Chapter 14
The whistleblower, Rachel Chen, met them at a law office in Midtown.
She was younger than Izzy expected, maybe thirty, with dark circles under her eyes and hands that wouldn't stop moving. Sophie sat beside her, a folder thick with documents between them.
"I should've come forward sooner," Rachel said. "Before Lila died. But I was scared."
"Vivienne threatened you?" Alex asked.
"Not directly. She's smarter than that." Rachel pulled out her phone and scrolled through old messages. "She'd send texts like, 'I hope your mother's surgery goes well. It would be terrible if something went wrong.' My mom wasn't having surgery. It was a warning."
She showed them the messages. Dozens of them. All coded, all threatening.
"After I tried to report her, she had me fired. Told the board I was embezzling. Completely fabricated, but by the time I proved my innocence, she'd already paid me to sign an NDA and disappear."
"Why break it now?" Izzy asked.
Rachel's eyes filled with tears. "Because I saw what happened at the hearing. Nathan and Vivienne are trying to destroy you the same way they destroyed Lila. I can't watch it happen again."
Alex leaned forward. "Tell me about Lila. What did Vivienne do to her?"
Rachel took a shaky breath. "It started small. Vivienne would question Lila's decisions in front of the staff, making her doubt herself. Then she'd go to board members privately, plant seeds about Lila being overwhelmed, unstable, not up to the job."
"Lila never mentioned this," Alex said.
"Because Vivienne made her think she was imagining it. Gaslit her into believing she was paranoid." Rachel pulled out a voice memo. "This is from a year before Lila died. I recorded it because I knew no one would believe me otherwise."
She pressed play.
Vivienne's voice filled the room, syrupy sweet: *"Lila, darling, I'm worried about you. You've been forgetting meetings and making errors in reports. Maybe you should take some time off. Focus on your marriage. Let me handle things here for a while."*
Lila's response was quiet, hesitant: *"I haven't been forgetting meetings. I've been...."*
*"Sweetheart, I have the emails. You missed three last week alone. I'm not judging. I'm trying to help."*
The recording ended.
"She was creating the narrative," Sophie said. "Making Lila look incompetent so she could take over."
"There's more," Rachel said. "Six months before Lila died, Vivienne told her that Alex was having an affair. Showed her fabricated evidence, photoshopped images, and fake receipts from hotels. Lila confronted Alex, and he denied it, but Vivienne kept feeding her 'proof.' Made her believe she couldn't trust her own husband."
Alex's face went white. "That's why she asked about divorce."
"Vivienne wanted Lila isolated, dependent on her, so she could control the foundation." Rachel's voice hardened. "When Lila started seeing a therapist, Vivienne convinced her to switch to someone she recommended. A friend who reported everything back to Vivienne."
"That's not just manipulation," Izzy said. "That's systematic abuse."
"I have records of payments to the therapist. Emails between Vivienne and the doctor discussing Lila's sessions, her medications, her vulnerabilities." Rachel pushed the folder across the table. "It's all here."
Alex couldn't move. Couldn't speak.
Izzy took the folder and flipped through it. Bank statements. Email chains. Medical records that should've been confidential.
"This could put Vivienne in prison," she said.
"It could also destroy the foundation's reputation," Sophie added. "If people find out Lila was being abused by her own sister while running a mental health charity..."
"We can't keep this quiet," Rachel said. "Lila deserves justice."
"And she'll get it," Izzy said. "But we need to be strategic. If we release this before the gala, Vivienne will have time to spin the narrative, play victim, and claim the documents are fabricated."
"So what do we do?" Rachel asked.
Alex finally found his voice. "We confront her. Tonight. Give her one chance to walk away quietly."
"And if she refuses?" Sophie asked.
"Then we go nuclear at the gala. In front of five hundred witnesses and every major media outlet in the city."
They found Vivienne at her penthouse in Tribeca. She answered the door in silk loungewear, wine glass in hand.
"Alex. What a surprise." Her smile was poisonous. "And you brought your little entourage."
"We need to talk," Alex said.
"I have nothing to say to you."
"Then listen." Izzy held up the folder. "We know what you did to Lila."
