Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN IN THE EMERALD NECKLACE
Nadine Voss arrived at Claire Donovan's office wearing sunglasses and a cream-colored coat that probably cost more than Marin earned in six months.
She was thirty-two, with platinum-blonde hair and the careful posture of someone who had spent her life being photographed.
Marin recognized her immediately.
The woman from the private dining room.
The woman whose missing necklace had nearly cost her everything.
For a moment, Marin couldn't move.
Nadine removed her sunglasses.
Her eyes looked tired.
"Marin Holloway?"
Marin nodded.
Nadine's expression tightened.
"I owe you an apology."
Marin laughed bitterly.
"An apology?"
Claire gestured toward the chairs.
"Let's sit down."
But Marin remained standing.
"For two days, I was locked in a storeroom because of that necklace."
Nadine went pale.
"I know."
"No. You don't."
Marin's voice trembled.
"You don't know what it's like to sit in a room wondering whether someone is going to hurt your little brother because you can't pay money you never owed."
Nadine covered her mouth.
Marin continued.
"You were standing there when Hollis accused me."
"I didn't know what he was going to do."
"But you heard him."
"Yes."
"And you said nothing."
Nadine lowered her eyes.
"Yes."
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Marin sat down.
She wasn't ready to forgive Nadine.
But she was ready to listen.
Nadine placed a small jewelry box on Claire's desk.
Inside lay an enormous emerald pendant surrounded by diamonds.
Marin stared.
It looked exactly like the necklace she had seen at the Vermilion.
"That's it."
Nadine nodded.
"The original necklace."
Marin felt sick.
"Then why did you say it was stolen?"
"I didn't."
Marin looked up sharply.
Nadine continued.
"I told Hollis I couldn't find it. I asked whether anyone had turned it in."
"That's not what he said."
"I know."
Nadine's voice broke.
"Hollis told me his security team would check the private rooms. He said he was handling it discreetly because I didn't want the press involved."
Marin stared at her.
"And then?"
"The next morning, one of his assistants called and said they'd found the necklace in a storage safe."
Marin leaned forward.
"The next morning?"
Nadine nodded.
"But by then they'd already accused me."
"I didn't know."
Marin felt a rush of anger.
"You didn't ask what happened to the waitress?"
Nadine's eyes filled.
"I should have."
Silence.
Then she whispered, "I was afraid of Victor."
Marin looked toward Enzo.
He stood against the wall, listening.
Nadine noticed.
"Hello, Enzo."
"Nadine."
Their greeting was polite but strained.
Claire leaned forward.
"Tell us about Victor."
Nadine folded her hands.
"My father's real-estate company has been negotiating a major redevelopment project with Soren Holdings. Victor controls the financing."
"What does that have to do with the necklace?"
"Nothing at first."
She took a breath.
"Then I discovered discrepancies in the project accounts. Consulting fees. Security payments. Transfers to companies that didn't appear to provide real services."
Claire's eyes sharpened.
"Did you raise concerns?"
"Yes."
"With Victor?"
Nadine nodded.
"He told me I misunderstood the numbers. Then he suggested I should spend less time investigating and more time enjoying my social life."
Marin felt uneasy.
"Was the Vermilion one of those social places?"
"Yes."
Nadine looked ashamed.
"Victor invited me to dinner there. That was the night the necklace supposedly disappeared."
She continued.
"When I found it the next morning, I assumed the entire incident was over. But later, I heard Hollis had accused a waitress of theft."
Marin stared.
"And you did nothing?"
"I asked Victor about it."
"What did he say?"
"He told me the employee had confessed and that I should stay out of it."
Marin looked down at her wrists.
The marks were fading.
But she could still feel the iron pressing into her skin whenever she remembered the chair.
Nadine's voice trembled.
"I believed him because believing him was easier than admitting something terrible might have happened."
Marin looked up.
"That's what everyone did."
Nadine began crying.
"You're right."
She took a tissue.
