Chapter 7 - The Woman They Tried to Frame
Nolan recovered faster than Celia.
“Elise is presenting incomplete information,” he said. “This is exactly why we were concerned.”
He lifted his white folder again.
“She has sent aggressive emails. She has threatened legal action. She arrived tonight in a visibly disturbed state, carrying military equipment into a civilian gala—”
“My case contains my mother’s laptop and foundation records,” I interrupted. “Not military equipment.”
A photographer lowered his camera slowly.
Nolan’s mouth tightened.
“And the emails?” he asked.
I turned to Tate.
He removed a second folder.
“The emails Mr. Pierce references appear to have been edited,” Tate said. “The original message chain shows Major Warren requested an independent audit and asked the board to preserve all records. The altered copies remove those lines and present her responses as erratic.”
Celia looked at Nolan like she had never seen him before.
“Nolan?”
He did not answer her.
That told her enough.
My father tried to step away from the ballroom entrance, but two board members had already moved toward him. Not agents. Not police. Just donors with reputations suddenly at risk.
That was more frightening to him in that moment.
A woman in navy silk spoke from the crowd.
“My family donated for the housing initiative. Are you saying the money never reached them?”
I looked at her.
“I’m saying the records need to prove that it did.”
No one spoke.
Nolan’s folder had been meant to humiliate me.
Instead, it showed everyone the script they had planned: call Elise unstable, discredit her questions, bury the audit, keep the gala smiling.
Celia stepped away from him.
May you like
It was small.
But in a room like that, distance was a declaration.
