Chapter 6: What Natalie Knew
Three months into the investigation, Natalie asked to speak with me.
Her attorney contacted Rebecca and offered information in exchange for cooperation.
My first response was no.
Natalie had watched Dominic hit me.
She had laughed.
She had used my credit cards and treated my home like a hotel.
She had threatened me from the comfort of my own dining room.
I owed her nothing.
But Rebecca reminded me that Natalie might know where the missing money had gone.
We agreed to meet in the prosecutor’s office.
Natalie arrived wearing a plain gray coat.
Her designer clothes were gone.
Her hair was pulled into a loose knot.
She looked younger without the armor of wealth.
She also looked terrified.
I remained standing.
“You asked to see me.”
Natalie glanced at the prosecutor and then at Rebecca.
“I wanted to tell you myself.”
“Tell me what?”
She took a breath.
“My mother planned everything.”
I felt no surprise.
Only exhaustion.
Natalie continued.
“Dominic started taking money from you before the wedding.”
Rebecca opened her notebook.
“How?”
“He convinced Audrey to invest in the Hamilton property project.”
The Hamilton development had been one of Dominic’s first proposals.
He showed me architectural plans, market projections, and signed letters from supposed investors.
I contributed two hundred thousand dollars.
Six months later, Dominic claimed the project had failed because a partner withdrew.
“There was no property project,” Natalie said. “The documents were fake.”
My stomach tightened.
“What happened to the money?”
“Dominic used part of it to pay his debts. Mom used the rest to settle a lawsuit.”
“What lawsuit?”
Natalie looked down.
“A lawsuit from Elise.”
Elise had told me she left with nothing.
She said the legal process became too expensive and frightening.
But apparently, before disappearing, she had filed a civil claim against Dominic.
Victoria used my money to silence the woman her son had hurt before marrying me.
“Did Elise receive the settlement?” I asked.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“A private investigator.”
The room went still.
Natalie’s voice became smaller.
“Mom hired him to follow Elise. She wanted photographs that made her look unstable. She also paid him to contact Elise’s employer.”
Elise had lost her teaching position shortly after leaving Dominic.
She believed it happened because of rumors surrounding the divorce.
Now I understood where the rumors came from.
“What was the investigator’s name?” Rebecca asked.
Natalie gave her a folded paper.
“Everything I remember is written there.”
I looked at Natalie.
“Why are you telling us this now?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Because my mother is blaming me.”
“You participated.”
“I know.”
“You stole from me.”
“I know.”
“You sat at my table and laughed after your brother hit me.”
Natalie covered her mouth.
“I know.”
“No. You remember. That is not the same as understanding.”
She lowered her hand.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
“I was afraid of them.”
“So was I.”
“I grew up with them.”
“That explains you,” I said. “It does not excuse you.”
Natalie nodded slowly.
“My father left when I was nine. After that, Dominic became the center of the family. Mom said he was the only man who had never abandoned us. We were supposed to protect him.”
“Even from the women he hurt?”
“She said women lied when men rejected them.”
“And you believed her?”
“I believed whatever kept her from turning against me.”
There was something painfully familiar in that answer.
Dominic had created obedience through fear.
Victoria had done the same.
Their family was not held together by love.
It was held together by the knowledge that anyone could become the next target.
Natalie reached inside her bag and removed a small envelope.
“There is more.”
Inside were photographs of a storage unit.
Natalie explained that Victoria kept records there—old contracts, company stamps, copies of signatures, and documents connected to Elise’s case.
“She told me to destroy everything after Dominic’s arrest,” Natalie said. “I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew that when this fell apart, she would leave me beneath it.”
The prosecutor collected the envelope.
Natalie stood to leave.
At the door, she stopped.
“I am sorry.”
I looked at her.
Months earlier, I might have needed that apology.
Now it seemed too small to hold everything she had done.
“I hope one day you become someone who understands those words,” I said.
Natalie left without answering.
The storage unit was searched the following morning.
Investigators found forged contracts, blank prescription pads, copies of my financial records, and photographs of Elise taken without her knowledge.
They also discovered a sealed file labeled AUDREY.
Inside were reports documenting my daily routine.
My meetings.
My medical appointments.
The names of friends I still spoke to.
Notes about my emotional state.
One line had been underlined twice.
Subject remains attached to deceased father’s reputation. Use grief narrative if credibility must be challenged.
I read the sentence three times.
Then I closed the file.
For years, I had wondered why Dominic always mentioned my father when I questioned him.
Why he said grief made me suspicious.
Why Victoria reminded friends that I had struggled after the funeral.
It had never been concern.
It was preparation.
May you like
They had not simply abused me.
They had designed the story they would use when I finally spoke.
