Chapter 7
Tessa lowered her phone, but her fingers remained curled around it.
“My daughter’s at work,” she said. “She’ll be home alone tonight.”
Audrey felt the anger in her rise, hot and helpless. She kept her voice level.
“Call her. Tell her not to go home alone.”
Tessa’s mouth tightened. For a moment she looked as if she might refuse the suggestion simply because Lenora had forced the fear into the room. Then she dialed.
While she spoke in a low voice, Audrey texted Grant. She told him what Lenora had written and asked him to come to the café. No explanations, no softening. Just the threat, and the fact that Tessa needed help.
When Tessa hung up, she put her phone facedown again.
“She’s going to a neighbor’s,” she said. “I told her I’d explain later.”
“Good.”
“Don’t say it like you know everything’s going to be fine.”
Audrey took the correction without flinching. “I don’t. I’m glad she won’t be alone.”
Tessa looked at her, then nodded once.
Grant arrived less than half an hour later, still wearing his coat. He slid into the booth beside Audrey, his gaze moving from her face to Tessa’s phone.
“What happened?”
Tessa showed him the message.
He read it without speaking. The muscles in his jaw tightened, but he gave the phone back carefully, as if even touching it too hard might make the threat worse.
“She needs someone with her,” he said.
“She’s with a neighbor,” Tessa replied. “I’m going to stay there after this.”
Grant nodded. “Then we’ll make this quick.”
Tessa glanced toward the café entrance. “I have something first. I copied it before Lenora told me to delete everything. I hid the backup at work.”
“You went back?” Audrey asked.
“This morning. Before she could get there.” Tessa looked down at her hands. “I could lose my job for taking it. I might lose it anyway if she finds out.”
Grant leaned forward. “You don’t have to hand us anything you’re not ready to.”
“I’m already past ready.”
Tessa reached into her bag and took out a small black drive. She set it between the sugar jar and the napkin holder. The gesture was careful, almost formal, like she was placing something breakable on the table.
“The ledger, the booking sheets, and the recording,” she said. “I made a copy. I didn’t change anything.”
Grant didn’t touch it yet. “You’re sure this is what Lenora told you to delete?”
“I’m sure.”
The café’s espresso machine hissed behind them. A spoon struck a cup. Around their booth, people talked about errands and lunch plans, as if a woman’s threat to someone’s daughter were no more than another notification.
Grant took out his laptop. Tessa plugged in the drive.
The first file was a spreadsheet. Rows of dates filled the screen, some weeks apart, some only days apart. New Year’s Eve was near the top, its deposit marked received. Below it were private dinners, a winter anniversary party, a spring reception. Each line named a client and listed a payment.
Audrey’s stomach tightened as she scrolled. These weren’t a few hopeful inquiries or an idea Lenora had floated at the party. She had been selling dates on a calendar that did not belong to her.
A column at the far right contained notes.
Grant will be traveling.
No issue with the family—he won’t interfere.
Property available under my authority.
Tessa pressed her thumb against the edge of the table.
“She told people you knew,” she said to Grant. “That you wouldn’t make trouble for the bookings.”
Grant looked at the screen. “I didn’t know.”
“I know that now.”
The apology sat behind her words, not spoken and not offered as enough. Audrey understood. Tessa had helped move the lie along; Lenora had built it, polished it, and handed it to clients as a promise.
Grant clicked into the folder of scanned forms. There were booking sheets, invoices, and copies of the authorization with his forged name. He closed them again.
“Play the recording,” Audrey said.
Tessa’s face tightened.
“Are you sure?”
Audrey looked at the drive. “Yes.”
Tessa opened an audio file. At first there was only room noise: the clink of glass, a chair scraping, a low wash of party conversation. Audrey recognized the polished murmur of the house that night, all candlelight and guests speaking as if nobody there could ever be hurt.
Then Lenora’s voice cut through.
“Keep them upstairs. I don’t want the baby crying where the guests can hear.”
Audrey’s breath caught, but she didn’t look away from the laptop.
A muffled voice answered. Tessa’s, younger with fear. “Audrey said she needs to come down.”
“She can wait.”
A pause. A sound like a door closing.
“And leave that window as it is,” Lenora continued. “If she complains about the cold, she’ll sound irrational. People will understand what I mean when they see her.”
The recording kept going. Someone laughed in the distance. A glass chimed. The party moved on below them while Audrey sat in that upstairs room, trying to get the handle to turn.
The memory had never needed proof to be real. But hearing Lenora’s voice lay the cruelty out as a plan did something different: it stripped away every excuse Audrey had been pressured to make for her.
Grant’s hand rested on the table beside hers. He didn’t cover her fingers or speak for her. Audrey turned her palm up and touched his.
Tessa stopped the recording.
“I should have told you sooner,” she said.
“Yes,” Audrey replied. She let the truth stand between them. “You should have.”
Tessa nodded, tears brightening her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Audrey didn’t tell her it was all right. It wasn’t. But Tessa had come back with evidence, despite the threat, despite what it might cost her.
“Save another copy,” Grant said. “Somewhere Lenora can’t reach.”
“I can send it to my personal account.”
“Not one she knows about.”
Tessa gave a grim, humorless smile. “I’ll figure it out.”
Grant copied the files to a new folder on his laptop. Audrey watched the progress bar creep across the screen. Dates, payments, client names: the damage was growing more concrete with every second.
“New Year’s Eve,” she said. “How many people are expecting to come?”
Tessa checked the ledger. “More than the original party. She sold it as an event venue. Dinner, music, midnight on the terrace.”
Grant’s expression hardened. “Then we tell them the house isn’t available.”
“She’ll say you changed your mind,” Tessa said. “She’s already told them you won’t interfere.”
“I’ll tell them myself.”
The laptop chimed softly as the last file finished copying.
Tessa reached for the drive, but the audio player remained open. A final clip sat below the first, its filename nothing but a date and time. She hesitated.
“I don’t remember this one,” she said.
Grant glanced at the recording details. “Is it from the party?”
“Looks like it.”
Audrey heard the faint scrape of the chair as Tessa leaned closer. The café suddenly seemed very quiet around them.
“Play it,” Grant said.
Tessa clicked.
May you like
At first came the same blur of distant music and voices. Then Lenora spoke, closer to the microphone this time, her voice calm enough to make Audrey’s skin prickle.
“Once Grant is forced to leave,” Lenora said, “the house will be mine again.”
