CHAPTER SIX: WHAT YVETTE KNEW

Yvette did not want Damian to confront Briana before she had decided what to do about Cedric.
She also refused to let their shared anger become an excuse for manipulating anyone else.
“If we become the same kind of people, he wins twice,” she told him.
Damian did not agree with every part of that argument.
He wanted to tell Briana he knew.
He wanted to ask why she had made a fool of him at parties and family dinners.
But he also understood that he had been living inside a marriage he no longer recognized.
One evening he returned home early and found Briana crying in the laundry room.
She told him a colleague had been dismissed without warning.
Damian asked whether the dismissal had anything to do with Cedric.
“Everything at that company has something to do with Cedric,” she said.
Then she looked frightened by her own honesty.
Damian almost asked the question that would have ended their marriage on the spot.
Instead, he asked whether the colleague needed a reference.
Briana shook her head.
“She needs someone willing to tell the truth.”
The sentence stayed with him.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE EMPLOYEE WHO REFUSED

The dismissed employee was an operations coordinator named Simone Ward.
Yvette contacted her through an attorney rather than through Damian.
Simone agreed to meet at the attorney’s office.
She arrived carrying a notebook filled with dates and questions.
She had managed scheduling for Northstar’s supposed community outreach sessions.
Several sessions had been reported as completed despite never taking place.
When she raised the discrepancy, her supervisor told her that the company billed for availability rather than attendance.
She asked for that explanation in writing.
Two days later, she lost her job.
“I don’t know whether Cedric ordered it,” Simone said.
“I know he was copied on the complaint.”
Laila asked why Simone had kept a notebook.
“Because I started forgetting which version of events I was supposed to repeat.”
Yvette listened without interrupting.
Afterward, she apologized for the foundation’s failure to investigate sooner.
Simone did not accept the apology immediately.
“People with money apologize after someone else loses their paycheck,” she said.
Yvette looked down.
“You’re right.”
That was the first moment Damian believed Yvette might actually change the institution she had created.

CHAPTER EIGHT: A DIFFERENT KIND OF DANGER

Cedric learned about the independent review before the board voted to authorize it.
He called Yvette from a private number and accused her of sabotaging their marriage.
She placed the call on speaker only after telling him Damian was present.
Cedric demanded to know why Damian was there.
“He is a building consultant,” Yvette said.
“Since when do you hire tradesmen to investigate my businesses?”
“Since a promised training center turned out to be an unfinished warehouse.”
Cedric fell silent.
Then he offered to replace the missing money personally if she canceled the review.
Yvette asked him how he knew money was missing.
The line went quiet again.
Cedric ended the call.
Damian watched Yvette sit very still.
“You heard that,” she said.
“I did.”
“It doesn’t prove what happened.”
“No.”
“But it tells us where he thinks the danger is.”