Katherine's POV
Katherine had been staring at the same spreadsheet for three hours.
She'd already presented the evidence of Victoria's theft to the board. Already watched Victoria get arrested. Already dealt with the lawsuit that Victoria had filed from prison trying to destroy her reputation. But what Katherine hadn't done was present the full picture to James.
The three-year picture.
The systematic sabotage. The way Victoria had deliberately fed James bad information. The way Victoria had engineered situations to make James doubt his own judgment. The way Victoria had spent three years building a power vacuum that she could eventually fill by making him believe his company was failing.
Katherine had the data. She had the proof. She had every email. Every transaction. Every meeting where Victoria had whispered poison into James's ear.
But she kept stalling on scheduling the meeting to tell him.
Because Katherine knew exactly what would happen when she presented this information.
She knew James was going to realize that Victoria had been manipulating him for three years. She knew he was going to feel stupid for not seeing it. She knew he was going to look at Katherine like she'd just saved his life. Like she'd rescued him from drowning. And then he was going to want to thank her. He was going to step closer. He was going to say something about how she understood him better than anyone alive.
And she was going to let him get too close.
That was the terrifying part. That was why she kept finding reasons to delay this meeting. Because Katherine had spent three years building walls specifically so she wouldn't let James get close enough to hurt her again. And now that she'd proven she could survive without him, she couldn't afford to let him back in.
It was Monday morning when she finally scheduled the meeting.
She sent James a calendar invite for 3 PM. The subject line just said: "Findings Presentation - Victoria Chen Analysis."
He accepted it immediately.
Katherine spent the entire day preparing. She organized her documents. She built a comprehensive timeline. She made sure every piece of evidence was labeled and ready to present. She did everything except calm down her racing heart.
By 2:45 PM, Katherine had arranged everything in chronological order on the conference table. The spreadsheets were laid out like an accusation. The emails were printed and organized by date. The pattern was undeniable once you saw it.
Victoria Chen had spent three years slowly poisoning James's company.
But more than that, Victoria had spent three years poisoning James's mind.
At exactly 3 PM, James walked into the conference room.
Katherine could see immediately that he knew something big was coming. He looked tense in a way that suggested he'd been expecting this. He closed the door carefully behind him like he was preparing for impact.
"What is it?" he asked, not bothering with small talk.
Katherine pointed at the first document.
"Victoria Chen has been deliberately feeding you false information for the last three years," she said, keeping her voice steady. Keeping it professional. "She's been orchestrating company decisions designed to fail. She's been building relationships with vendors that benefit her personally. And she's been creating a pattern of failure designed to make you believe your company was dying."
James sat down slowly.
"How long have you known this?" he asked.
"I discovered the full pattern this weekend," Katherine said. "But I wanted to make absolutely sure before I presented it to you."
She walked him through the timeline. She showed him the emails where Victoria had recommended executives who had no business being in their positions. She showed him the contracts she'd approved that were clearly overpriced. She showed him the decisions she'd influenced that had cost millions of dollars.
And with each piece of evidence, Katherine watched James's face get more broken.
"Why?" he asked finally. "Why would she do this?"
"Because she wanted your company," Katherine said. "Because she thought if she could make you desperate enough, you'd give her control. Or worse, you'd sell the company and she could buy it back from whoever purchased it."
James stood up and walked to the window.
Katherine wanted to go to him. Wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault. Wanted to put her hand on his back like she used to do when he was stressed. Wanted to be the person who made this better.
She didn't do any of those things.
"There's something else," Katherine said quietly.
James turned around.
"Victoria's sabotage of your company wasn't random," Katherine continued. "She was targeting specific areas. Specific infrastructure projects. Specific partnerships. And when I looked at what she was targeting, I realized something. She was targeting the exact areas that would affect certain people negatively."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean Victoria wasn't just trying to destroy your company. She was trying to destroy your life," Katherine said. "She was targeting projects you cared about personally. She was sabotaging relationships you valued. She was doing it all deliberately."
