Chapter 6 - THE AUDIT CASE
The missing item was described in hotel records only as Audit Case Seven.
No photograph.
No inventory of its contents.
No public purpose.
The chief financial officer, Nora Bell, had signed it out three days before the wedding.
She hired her own lawyer before speaking.
Nora said Case Seven was used to transport encrypted audit materials between secure systems.
“What materials?” Lena asked.
“I cannot discuss unverified internal records.”
“Did you give it to Sophie?”
“No.”
“Did Preston know you had it?”
“Yes.”
Nora had requested an emergency board meeting after discovering discrepancies involving renovation invoices and wedding expenses.
The meeting was denied by Eleanor, who chaired the board.
Nora brought Case Seven to the hotel intending to give it to outside auditors after Celeste’s ceremony.
Before she could, Preston confronted her in the bridal corridor.
Security footage from that corridor had also been partially deleted.
Nora remembered Sophie walking past during the argument.
She did not see the child take anything.
Preston called her later and demanded to know whether she had “used Sophie.”
The same language he used before attacking my daughter.
Nora refused to accuse anyone without evidence.
Her caution frustrated me.
It also made her credible.
Preston retaliated by placing her on leave for alleged data theft.
Hotel employees received instructions not to communicate with her.
Then Sophie’s school called.
A parent had shown children the wedding photographs. Sophie was called a thief during lunch and locked herself in a bathroom.
I brought her home.
While helping her change, I noticed a narrow smear of silver beneath one fingernail.
The forensic nurse had photographed the same mark at the hospital.
Sophie remembered touching something cold near the bridal flowers.
“It fell,” she said. “Then Aunt Celeste told me not to look.”
Before she could explain more, a courier delivered a settlement offer.
Preston would admit using unreasonable force and enter counseling.
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In return, I would withdraw the fraud allegations and resign as Sophie’s trustee.
The assault and the trust were no longer pretending to be separate.
