PART 2

I never went to room 1417.

At 7:55 the following morning, I entered the hotel ballroom still wearing my wedding dress, though the veil was gone.

Callum stood near the stage with Vanessa beside him.

He took the microphone before I could reach my mother.

“Audrey had a difficult night,” he told the investors and board. “The pressure became too much. She made accusations and became confused.”

Vanessa lowered her gaze as though she were respectfully guarding my privacy.

Callum placed a blue folder in front of me.

“A thirty-day leave,” he said. “Sign it, and I’ll protect everything your father built.”

My mother touched my arm.

“Maybe just for today, darling.”

Callum smiled.

He had already framed me as irrational.

I looked toward the board secretary.

“Is this meeting being recorded?”

“Not yet.”

I faced Callum again.

“Do you want everything you just said entered into the official minutes?”

“Completely.”

The secretary activated the recorder.

I opened the folder without reaching for the pen.

“Vanessa, what time did you draft the announcement about my leave?”

Her expression tightened.

“After your breakdown.”

The secretary opened the file details.

“Four eighteen yesterday afternoon.”

Our wedding ceremony had begun at six.

Silence spread across the room.

Callum reached for the folder. “Metadata can be altered.”

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