Chapter 7 - The Copy of Lauren.
Lauren stared at Caleb with a disbelief that quickly became anger.
“You knew?”
“I knew he asked IT to make a backup image.”
“You said cloned.”
Caleb looked down.
“Because that's what it was.”
Emma felt the situation widen beyond forged signatures and questionable financing.
This was not one impulsive decision.
It had structure.
It had preparation.
Rachel's questions became sharper.
“Who in IT did the work?”
“An outside contractor named Vernon Pike.”
“Paid by Bennett Capital?”
“No.”
“Then by whom?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Northstar.”
Lauren shook her head.
“That makes no sense.”
Emma understood before anyone said it.
“It makes perfect sense if Ethan already had someone inside Northstar.”
Rachel nodded slowly.
Caleb looked at Ethan's last message on Lauren's phone.
“He wasn't trying to buy Northstar from the outside.”
“He was already working with someone there.”
Emma thought about the transfer, the false amendment, the fake board consent, and the property leases hidden beneath a failing hospitality company.
Every thread seemed to point toward the same question.
Who benefited if Ethan moved Reed family money into Northstar before the audit caught him?
Adrian asked it aloud.
“Who owns Northstar now?”
Rachel searched her phone.
“Public filings show three investment entities.”
“Names?”
“Pine Harbor Holdings, Mercer Development, and Aster Lane Partners.”
Lauren suddenly looked up.
“Aster Lane.”
Emma turned toward her.
“You know it?”
“I've seen that name.”
“Where?”
Lauren pressed her fingers to her temple.
“On Ethan's desk.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
She looked at Emma.
“He told me Aster Lane was a lender.”
Rachel's fingers moved quickly over her screen.
“It is not a lender.”
“What is it?”
“A private holding company registered in Delaware.”
“Owner?”
“Not listed publicly.”
Emma almost smiled.
Her father had hated opaque holding companies.
He used to call them locked rooms with expensive stationery.
“Rachel, can the trust audit identify beneficial ownership?”
“If the transaction touched trust assets, yes.”
“Then that is where we start.”
Lauren sat again.
Her confidence had disappeared completely.
“I thought I was helping structure a deal.”
Emma looked at her.
“You were helping structure a deal.”
“You just didn't know whose.”
Lauren flinched.
Emma did not soften the sentence.
She was done using politeness to protect people from consequences.
At the same time, she did not want revenge.
She wanted facts.
The distinction mattered.
Rachel's phone buzzed with an incoming email from Samuel.
She opened the forged board consent and reviewed the metadata summary.
“Caleb is right.”
Lauren looked at her.
“The device identifier matches a cloned image of your machine.”
Lauren covered her mouth.
“Could Ethan have accessed my email?”
Caleb answered before Rachel could.
“Yes.”
Lauren looked physically ill.
Emma remembered the way Lauren had defended Ethan at dinners.
She remembered the private jokes, the late meetings, the champagne-colored dress chosen for an afternoon visit that was supposedly about financing.
Resentment still existed.
But something else existed beside it now.
Recognition.
Ethan had told different women different versions of the same story and used their confidence against one another.
Emma did not forgive Lauren.
She simply stopped seeing her as the main enemy.
Derek approached from the security panel.
“The Range Rover's tracker just stopped transmitting.”
“Where?”
“A parking garage downtown.”
Emma looked at Rachel.
“Near the company office?”
Rachel checked the location.
“No.”
“Near Northstar's law firm.”
Lauren stood abruptly.
“Ethan said their counsel was out of town.”
“Apparently not.”
Adrian looked at Emma.
“We can have someone observe the garage from a public area.”
Emma nodded.
“No confrontation.”
“Agreed.”
Mason made a call to the licensed security team his firm used for corporate investigations.
Emma appreciated that her brothers kept everything formal.
Ethan had spent years convincing her that they were reckless men who solved problems with intimidation.
The reality was almost boringly professional.
That realization hurt in a different way.
She had believed caricatures because believing them made marriage easier.
A message arrived on Rachel's phone ten minutes later.
The Range Rover was empty.
The garage camera showed Ethan entering an elevator alone.
The elevator served three businesses.
One was Northstar's law firm.
One was a private bank.
The third was Aster Lane Partners.
Emma stared at the screen.
“Aster Lane has an office there?”
Rachel nodded.
“Apparently.”
Lauren walked closer.
“Who rents it?”
Rachel zoomed in on the corporate directory photograph sent by the investigator.
The listing showed only a company name and a suite number.
No executive names.
No receptionist.
No website.
Then Caleb spoke from across the foyer.
“I know that suite.”
Emma looked at him.
“How?”
Caleb's face tightened.
“Because I delivered documents there twice.”
“To Ethan?”
“No.”
“To a woman.”
Lauren frowned.
“What woman?”
Caleb looked directly at Emma.
“Your mother-in-law.”
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