Chapter 6: What Marcus Hale Had Been Paid to Do
The call from Thomas came at 4 p.m.
I was in my home office with the boys asleep in the next room and Nora reading in the chair by the window when my phone lit up.
'Hale's office received my letter at two-fifteen,' Thomas said.
'By three o'clock, someone attempted to access and delete three files from the shared client portal.
The system flagged it because of the preservation order.'
'What files?'
'Two drafts of the trust amendment and one email chain between Hale and Genevieve going back fourteen months.'
I sat back.
'Fourteen months.'
'Yes.'
Genevieve and I had been together for eighteen months.
She had contacted Marcus Hale four months after we started dating.
'What's in the email chain?' I said.
'I don't have full access yet.
The court order is being processed.
But the metadata shows consistent communication — roughly every three to four weeks — over the entire fourteen-month period.
And one email, sent six days ago, has a subject line that's been partially recovered.'
'What does it say?'
Thomas read it slowly.
'IPO window — confirm timeline before we proceed.'
The room was very quiet.
'She was timing it,' I said.
'The wedding date.
The document signing.
All of it was timed to the IPO.'
'That's what it looks like.'
I thought about the eighteen months.
The first dinner, the easy conversation, the way she had seemed to understand my world without needing it explained.
I had thought that was chemistry.
I understood now it was research.
'Thomas,' I said.
'Is there a scenario where she didn't know about the forged signature?'
He was quiet for a moment.
'There's a scenario where she can argue she didn't know.
Whether anyone believes it is a different question.'
'What's your read?'
'A woman who has been in weekly contact with a fraudulent attorney for fourteen months, who knew your IPO timeline before you told her, and who had packed a suitcase before you asked her to leave — that woman knew what was in those documents.'
Nora looked up from her book.
She hadn't moved, hadn't spoken, but her eyes met mine briefly and then dropped back to the page.
'What do I do now?' I said.
'Tonight, nothing.
Tomorrow morning, you come to my office and we go through everything together.
I've also contacted a forensic document examiner.
We'll have a formal analysis of the signature by end of week.' A pause.
'And Dorian — the photograph Nora took.
I need a copy.'
'I'll send it tonight.'
'Good.
One more thing.
Do you know who introduced you to Genevieve?'
I thought back.
A dinner party.
A mutual friend.
Someone I trusted.
'Connor Ashby,' I said.
'He introduced us at his house in April last year.'
'How well do you know Connor Ashby?'
The question landed differently than it should have.
'Well enough.
We went to university together.
He's been a friend for fifteen years.'
'Has he had any financial difficulties recently?'
I didn't answer immediately.
Because the answer was yes.
Connor had come to me eight months ago asking about an investment opportunity.
I had declined.
He had seemed fine about it.
We had still had dinner twice since then.
'Why are you asking about Connor?' I said.
May you like
'Because one of the email addresses copied on that six-day-old email,' Thomas said, 'belongs to a C.
Ashby.'