Katherine pulled out one more document.
"This is an email from three years ago. Victoria sent it to herself but it was backed up on the company server. In it, she talks about how she's going to make you so desperate that you won't notice when she takes control. She also mentions something else."
Katherine's voice got smaller.
"She mentions you. She talks about how she's going to make sure you lose everything that matters. She says if she can break you completely, you'll finally understand that people like you don't deserve to be happy."
James read the email and Katherine could see his entire body go rigid.
"She knew about Katherine," he said quietly. "She knew about you. And she was deliberately destroying things to hurt me the way you hurt her."
"What do you mean she knew about me?" Katherine asked.
James looked at her and his eyes were full of something she couldn't name.
"Victoria and I had a conversation years ago," he said. "Before you left. I was complaining about how stressed I was. How afraid I was that I wasn't enough for you. And Victoria told me that the only way I'd ever keep someone was to make sure they had no other option. She told me that love was a weakness but control was a strength."
Katherine felt her stomach drop.
"She influenced you," Katherine said. "During our marriage. She was whispering in your ear, telling you that I was a liability."
"I think she's been orchestrating everything," James said. "I think she's been pulling strings for years trying to isolate me. Trying to make me believe that losing you was the right choice."
Katherine's phone buzzed.
It was a message from her lawyer.
The message said: "Victoria has offered to provide evidence related to your divorce settlement. She says she has documentation proving that you were completely innocent. She says she fabricated all the evidence against you. And she's willing to testify in court on your behalf. But she wants something in exchange."
Katherine read the rest of the message and her blood went cold.
"She wants to see you," the lawyer wrote. "She specifically asked for a meeting with both you and James. She says she'll only turn over the evidence if you both agree to meet with her. She's being transported to a secure facility tomorrow for questioning. She wants you there at 2 PM. Katherine, I don't like this. There's something about this that doesn't feel right. But if she's telling the truth about the evidence, it could save your reputation."
Katherine looked at James.
"Victoria wants to meet with us," she said. "Tomorrow. At 2 PM."
"Why?" James asked.
"I don't know," Katherine said. "But she says she has evidence that will prove I didn't know about the company problems before the divorce. She says she fabricated everything."
James moved closer.
"Don't do it," he said. "Don't meet with her. This feels like a trap."
"It probably is," Katherine agreed. "But if there's even a chance she has evidence that could clear my name..."
"Then she has leverage," James finished. "And leverage means she's going to use this meeting to get something. Or do something. I don't trust it."
Katherine's phone buzzed again.
This time it was a video file. From Victoria.
The subject line said: "Watch this before you decide."
Katherine pressed play.
And what appeared on the screen made her understand something terrifying.
Victoria wasn't in prison.
Victoria was somewhere else. Somewhere secure but not locked up. And in the video, she was talking directly to the camera like she was sending a message.
"Hello Katherine. Hello James. I wanted you to see this before you made your decision about meeting with me. I wanted you to understand what I've really been doing these past three years. Because the theft? The sabotage? That was all just preparation. That was just the foundation. What I've really been building is something much bigger. Much more dangerous."
Victoria smiled.
"And tomorrow, when you meet with me, I'm going to show you exactly what I've done. I'm going to show you the proof that Katherine knew about the company problems. I'm going to show you emails that don't exist yet but will very soon. I'm going to prove that you both tried to commit fraud together. And unless you cooperate with me completely, I'm going to make sure that both of you end up in prison."
The video stopped.
James and Katherine stared at each other in the silence of the conference room.
"She's going to fabricate evidence live during the meeting," Katherine whispered. "She's going to create fake documents. She's going to make it look like we conspired together."
"Which means if we show up, we're walking into a trap that could destroy both of us," James said.
"And if we don't show up, she releases what she already has," Katherine finished.
They were trapped.
And Victoria had engineered it perfectly.