The Woman in Gold
Chapter 02 - The Woman in Gold
Security locked the ballroom doors while the hotel manager ordered everyone to remain inside. Vivian stood beside Ethan, one hand pressed dramatically to her chest, telling the guests that Maya had behaved strangely all evening. By the time Maya unlocked her phone, whispers had already turned her into a desperate employee with a grudge.
“Play it,” Ethan said.
Maya held up the screen. The recording showed the service table, the crystal pitcher, and a woman’s hand tipping a small vial into the water. The gold fabric at the wrist matched Vivian’s gown. More important, a diamond bracelet shaped like a snake circled the woman’s arm.
Ethan slowly turned toward his mother. “Dad gave you that bracelet.”
Vivian did not flinch. “Thousands of women own gold dresses and diamond bracelets. She could have staged this.”
Maya swiped to the final frame. The same hand placed the vial beside a cream-colored purse with a gold chain. Every eye in the ballroom moved toward Vivian’s chair.
A guard opened the purse. Beside a lipstick and a folded speech, he found the vial.
For the first time, Vivian’s smile cracked. She said it was a vitamin concentrate and accused Maya of planting it. Ethan asked why a vitamin needed to be hidden. Vivian answered that he was confused and exhausted, exactly as an unfit chairman might be.
That phrase chilled him.
The gala was not merely a celebration. In twenty minutes, the board would vote to transfer control from Vivian to Ethan. If he collapsed before the vote, the foundation’s bylaws allowed Vivian to remain acting chair. The audit he had demanded would disappear with him.
Maya thought the truth had finally become obvious, but the hotel manager returned with worse news. The ballroom cameras had stopped recording seven minutes before the pitcher shattered. The system showed a manual deletion using Ethan’s private access code.
The room erupted.
Vivian looked at her son with carefully measured horror. “Ethan, what have you done?”
Now the evidence pointed in two directions. Vivian had touched the pitcher, but Ethan’s code had erased the cameras. Some guests began to suggest that mother and son had planned a public scandal together to manipulate the board. Others said Maya must have been paid to help.
Ethan’s face went pale. “Only three people know that code.”
“Name them,” Maya said.
“My mother. My chief financial officer, Victor Hale. And me.”
Across the room, Victor quietly moved toward the exit.
May you like
Maya saw him before anyone else did.
When she shouted his name, Victor stopped—but he was smiling.
