Chapter 5 - CHLOE’S STORY
Chloe asked to meet without Julian.
Claire said no.
Maya suggested yes.
“Not because you owe her anything.”
“Then why?”
“Because separated conspirators tell different stories.”
So they met in Maya’s conference room.
Chloe arrived without makeup.
Claire hated that she noticed.
Hated that some part of her still catalogued whether her little sister looked tired.
Chloe sat.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire said:
“I don’t care yet.”
Chloe nodded.
Fair.
Then she told the story.
Nine months earlier, Julian offered Chloe a consulting project for Morgan West.
He said Claire had approved it.
Chloe was excited.
Margaret encouraged her.
The project became weekly strategy sessions.
Julian complained about Claire.
Not sexually.
Professionally first.
“She doesn’t believe in me.”
“She controls everything.”
“She never lets me lead.”
Chloe listened.
Then defended Claire.
At first.
But Julian was good at converting disagreement into intimacy.
He told Chloe she understood him.
That she was warmer.
Less rigid.
More imaginative.
Then he told her Claire was planning to leave Morgan West.
Two months later, the affair began.
Claire asked:
“When did you know he was lying?”
Chloe’s face collapsed.
“About which part?”
That answer hurt.
“About me leaving.”
“Maybe month three.”
“And you stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Chloe cried.
“Because by then I loved him.”
Claire looked at her for a long time.
“No.”
Chloe blinked.
“You loved how he made you feel compared to me.”
Silence.
Claire continued.
“He told you I was controlling. You got to be easy. He told you I was cold. You got to be warm. He told you I was territorial. You got to be generous.”
Chloe looked down.
“You got to win a competition I didn’t know we were having.”
That landed.
Chloe whispered:
“I hated being your little sister.”
Claire’s chest tightened.
Not the sentence she expected.
“Why?”
“Because everything I did was after you.”
School.
Career.
Their mother’s illness.
Family responsibility.
Claire had become standard and shelter at the same time.
Chloe loved her.
Resented her.
Needed her.
Then Julian offered a world where Chloe was not second.
Claire felt grief more than rage for one second.
Then remembered the parking garage.
“What about the documents?”
Chloe wiped her face.
“I didn’t forge them.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Julian?”
“I never saw him do it.”
“Who created the email alias?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire stared.
Chloe looked up.
“But I know who told him he needed Claire’s consent before the deal.”
“Who?”
“Margaret.”
Claire froze.
May you like
Chloe continued.
“And two days later, Julian said the problem was solved.”
