Chapter 10 - THE LEAK
I threw my phone.
It hit the couch.
Not dramatic enough to break.
So I picked it up and threw it again.
This time it hit the wall.
Rebecca watched.
“Done?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
I sat on the floor.
“My therapy notes.”
“I know.”
“My mother died.”
“I know.”
“I was having panic attacks.”
“I know.”
“He knows why.”
Rebecca sat too.
No advice.
Good.
I said.
“I want to ruin him.”
She nodded.
“Don’t make decisions for ten minutes.”
“Why ten?”
“Because five is too short and twenty is annoying.”
I laughed despite myself.
That helped.
Forensics traced the leak.
Not Julian’s phone.
Camilla’s.
But source file metadata pointed to a private investigator.
Hired by James Porter.
Board director.
The man who tried to suspend my vote.
Everything clicked.
James was not protecting governance.
He was protecting Julian.
Why?
Leon found payments.
Redwood to James’s family office.
Three hundred thousand.
Then another.
James had been bought.
We suspended him pending investigation.
He resigned first.
Then vanished.
Again.
People in these stories always think airports solve consequences.
He got as far as New York.
Federal agents stopped him.
He carried an external drive.
Inside was a backup of the entire vendor scheme.
And one folder named AUDREY.
It contained surveillance photos.
My therapy clinic.
My mother’s grave.
Northstar offices.
Rowan Arts Foundation.
Months of tracking.
Julian had paid for some.
James paid for more.
Camilla supplied captions.
They were not just reacting to me.
They had been preparing a character assassination before the party.
Rebecca looked at dates.
“Why start this early?”
Then Leon found the answer.
Aurelia had approached Northstar months earlier through an intermediary.
Julian learned a mystery buyer was circling.
He did not know it was me.
He started building dirt on every potential source of resistance.
Including his own wife.
Then came the ugliest file.
A draft press strategy.
IF AUDREY DISCOVERS AFFAIR:
1. Frame as emotionally unstable.
2. Emphasize wealth privilege.
3. Suggest retaliation against female colleague.
4. Leak treatment history if necessary.
5. Position Julian as abused spouse.
I read it.
Then handed it back.
No speech.
I did not have one.
Rebecca said quietly.
“Now we stop treating this like marriage fallout.”
I nodded.
“What do we call it?”
She looked at the file.
May you like
“Conspiracy.”
