Chapter 7: What Beatrice Said
They met at a restaurant that had been closed for a private event — Marcus had arranged it, which meant Mara didn't ask how.
Beatrice arrived five minutes early.
She was wearing the same clothes she had been in that morning, which told Mara she had not gone back to the house.
They sat across from each other at a corner table.
No menus.
No pretense.
"I'm not wearing a wire," Beatrice said immediately.
"I know," Mara said.
"Marcus swept the room."
Beatrice looked at her hands for a moment.
Then she looked up.
"I need you to understand something," she said.
"I'm not here to ask you to stop.
I know it's too late for that.
I know what's coming tomorrow and I'm not going to pretend I can change it."
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I want to say it to your face." Beatrice's voice was steady, but only just.
"What I did three years ago — the call I made — I told myself I was protecting the company.
I told myself you were struggling and that Julian was handling it and that I was just being honest about what I'd seen." She stopped.
"But I knew.
I knew what Julian was going to do with what I said.
And I said it anyway."
Mara said nothing.
"I'm not asking for forgiveness," Beatrice said.
"I don't think I've earned the right to ask for that." She reached into her bag and placed a small recorder on the table.
"I recorded my conversation with Julian this morning.
After he left, I called a lawyer.
She told me to record everything going forward." Beatrice slid the recorder across the table.
"He said he has people.
He said he can stop this.
He said—" She paused.
"He said if I cooperated with you, he would make sure certain things about my finances became very public."
"He threatened you."
"Yes." Beatrice's jaw tightened.
"He's done it before.
In smaller ways.
I told myself those were also things I was misreading." She looked at Mara directly.
"I'm done misreading things."
Mara looked at the recorder on the table.
"If you testify," she said carefully, "it won't be comfortable.
Julian's lawyers will come after your credibility.
They'll say you're doing this to protect yourself.
They'll make it about your finances, your marriage, every choice you've made."
"I know."
"And you're willing to do it anyway."
Beatrice didn't answer immediately.
She looked at the table for a moment — at the recorder, at her own hands, at the space between them.
"My daughter called me this afternoon," she said.
"She's twenty-six.
She saw the photos from the gala last night — Julian humiliating you in front of everyone — and she called to ask me if I thought that was acceptable." Beatrice's voice dropped slightly.
"I didn't know what to say to her.
I've been trying to figure out what to say to her for the last eight hours."
She looked up.
"I want to be able to call her back with an answer," she said.
"That's why I'm here."
Mara was quiet for a long moment.
Then she reached across the table and picked up the recorder.
"Marcus will need a formal statement," she said.
"Tonight, if possible."
"Tonight is fine."
"And Beatrice." Mara held her gaze.
"If at any point you change your mind — if Julian gets to you, if the pressure becomes too much — I need to know immediately.
Not through a lawyer.
Directly."
Beatrice nodded.
"I won't change my mind," she said.
Mara believed her.
Not entirely because of anything Beatrice had said — but because of the way she was sitting.
Upright.
Still.
Like a woman who had made a decision she was not going to unmake.
Marcus appeared at the edge of the room.
Mara glanced at him.
"He's ready to take your statement," she said.
Beatrice stood.
Smoothed her jacket.
Looked at Mara one more time.
"For what it's worth," she said quietly, "you were never unstable.
I knew that then too."
She walked toward Marcus without waiting for a response.
Mara sat alone at the corner table for a moment.
Then her phone rang.
Daniel.
"The warrant came through," he said.
"Judge signed it forty minutes ago.
They execute at seven tomorrow morning."
"Julian's office or his home?"
"Both.
Simultaneously."
Mara set the recorder down on the table.
"Then it's done," she said.
"Almost," Daniel said.
"There's one more thing.
Julian's attorney filed an emergency injunction twenty minutes ago.
He's trying to block the civil filing."
Mara picked up her pen.
"On what grounds?"
"He's claiming the documents were obtained illegally." A pause.
"He's named you personally, Mara.
He's asking the court to issue a restraining order against you before tomorrow morning."
The pen was still in her hand.
May you like
"Call Marcus," she said.
"Right now."
