Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN GRANT CALLED CRAZY BEFORE SHE KNEW WHY
Maya requested preservation orders immediately.
Phones.
Cloud accounts.
Guesthouse security.
Corporate communications touching Brooke.
Grant agreed voluntarily.
Walter’s lawyers did not.
They claimed corporate privilege.
Maya replied that Audrey was not yet suing the company.
Yet.
Then Audrey learned how far Grant had gone to prepare for divorce.
Three months earlier, he began documenting her “emotional instability.”
Emails to a therapist:
Concerned about Audrey’s mood swings.
Messages to Patricia:
She’s becoming paranoid again.
Notes to household staff:
If Mrs. Whitaker becomes distressed, call me.
Audrey stared.
“Again?”
Grant had built a record.
Not for medical care.
For narrative.
Then Maya found a draft separation memo prepared by Grant’s personal lawyer.
Language:
Audrey has demonstrated escalating emotional volatility and destructive behavior.
Date:
two weeks before Audrey received the affair photographs.
Before the stabbing of pictures.
Before the screaming.
He had already decided she would look unstable.
Audrey felt sick.
“Why?”
Grant sat across from her.
“Because Brooke said you would destroy me if you found out.”
“So you prepared.”
“Yes.”
“Did you believe I was dangerous?”
“No.”
“Then why write it?”
“To protect myself.”
She laughed.
“From my reaction to your affair.”
“Yes.”
There.
He did not create the affair because Audrey was unstable.
He needed Audrey called unstable because of the affair.
Then Walter entered the conversation.
He was harsher.
“Grant was an idiot.”
Audrey looked at him.
“But?”
“No but.”
That surprised her.
Walter continued:
“He let personal misconduct contaminate corporate risk.”
Audrey almost laughed.
Still Walter.
Everything translated into governance.
Then she asked:
“Would you have helped him discredit me?”
Walter paused.
Patricia looked at him.
He answered:
“If you threatened the company with material you did not understand, I would have tried to contain the damage.”
Audrey stared.
There.
Not protect Grant.
Protect company.
Again.
Then Patricia said:
“And that is why she sent the videos.”
Walter turned.
Patricia continued:
“Because every man in this family calls a woman dangerous the moment she knows where the documents are.”
Silence.
Audrey looked at Patricia differently.
Maybe not ally.
Not yet.
But no longer background.
Then Maya received an email from the anonymous sender.
One line:
YOU HAVE ONLY HALF THE VIDEOS.
Audrey’s heart started pounding.
Attached:
a still image.
Brooke seated in the Whitaker guesthouse.
Walter standing across from her.
Grant not visible.
Timestamp:
four months earlier.
Audrey looked at Walter.
“You met with her alone.”
Walter went still.
May you like
Patricia turned.
“What did you do?”
