Chapter Twenty-Two: The Woman Who Shook Her Hand

The name on the page was Constance Hale.

Naomi read it a third time, as though the letters might rearrange themselves. Constance Hale chaired the federation’s board. She was the woman who had shaken Naomi’s hand after the interview, held it a moment too long, and told her she’d scored the highest marks of anyone they’d seen that cycle.

“No,” Naomi said. “She’s the reason I’m here.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Priya said quietly.

Henrik had gone very still beside her. “Constance has chaired the board since before I was hired,” he said. “She’s the one who signed off on you.”

Naomi leaned against the pillar, grateful for its solidity. “Priya’s friend. Who is she to Constance?”

“They sit on a charity committee together. About two months ago, Constance mentioned she knew an excellent family lawyer, in case anyone ever needed one.” Priya’s mouth tightened. “My friend passed it along to me. I passed it along to you. Neither of us thought twice.”

Two months. Naomi did the math, and it came out in an ugly, tidy line. The offer had reached her the same afternoon Dr. Whitfield turned her hand over and closed the argument for good. A week or two later, Margaret’s name had arrived like a favor. Someone hadn’t just been watching her life. Someone had been arranging it.

“The offer,” she said. “It landed in my inbox the day of the diagnosis. The same day I overheard Julian with Ivy. I never asked how the federation knew about the accident, or that I’d be available. I assumed they’d followed my career. I was flattered.”

“You were supposed to be,” Henrik said, and she heard how carefully he held his voice level. “Thirty-day signing window. Relocation support. A new country, as far from the Sterling name as you could get. It was a kindness that happened to move you out of the way.”

Naomi pressed the heel of her hand against her sternum. It would have been easier if the whole offer had been a lie. It wasn’t. She had earned that interview. She had watched the faces of the panel change as she spoke about athlete development, and she had felt, for the first time since the hospital, like herself.

“The worst part is that I think she meant some of it,” she said slowly. “At Trials, years ago, Constance found me in the corridor after I’d come fourth in the final. I was nineteen and crying in a stairwell. She said that finishing fourth meant I’d been close enough to hurt. She told me not to waste that.” She laughed, short and without humor. “I’ve quoted that to my juniors.”

Priya squeezed her arm. “She can be both, Naomi. Someone who truly admired you and someone who used you. People manage it all the time.”

“Then which one was she the day she shook my hand?”

Nobody had an answer. The garage hummed around them.

It was Henrik who spoke first. “The counsel you’re meeting at eight reports to the board. To her.”

Naomi closed her eyes. She’d forgotten, in the last few hours, that she had sent forty-one pages of evidence to an office that answered to Constance Hale.

“I sent it last night,” she said. “From the airport.”

“Then assume she knows it exists, or soon will.” Henrik’s jaw flexed. “But she may not know what’s in it, or that Elena kept her own copy. And she doesn’t know that you know.”

“Which is the only advantage I’ve got.” Naomi opened her eyes. The shock was still there, but something steadier had settled beneath it, the same cold clarity she’d felt at the lodge. “I’m not canceling the meeting. If I do, she’ll know something has changed. I go in at eight, I’m polite, I say nothing, and I watch what they do.”

“And if they ask what else you have?” Priya asked.

“Then I tell them what Margaret was told to hear,” Naomi said. “That I’ve decided to trust the process.”

Henrik studied her, and she saw protectiveness war with respect on his face. He chose respect, as she was beginning to expect him to. “I’ll find out what I can through the senior program. Who Constance has been meeting with, whether she’s had any contact with Hartwell & Pryce. Quietly.”

“You’d be risking your position,” Naomi said.

“I’d be risking it for something worth more than the position.” He said it simply, and Priya developed a sudden interest in her car keys.

They stayed a few more minutes, working out who would call whom, what would be said and what wouldn’t. When Priya finally drove off, Henrik walked Naomi to her own car and stopped beside the door.

“Tomorrow, after all of it,” he said. “We still talk. On purpose.”

“On purpose,” she agreed, and kissed him once, brief and certain, before she got in.

She was halfway home, the city sliding past in smears of wet light, when her phone lit up on the passenger seat. She glanced at it at a red light and felt every muscle in her body go still.

Naomi, welcome home! I heard camp was remarkable. I’d love to have you to dinner tomorrow night, just us. There’s something I’ve been wanting to discuss with you. — Constance

The light turned green. Behind her, someone leaned on a horn.

Naomi didn’t move.