Chapter 2 - The Door Someone Opened
Nora arrived with a laptop, a legal pad, and none of the dramatic urgency Jake felt.
She greeted Catherine first.
“Before we start, you should know you can have your own lawyer. My responsibility is to the company.”
Catherine looked relieved rather than offended.
“I’d prefer that.”
“Good. We can arrange reimbursement for reasonable independent counsel relating to what happened here. You choose the lawyer.”
Jake watched Catherine consider the offer.
“No agreement to keep quiet?”
“Nothing like that,” Nora said.
“Then yes.”
They sat at the kitchen table.
Nora asked Catherine to describe the visit from the beginning. She interrupted only to clarify words or times.
When Catherine mentioned Hadley’s knowledge of Lucy’s schedule, Nora made a separate note.
Then Jake showed her the gate log.
Her face remained composed.
“Who else could use Owen’s account?”
“His assistant has delegated access to some systems.”
“Then we establish which device issued the code before drawing conclusions.”
Jake hated that answer.
He also knew it was the right one.
The company’s security team preserved access records. A specialist made a protected copy of the camera footage. Nora contacted outside counsel about the attempted theft of confidential business information.
Nobody called Hadley.
Nobody called Owen.
Catherine checked the time.
“I really do need to go.”
Jake stood.
“My driver can take you.”
“Thank you.”
Then she looked directly at him.
“There’s something else.”
He waited.
“How did you know I was late on rent?”
Jake glanced toward Nora.
Catherine noticed.
“Please don’t turn this into something your lawyer answers.”
He deserved that.
“A notice was delivered here with your name on it.”
“My landlord uses your address?”
“You asked the house manager to receive mail while your apartment mailboxes were being replaced.”
She remembered.
Of course she did.
“The envelope had a red notice on the front,” he continued. “I asked the house manager whether everything was all right.”
“And the checking account?”
He hesitated.
“I made assumptions.”
Catherine leaned back.
“They were accurate assumptions.”
“That doesn’t make them your business.”
“No,” he said. “It doesn’t.”
Nora quietly closed her notebook.
Jake looked at the woman he paid to care for his house and realized how little effort he had made to distinguish concern from entitlement.
“I’m sorry.”
Catherine nodded once.
Not forgiveness.
Acknowledgment.
It was enough for the moment.
After she left, Jake called his daughter.
Ava answered from her mother’s house.
“Did somebody die?”
“No.”
“You never call before nine.”
He closed his eyes.
“I wanted to check in.”
“Okay.”
The guarded word hurt.
He asked about school.
She told him about a debate tournament he had forgotten to put on his calendar.
He put it there while she spoke.
Then, before hanging up, he said, “I’d like to come.”
“You don’t have to say that.”
“I know.”
Afterward, Nora stood in the doorway.
“The code was issued from Owen’s company laptop.”
Jake’s hand tightened around his phone.
“Where was it?”
“His office. Security footage places him there. That still doesn’t establish why he issued it.”
Jake nodded.
“Anything else?”
“Catherine received a message.”
He rose immediately.
“What message?”
Nora held up a hand.
“She’s with Dolores and Lucy. She’s safe. Her attorney is advising her.”
“What did it say?”
Nora read from her screen.
You misunderstood a generous offer. Let’s not make this difficult.
Jake felt anger arrive so suddenly it almost steadied him.
“Hadley?”
“Unknown number. We’re preserving it.”
He turned toward the window.
For years, he had imagined betrayal as something that happened in boardrooms.
He had forgotten it could follow someone home to a small apartment where a child was doing fractions.
Across town, Catherine sat beside Lucy on Dolores’s couch.
Her daughter was coloring a diagram of the solar system.
“Why are we staying here?”
“Because I’ve had a difficult day, and Dolores has better cookies.”
Lucy accepted that explanation for approximately four seconds.
“Are you in trouble?”
Catherine looked at her.
“No.”
“Is somebody else?”
“Possibly.”
Lucy set down her pencil.
“Did you do the right thing?”
Catherine thought about the money.
Five stacks.
Enough to clear rent, repair the car, and stop waking at three in the morning to calculate which bill could wait.
“Yes,” she said.
Lucy nodded.
“Then we can stay for cookies.”
Catherine laughed, but her eyes stung.
Later, after Lucy fell asleep, Catherine checked her email.
Her new attorney had sent a short message.
May you like
Do not engage. Preserve everything. We will handle the next steps together.
For the first time since Hadley walked through the gate, she did not feel quite so alone.
