Chapter 4 - The Woman at the Table Who Knew
Nora followed me into the restroom five minutes later.
I had excused myself calmly, though every step felt like walking through fire. In the mirror, my auburn hair was damp with dressing near one temple. My lilac dress was stained across the front. My cheek had a red mark from the rim of the bowl, faint but visible.
I was wiping it with a wet paper towel when the door opened.
Nora entered, locked it behind her, and looked at me with the grave expression of someone who had been waiting too long for a door to close.
“You know about the vendor,” she said.
I turned slowly.
Not Who are you?
Not What vendor?
Just the truth.
“Yes.”
Her shoulders dropped.
“I’m Apex’s contract accountant. I found irregular payments six months ago. Connor told me Brenda’s company handled compliance reimbursements. It didn’t feel right.”
“Did you report it?”
“I tried internally.” She laughed once, bitterly. “Then Connor suggested I take medical leave for anxiety.”
There was my husband’s favorite word dressed in corporate clothes.
Anxiety.
Unstable.
Fragile.
Words men like Connor used when women noticed arithmetic.
Nora opened her small clutch and removed a flash drive.
“I copied what I could before they locked me out.”
I stared at it.
“Why bring this tonight?”
“Because Brenda invited me.” Her mouth tightened. “She wanted me here to see you humiliated. She thought it would warn me what happens to women who become inconvenient.”
For one second, the bathroom lights seemed too bright.
Brenda had not only wanted to punish me.
She wanted an object lesson.
Nora stepped closer. “The investigator outside—is he yours?”
I nodded.
“State financial crimes?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
She placed the drive in my hand.
“Then give them this too.”
The door rattled.
Connor’s voice came from outside.
“Jessica? You okay?”
Nora and I looked at each other.
Then she turned on the sink.
I called back, “Cleaning up.”
His voice lowered. “Don’t make me come in there.”
Nora’s jaw clenched.
I tucked the flash drive into the lining of my clutch and opened the door before he could perform concern for anyone passing by.
Connor stood in the hallway, face arranged into worried husband.
His eyes flicked to Nora behind me.
“What’s going on?”
Nora smiled politely.
“Women’s restroom, Connor. Sometimes women talk in there.”
His face darkened for half a second.
Then the restaurant manager appeared near the hallway, and he put the mask back on.
At the table, Brenda watched me return with narrowed eyes.
She knew something had shifted.
She just did not know where.
My phone buzzed under the table.
A blurred message from Malcolm:
Outside team confirmed. Keep them talking.
May you like
So I sat down again.
And let Brenda believe she still had a voice worth using.