Vivienne's smile faltered for just a second. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Rachel Chen. The therapist you bribed. The fabricated evidence of an affair." Alex's voice was cold. "You systematically destroyed my wife's mental health so you could take control of her foundation."
"That's absurd."
"We have proof. Recordings, emails, bank statements. Enough to put you away for fraud, medical privacy violations, and potentially manslaughter."
Vivienne's hand tightened on her wine glass. "You can't prove intent."
"We can prove you paid a licensed therapist to violate doctor-patient confidentiality. We can prove you falsified evidence to convince Lila that her husband was cheating. We can prove you isolated her from everyone who could help her." Izzy stepped forward. "Whether that makes you legally responsible for her death, I don't know. But it makes you morally responsible. And that's enough."
"Lila was weak," Vivienne said. "She couldn't handle the pressure of running the foundation. I was trying to help her."
"You were trying to replace her," Alex said. "And when she wouldn't break fast enough, you pushed harder."
"She killed herself because of you!" Vivienne's composure cracked. "You were a terrible husband. Distant, cold, more interested in your work than your wife...."
"That might be true," Alex said quietly. "But you made it impossible for her to fix it. Every time she tried to talk to me, you'd convinced her I was lying. Every time she wanted to get help, you controlled who she saw. You didn't want her to get better. You wanted her to fail."
Vivienne's eyes filled with tears. "She was my sister."
"And you destroyed her."
The room went silent.
Finally, Vivienne set down her wine glass. "What do you want?"
"You disappear," Izzy said. "No more contact with the foundation, with Julian, with anyone in Alex's life. You sell your shares in Lila's estate to Alex at market value. You sign a statement admitting to the fraud and manipulation, which we'll keep sealed unless you ever come after us again."
"And if I refuse?"
"We release everything to the press tomorrow morning. You'll be arrested by noon."
Vivienne looked at Alex. "She would've left you anyway. You know that, right? Even without me, your marriage was over."
"Maybe," Alex said. "But she'd still be alive."
"You don't know that."
"I know she deserved better than both of us."
Vivienne's laugh was hollow. "You're right about that."
She walked to her desk, pulled out a pen and paper. "I'll sign your statement. But I want something in return."
"You're not in a position to negotiate," Sophie said.
"I want Alex to admit he failed her too." Vivienne looked at him. "Public statement. At the gala. You tell everyone that you weren't the husband Lila needed, that you were too wrapped up in work to see she was suffering."
"That's not...." Izzy started.
"I'll do it," Alex said.
"Alex, no," Izzy protested.
"It's true. All of it." He met Vivienne's eyes. "I'll tell them I failed Lila. That I should've seen what was happening. That I'll spend the rest of my life trying to honor her memory properly."
"And you'll resign from the foundation within six months."
"No," Alex said firmly. "The foundation stays with me. That's non-negotiable."
Vivienne stared at him for a long moment. Then she picked up the pen.
"Fine. Draft your statement. I'll sign it."
They left Vivienne's apartment at midnight. Sophie went home with the signed confession. Rachel headed back to her hotel, finally able to sleep.
Alex and Izzy stood on the sidewalk, neither ready to move.
"You didn't have to agree to the public admission," Izzy said.
"Yes, I did. Because it's true." Alex looked up at the building. "I loved Lila, but I wasn't present. I let work consume me. I didn't see what Vivienne was doing because I wasn't paying attention."
"Vivienne's abuse isn't your fault."
"But my absence made it easier for her." He turned to Izzy. "I won't make that mistake again. With the foundation, with Julian, with..." He trailed off.
"With me?" Izzy finished.
Alex nodded slowly.
"We still have a gala to get through," Izzy said. "And a fake engagement to end."
"About that." Alex took her hand. "What if we didn't?"
Izzy's heart stopped. "Didn't what?"
"End it. The engagement." He stepped closer. "I know this started as a transaction. But somewhere along the way, it became real. At least for me."
"Alex..."
"You don't have to answer now. Just... think about it. After the gala. When all this is over." He squeezed her hand. "I'm not asking you to save me this time. I'm asking if you want to build something real."
Izzy couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
So she did the only thing that made sense.
She kissed him.