Chapter 4
Vivienne denied using Natalie’s credentials.
She admitted being in the office wing.
“So did Damian.”
Cassandro sat across from her with Claire and Vivienne’s attorney present.
“Why?”
“We were preparing gala documents.”
“At the same time?”
“Yes.”
“Did you access Natalie’s computer?”
“No.”
“Did Damian?”
“I don’t know.”
Cassandro watched her carefully.
“What did you argue about with Natalie that afternoon?”
Vivienne’s expression tightened.
“We didn’t.”
“A housekeeper heard all three of you.”
“She heard voices.”
“She heard Natalie crying.”
Vivienne looked toward her attorney.
The attorney said, “You do not need to reconstruct a two-year-old personal dispute from memory.”
Cassandro leaned back.
“That sounds useful.”
Vivienne became angry.
“You want me guilty because Audrey said something while terrified.”
“No.”
His voice stayed calm.
“I want to know why my wife pushed my daughter underwater while asking what she remembered about my first wife.”
Vivienne looked down.
That sentence had no good answer.
Finally she said:
“Natalie was unstable that day.”
Cassandro went still.
“What does that mean?”
“She was accusing people.”
“Of stealing?”
Vivienne did not answer.
“Did she accuse Damian?”
Silence.
“Did she accuse you?”
Still silence.
That was enough to continue investigating.
Damian gave a different version.
Natalie had discovered project losses.
She became convinced someone was stealing.
According to him, she threatened to tell Cassandro that Damian had falsified invoices.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did she have evidence?”
“No.”
“Then why did she leave?”
Damian looked away.
“She was having problems with you.”
Cassandro’s expression changed.
“What problems?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just used them as your explanation.”
Damian rubbed his jaw.
The bruise from the pool terrace had spread along one side of his face.
“You two were fighting.”
Cassandro knew that part was true.
His marriage with Natalie had been strained before she disappeared.
He traveled constantly.
She wanted more separation between their home and family business.
They had argued about security.
About Audrey being raised around capos.
About whether Cassandro would ever truly leave business outside the residence.
Their marriage had problems.
That did not explain abandonment.
Claire found the next piece through Natalie’s former family-law attorney, Sandra Wilkes.
Sandra had met Natalie twice in the month before she disappeared.
Cassandro had never known.
Natalie was considering legal separation.
That hurt.
Not because it was evidence against her.
Because it meant she had been planning a future he never knew about.
Sandra showed them the draft.
Natalie wanted joint custody.
A parenting schedule.
Her own apartment.
She had no plan to leave Chicago.
In fact, she had signed a lease on a condo twelve minutes from Audrey’s preschool.
The lease began the following month.
She had already paid the deposit.
Cassandro stared at the address.
“Why would a woman planning to disappear lease a home near her child’s school?”
Sandra shook her head.
“She wouldn’t.”
Clue number three.
Natalie may have planned to leave Cassandro.
May you like
She had not planned to leave Audrey.
The difference changed everything.
