He Made Us His Secret, So We Disappeared novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: Show of Hands
At nine on Monday morning I walked into the partners' boardroom on Park Avenue for the first time as Marcello's wife.
Eleven partners sat around the long table.
Chiara sat at the far end in cream, with her hands folded and her eyes wet.
Her father sat at the head. He was a silver-haired retired judge with a voice built for sentencing, and he had not once looked at me.
"Mr. Ferraro," he said. "You may speak."
Marcello stood with a single sheet of paper.
"Six days ago I learned the email that ruled my private life for eight years is a forgery."
A murmur went round the table.
"It is dated five days before a party my wife's account did not exist for. The head of IT is here to say so."
The head of IT came in, gray in the face, and stood by the door.
"The account was created the Monday after the winter party," he said. "The email is stamped the Tuesday before it. The archive shows it was loaded by hand from an administrator session in the week of the wedding."
"By whom?" a partner asked.
"I can't say yet, sir."
"You can't say?"
"The access record for that week is in cold storage. I need two more days."
Chiara's father leaned back.
"So you have a date, Mr. Ferraro, and a theory."
"I have a date and a witness."
"You have an employee who answers to you."
The head of IT flinched.
Chiara lifted her hand, very gently.
"May I?"
"Go ahead, Chiara."
She stood. She looked at Marcello with so much tenderness that I almost admired it.
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