Chapter 10 - Her Mother's Name
Sophia had not heard anyone connect her mother to Atelier Cole’s problems in twelve years.
Eleanor Reed had helped Edward build the company from one Manhattan showroom into a national luxury brand. She had died after a short illness when Sophia was twenty-six.
Sophia had always believed her mother’s last year at the company had been quiet.
Apparently, she had been wrong.
“Trace the call,” Ortiz ordered.
The prepaid phone went dead.
Edward sat heavily on Monica’s sofa.
Sophia looked at him. “What did my mother find?”
He rubbed a hand over his face.
“That depends on how much you want to hate me.”
“Try me.”
Edward admitted that Eleanor had once suspected a senior buyer of diverting sample gowns and accepting payments from resellers. She wanted an external audit.
The board refused.
“Who was the buyer?”
Edward hesitated.
“Grant’s father.”
Sophia stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I knew there were allegations. I never knew if they were true.”
“So you buried them.”
“I convinced your mother to wait until we had evidence.”
“And did you get it?”
“No.”
Sophia laughed once, without humor.
“My mother died, and everyone got to call it unresolved.”
Edward looked ashamed.
Ortiz interrupted. “We have movement.”
A patrol officer had found Monica’s car at a commuter garage in New Jersey.
Inside the trunk was an empty garment box labeled AC-0912.
No gown.
But the parking garage cameras showed Monica handing a blue garment bag to someone at 11:42 a.m.
Ortiz enlarged the image.
The recipient wore a baseball cap and sunglasses.
Sophia recognized the posture before the face.
Edward did too.
“No,” he whispered.
May you like
The person carrying away the blue gown was Atelier Cole’s outside attorney.
The only other man who had known about Sophia’s ownership transfer.