"I can't undo what happened. But I can tell investigators everything I know."
Claire nodded.
"That's why we're here."
Nadine opened her handbag and removed a folder.
Inside were bank statements, correspondence, and meeting notes.
"I started keeping copies after Victor warned me to stop asking questions."
Claire examined them.
Then paused.
One transfer stood out.
Eighty-six thousand dollars.
Marin felt her breath catch.
"That's my debt."
Nadine nodded.
"The amount was entered into an internal project account three days before my necklace went missing."
Marin stared.
Three days before.
The figure had already been chosen.
Hollis hadn't calculated the debt after the accusation.
Someone had decided how much Marin would owe before anything happened.
Claire studied the transfer.
"It appears to be an accounting entry rather than an actual payment. We'll have to verify the underlying records."
Enzo leaned forward.
"Who's the recipient?"
Nadine pointed.
"Vermilion Labor Services."
Marin frowned.
"What is that?"
"A subsidiary connected to the club's staffing arrangements."
Enzo's expression hardened.
He knew the name.
His father's company had used a similar entity fourteen years earlier.
Claire placed the document beside the payroll file.
The pattern was becoming clear.
False debts were being entered into financial records before employees were accused of wrongdoing.
The accusations then provided a story to justify those numbers.
But why?
The forensic accountant had an answer.
At least a possible one.
"These records suggest the debts may have been used to support payments between related companies," she explained during a later meeting.
"That means they weren't only trying to keep us working?" Marin asked.
"They may also have been using these claimed receivables to give questionable transactions an apparently legitimate explanation."
Marin stared.
Her humiliation had been part of an accounting system.
Someone had placed a price on her freedom.
Then used that price in a financial arrangement.
She felt anger rise so sharply that she began shaking.
Enzo noticed.
"Marin."
She looked at him.
"Do you understand what they did?"
He nodded.
"They made you into a number."
"No."
Her voice broke.
"They made all of us into numbers."
Seventeen women.
Seventeen fabricated debts.
Seventeen lives reduced to financial entries.
Nadine lowered her head.
"I want to help."
Marin turned toward her.
"Then tell the truth. Even if it costs your family money."
Nadine looked up.
For a moment, she seemed startled.
Then she nodded.
"I will."
That evening, Nadine met with investigators and provided a formal account.
She also agreed to authenticate her jewelry records and the timeline of when the necklace was recovered.
The evidence did not prove every allegation by itself.
But it undermined the story Hollis had used to confine Marin.
And it gave investigators a way to trace the financial transactions.
Before leaving Claire's office, Nadine stopped beside Marin.
"I know you don't owe me forgiveness."
Marin looked at her.
"You're right."
Nadine swallowed.
"But I'm sorry."
Marin studied her for a long moment.
Then answered.
"Help the other women."
Nadine nodded.
"I will."
After she left, Enzo found Marin standing beside the office window.
Chicago's skyline glowed beneath the evening clouds.
He stood a respectful distance away.
"You were brave today."
Marin shook her head.
"I was angry."
"Sometimes that's where courage starts."
She looked at him.
Then asked, "Do you think your mother would have liked me?"
The question surprised him.
Enzo smiled faintly.
"She would've loved you."
Marin looked away, embarrassed.
He continued.
"She hated people who mistook kindness for weakness."
A small smile touched Marin's lips.
"So did mine."
For a moment, the room was quiet.
Then Enzo's phone rang.
Daniel.
He answered.
His expression changed almost immediately.
"What happened?"
A pause.
Then his jaw tightened.
"Keep everyone out until investigators arrive."
Marin turned.
"What is it?"
Enzo lowered the phone.
"Someone entered my father's old office."
Her stomach tightened.
"And?"
"They didn't take money."
"What did they take?"
Enzo looked directly at her.
"The last original ledger from fourteen years ago."
Marin felt cold.
May you like
The very records that could explain why their mothers had been targeted were now missing.
And whoever stole them knew exactly which pages mattered.
Related Stories
