Divorce Me Before Death Takes Me, CEO novel Chapter 415

Chapter 415

Audrey’s POV

“What do you think? Rachel’s cold laugh cut through the phone.

I lowered my voice. “So Emma and Blake getting hurt that was your doing?”

*Mrs. Knox, why do you always think the worst of me?” She didn’t deny it. “I mean, come on. I wouldn’t hurt a four-year-old kid or my future husband the day before our wedding.”

I stayed quiet, waiting her out.

“I’m heading to the police station to ID Blake’s body,” she said, voice turning playful in a way that made my skin crawl. “Aren’t you even going to check on your daughter?”

“Look, Rachel continued when I didn’t respond. “I know you don’t want to see me. Fine. Just courier Blake’s phone to Parker Group. As his widow, I need to

handle his stuff.”

“Send me the phone and you can keep pretending your kid’s alive. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Her voice sharpened. “And quit with the bullshit about giving the phone back to Blake. His body’s literally at the morgue. How exactly would that work?”

‘Don’t mess with me. This is New York. You and Adrian don’t stand a chance.”

The call ended with a sharp click.

I raised an eyebrow and turned to Blake. “She wants your phone.”

“Take it,” he said, handing it over immediately.

I turned the device in my hand. “She’s after your contacts and business connections?”

Blake nodded. ‘She wants Parker Group. Thinks she can step into my shoes and be the female CEO everyone admires.”

His expression darkened slightly. “Worked with me for less than a year and thinks she’s ready. Foolish.”

So who’ll have the reddest eyes when they come out?’ Astrid asked, slurping her bubble tea as we watched from our car outside the police station.

Rachel had just gone inside with Rebecca and Thalia, all of them in tears.

Rebecca, probably,” I said, watching the station doors. “Whatever issues they have, he’s still her son. Plus he bankrolls her lifestyle. Losing that would hit hard.”

Astrid chewed a tapioca pearl. “Nah, my money’s on Rachel.”

“She’s using Blake’s ‘death’ to grab his fortune and win over his family, right? She’s gotta look completely destroyed if she wants the Parkers to buy her whole grieving fiancée act.”

“Good point, I admitted, eyes still fixed on the entrance.

“Laurel should’ve taken acting lessons from Rachel,” Astrid said, her mouth twisting. “Maybe then she’d have become a Hollywood star instead of ending up dead in custody.”

“I saw Rachel’s death records in Sydney,” I said, taking a sip of my tea. “Things didn’t add up.”

1/3

Chapter 415

*First off, Laurel wasn’t the type to feel guilty enough for suicide. I swirled my straw in the cup. “And the file claimed police negligence allowed her to kill boyself, but I checked both officers on duty. They were rookies – one was still an intern.”

After Laurel died, they both immediately quit and disappeared from New York.”

Astrid’s eyes widened, “They quit? Just like that?”

Exactly what caught my attention. They vanished completely after resigning,” I nodded, studying the station entrance. “That’s why I think Laurel was murdered.”

By who? Blake? Astrid frowned. “But he’s the one who had her arrested. If he wanted her gone, why bother with all that?”

I took another long sip of my tea. “What if Rachel killed her?”

Astrid froze for a second before nodding quickly, ‘Damn… I never thought about that.”

If what Rachel said on the phone is true, she had more reason than anyone to want Laurel dead,” she reasoned. “Laurel didn’t just steal her plans – she knew all Rachel’s secrets.”

‘Once Rachel woke up, if Laurel exposed everything, any chance with Blake would’ve been toast,” Astrid continued. “Rachel would have been desperate to silence her.”

Astrid sighed heavily, looking toward the station. ‘I never imagined Rachel could be like this.”

She turned to me with rare vulnerability in her eyes. “I always thought you two were closer than we were. I was the outsider, trying to fit in with your inside jokes and shared history.”

I tried so many times to really be part of your circle, but there were always memories I wasn’t part of.”

After Rachel’s accident, I was grieving too, but focused on helping you through it. Her voice grew quieter. “I even wondered sometimes… why couldn’t it have been me instead?”

“What are you talking about?” I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “You’re important too.”

But Rachel did mean something different to me back then.

Without her, I wouldn’t have gotten past my insecurities after my birth parents abandoned me.

I’d never have discovered racing, camping, adventure…

I wouldn’t even have found my way to jewelry design.

Rachel was both friend and teacher to me then.

She mattered more than anyone – even Blake.

But after four years, I’ve learned I was just her project – her ego boost.

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