Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN RED KNEW
“Use the old authorization if she asks questions.”
Erin read Matthew's instruction for the fourth time.
Then she turned the memorandum over, hoping there was some innocent explanation on the back.
There wasn't.
Only a filing number and Carl Murray's office stamp.
Margaret watched her quietly.
“Does this mean he planned everything?”
“Not everything,” Erin whispered.
“But enough.”
She had spent three days believing Matthew wanted to replace her because Alexis Berry was pregnant.
The memorandum proved something more disturbing.
He had begun removing Erin from the finances long before Alexis's pregnancy was known.
The betrayal wasn't simply personal.
It was organized.
And it had started inside the one part of their marriage Erin thought Matthew still respected.
Her work.
“I need to speak to Carl,” she said.
Margaret looked at the snow gathering outside.
“Not tonight. You're exhausted.”
“Then first thing tomorrow.”
Margaret reached across the table and closed the folder.
“First you're going to sleep.”
Erin almost protested.
But the baby moved sharply beneath her ribs.
She rested her hand against her stomach.
“Okay, sweetheart,” she murmured. “You win.”
For the first time that Christmas, she let somebody take care of her.
The following morning, Matthew found Alexis sitting alone in the estate's breakfast room.
She had changed out of her red dress.
Her dark hair was tied back, and she wore an oversized sweater.
A half-finished cup of tea sat before her.
“Your father left early,” Matthew said.
“I know.”
“He's upset about the meeting.”
“He should be.”
Matthew pulled out a chair.
“Alexis, what happened last night was unfortunate.”
She looked at him.
“Your wife disappeared.”
“She didn't disappear. She's making a statement.”
“She's thirty weeks pregnant.”
Matthew sighed.
“Erin enjoys making people feel responsible for her.”
Alexis stared at him.
For months, Matthew had described Erin as possessive, controlling, and obsessed with money.
He said their marriage had been over emotionally for years.
He insisted they were only waiting for a convenient time to separate.
But the woman Alexis had heard about sounded nothing like the woman who had just risked her reputation to expose financial wrongdoing.
“Did Erin know about us?” Alexis asked.
Matthew hesitated.
“She suspected.”
“Did you tell her about the baby?”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
“After the holiday.”
Alexis looked toward the dining room.
“And after she moved to Connecticut?”
Matthew went still.
“Who told you about that?”
“My father.”
“It's temporary.”
“For whom?”
He frowned.
“Don't start, Alexis.”
She pushed back her chair.
“I'm not one of your employees.”
“No. You're the mother of my child.”
“And Erin is carrying your child too.”
Matthew said nothing.
Alexis stood.
“You keep talking about us like one family has to disappear before the other can exist.”
Matthew's face hardened.
“You knew I was married.”
Alexis flinched.
“Yes,” she admitted. “I did.”
He reached for her.
She stepped away.
“And that is something I'll have to live with. But I didn't agree to help you destroy her.”
By noon, Erin sat across from Carl in a small conference room at his Oyster Bay office.
Margaret had driven her.
Carl examined the July memorandum.
“Where did you get this?”
“From the records Matthew told me to discard.”
“You kept them?”
“I kept copies of my work.”
Carl removed his glasses.
“This was supposed to be an internal access review.”
“Then why does it instruct somebody to reuse an old signature?”
“I never saw that handwritten instruction.”
Erin studied his face.
“Did you draft the Connecticut arrangement?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Carl hesitated.
“August.”
Erin felt something sink inside her.
Alexis's pregnancy hadn't been announced until November.
Matthew had already been planning Erin's removal for months.
“Why August?”
“He told me you needed rest and that the household arrangements were creating conflict.”
“And you believed him?”
“I should have spoken directly with you.”
“Yes,” Erin answered. “You should have.”
Carl looked ashamed.
“Matthew asked me to prepare a possible voluntary separation agreement. I refused to finalize it without your instructions.”
“But you didn't tell me.”
“No.”
Erin folded her hands.
“Then I need copies of everything you prepared. And I need an attorney who has never represented Matthew.”
Carl nodded.
“You're right.”
For once, he didn't try to defend himself.
That afternoon, Erin met Alexis Berry for the first time.
Not at the Harrison estate.
Not beneath chandeliers.
But in the public seating area of a quiet hotel overlooking Long Island Sound.
Alexis had requested the meeting through Carl.
Margaret waited nearby.
Erin remained seated when Alexis approached.
The younger woman looked nervous.
“I didn't know if you'd come.”
“Neither did I.”
Alexis rested a hand on her stomach.
“I know what you must think of me.”
Erin glanced at the small curve beneath her sweater.
“I think you knew my husband was married.”
Alexis lowered her eyes.
“I did.”
“And you continued seeing him.”
“Yes.”
There was no excuse.
That was the first thing about Alexis that Erin almost respected.
“I didn't come here to ask you to forgive me,” Alexis said.
“Good. Because I can't.”
Alexis nodded.
Then she placed a small blue gift box on the table.
Erin recognized it immediately.
Matthew had been wrapping it in his study three days earlier.
“I found this in his desk,” Alexis said.
Inside was an antique gold bracelet.
A tiny engraved plate carried the words:
For our new beginning.
Erin looked away.
“I don't need to see what he bought you.”
“He told you it was for his sister, didn't he?”
“Yes.”
“Matthew doesn't have a sister.”
“I know that now.”
Alexis closed the box.
“That's not why I brought it.”
She lifted the velvet lining.
Underneath lay a folded receipt.
The bracelet had been purchased through a private account identified by a familiar expense code.
Erin recognized the code from Joseph's Harbor Families Fund.
Her throat tightened.
“He bought you jewelry with that money?”
Alexis's face drained.
“I didn't know.”
Erin believed her.
Not because Alexis deserved trust.
Because the horror on her face looked real.
Alexis reached into her handbag and removed another folded paper.
“There's something else.”
It was a copy of the proposed Connecticut residence agreement.
The cover carried Carl's August filing date.
But attached behind it was an earlier planning schedule.
July 11.
Erin stared at the date.
Alexis swallowed.
“Matthew showed me that schedule in September. He said the move was already arranged.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because he keeps saying he did all of it for me.”
Alexis's voice broke.
“And I finally realized he's using my baby as an excuse for something he planned before I was pregnant.”
Erin turned the page.
The schedule listed three objectives.
Remove Erin's financial access.
Transfer her residence.
And obtain her acknowledgment of financial responsibility.
Beneath the last instruction was another sentence.
Complete before the Harbor Families annual review.
Erin looked at Alexis.
“The affair didn't start his plan.”
Alexis shook her head.
“No.”
Erin stared at the document.
May you like
And suddenly understood why Matthew had been so desperate to keep her upstairs on Christmas night.
He hadn't been trying to hide another woman. He'd been trying to remove the only person who could prove what he'd done.
