Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN THE CRIMSON DRESS
Lila Summers arrived at the estate three days later.
Emma saw her through the security monitor before the front doors opened. The red hair was unmistakable, but everything else about her had changed. She wore jeans, a gray coat, and no makeup. Her shoulders were hunched against the cold.
The woman who had kissed Andrew beneath the ballroom chandeliers looked as though she hadn't slept in a week.
“I know she doesn't want to see me,” Lila told the security guard. “But I need to talk to her.”
Emma stood at the top of the staircase.
“Let her in.”
Catherine immediately objected.
“Emma, we don't know why she's here.”
“That's why I want to hear what she has to say.”
Lila entered the sitting room and stopped several feet from Emma.
For a moment, neither woman spoke.
Then Lila looked at Emma's stomach.
“How far along are you?”
“Almost seven months.”
Lila nodded, swallowing.
“I should never have done what I did at the gala.”
“No,” Emma replied. “You shouldn't have.”
“I knew about you. I knew you were pregnant. Andrew told me you were separated, but I knew the divorce wasn't final. I told myself that if he really loved me, it wouldn't matter.”
“And now?”
“Now I know he doesn't love anyone enough to tell them the truth.”
Emma gestured toward a chair.
“Why are you here?”
Lila took a small flash drive from her coat pocket.
“Because Andrew has been using me, too.”
She explained that their relationship had begun nearly a year earlier, when she was working as a marketing consultant for a company that organized private investment events. Andrew had pursued her aggressively, promising that his marriage was already over.
He had paid for her apartment, introduced her to influential people, and encouraged her to believe that she would eventually become his wife.
Then, six weeks before the gala, his behavior changed.
He began taking calls in another room. He stopped discussing their future. He asked questions about Emma's grandfather and whether Lila had ever seen documents related to Bennett Meridian.
“He wanted me to find out whether you had access to your inheritance,” Lila said. “I told him I didn't know anything about your family finances.”
“Why would he think you could find out?”
“Because he believed you trusted me.”
Emma stared at her.
“You've never met me before tonight.”
“I know. But he told me you had seen photographs of us together. He said you were jealous of me and that you would eventually try to ruin him.”
Lila's voice cracked.
“He made it sound as if you were the problem. I believed him because believing him was easier than admitting what I was doing.”
Catherine examined the flash drive.
“What is on this?”
“Copies of messages and a recording from his apartment. I started saving things when I realized he was asking me to sign documents I didn't understand.”
The recording contained a conversation between Andrew and his father, Richard Weston.
Richard's voice was calm, almost bored.
“Once she signs, the trust will be manageable.”
Andrew replied, “She won't sign if she knows the real numbers.”
“Then don't give her the real numbers.”
Lila looked at Emma.
“I didn't understand what they were talking about until I found the draft agreement in Andrew's office. It gives him broad authority over certain assets held by your trust.”
Catherine stopped the recording.
“That is consistent with the agreement he tried to present to Emma.”
“There's more,” Lila said.
She opened a second file on her phone.
A message from Andrew read:
If Emma refuses to cooperate, we'll have to establish that she's not in a condition to make financial decisions.
Another message, sent by Richard, read:
The child makes this more complicated. Keep her calm until the papers are signed.
Emma felt a wave of anger so intense she had to sit down.
They had turned her pregnancy into a bargaining tool.
“What else do you know?” Catherine asked.
Lila hesitated.
“Two nights ago, I heard Andrew talking about Emma's mother.”
Emma looked up sharply.
“What did he say?”
“He was arguing with his father. Richard said the old records should have been destroyed years ago. Andrew told him he couldn't find the original insurance policy.”
Catherine leaned forward.
“What insurance policy?”
“I don't know. But Andrew said, 'If she finds the original, we're finished.'”
The room fell silent.
Emma thought of the ledger Martin had found.
“Did Andrew say who was responsible for the accident?”
“No.”
“Did he say that my mother was murdered?”
“No.” Lila shook her head. “He never said that. He only seemed afraid of what the records could reveal.”
Emma looked at the flash drive.
For the first time, Lila was offering something useful. But usefulness did not erase the humiliation of the gala, or the fact that she had knowingly participated in an affair with a married man.
“Why should I trust you?” Emma asked.
“You shouldn't,” Lila answered. “Not yet. You should verify everything I give you.”
That answer surprised Emma.
Lila stood.
“I won't ask you to forgive me. I won't ask you to help me. But if Andrew tries to make me the scapegoat for this, I'll tell investigators everything I know.”
After she left, Catherine arranged for the files to be copied and authenticated.
The next morning, Andrew's lawyers sent Emma a settlement proposal.
It offered her substantial financial compensation in exchange for a quick divorce, a broad confidentiality agreement, and her agreement not to challenge any transactions involving Weston Capital.
Catherine read the document twice.
“This is not a settlement,” she said. “It's an attempt to buy your silence.”
Emma looked at the amount.
It was more money than she had ever expected to possess before her grandfather's trust was revealed.
For a moment, she imagined accepting it. She could return to Pennsylvania, raise her baby, and never see Andrew again.
Then she read the final paragraph.
It required her to release any claim connected to the handling of her mother's estate.
Her hands went cold.
Andrew wasn't just trying to save his company.
He was trying to close a door on her mother's past.
“Reject it,” Emma said.
Catherine nodded.
“And tell his lawyers that every future offer must be made through the court.”
That evening, Andrew called Emma directly.
She almost let it go to voicemail.
Instead, she answered.
“What do you want?”
“Lila has been talking to you.”
Emma said nothing.
“She doesn't understand what she's involved in.”
“Neither did I, apparently.”
“Emma, please. My father has made mistakes, but he's not the monster you're imagining.”
“I haven't imagined anything. I'm asking questions.”
“You're putting everyone at risk.”
“Everyone who did something wrong?”
Andrew exhaled sharply.
“You don't understand what happened to your mother.”
“Then explain it.”
Silence.
Finally, he said, “I can't.”
Emma ended the call.
She sat alone for a long time, listening to the rain against the windows.
Andrew had finally admitted that he knew something about her mother's death.
He had also admitted that he was afraid to tell her.
And somewhere in the files her grandfather had left behind was an answer that could destroy the Weston family.
May you like
Or reveal that the truth was even more complicated than Emma could imagine.
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