information, and her knowledge of the surveillance.
Elise might lose her career.
She might face civil or criminal scrutiny.
For once, she didn't ask me to protect her.
Instead, she reached into her bag and removed a printed invoice summary.
“There's one more thing,” she said.
Nora examined the document.
It came from Northstar Site Services.
Several payments had been made to a private investigation company linked to Evan Rourke.
Most concerned ordinary surveillance expenses.
But the last entry was different.
It had been approved the previous day.
The description read:
Wisconsin relocation verification — subject and accompanying family member.
I stared at the page.
Nora immediately reached for her phone.
She contacted Tessa Morgan, Claire's attorney, and arranged for the information to be shared with the authorities handling Claire's safety concerns.
My instinct screamed at me to demand the address and go to my wife.
Instead, I remained in my chair.
“Is she in danger?” I asked.
Nora gave me a steady look.
“We're making sure the people protecting her have this information.”
I nodded.
Elise looked at me.
“Daniel, there's something else Victor said.”
I waited.
“He said if the charity accusations didn't work, he had another way to make Claire come back.”
My blood ran cold.
“What way?”
Elise's voice dropped.
“He said you'd eventually have to choose between saving your company and protecting your wife.”
I looked at Nora.
She was already reading another document from the folder.
Then her expression changed.
“Daniel,” she said quietly, “I think I know what he meant.”
And she turned the page toward me.
At the top was a proposed legal agreement.
It required me to acknowledge responsibility for the missing corporate funds.
It also required Claire to sign a statement accepting responsibility for the fraudulent charity transactions.
In exchange, Victor promised to arrange a private financial settlement.
At the bottom was a handwritten instruction.
Obtain both signatures before the independent audit is complete.
May you like
Victor wasn't trying to prove we were criminals.
He was trying to make us confess to crimes he had committed.
