The Wife he threw Away (Claire and Lucian) novel Chapter 87

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN CLAIRE’S POV

The room was already in motion by the time I stepped in.

It wasn’t chaotic or loud.

Just… focused.

Papers were spread across the table. Screens were lit with spreadsheets and internal reports.

No one looked up immediately I took my seat.

And that was fine- I didn’t need them to.

Margot stood at the head of the table, with one hand resting lightly against the surface as she scanned the document in front of her.

“Walk me through it again,” she said to one of the senior associates.

He nodded, adjusting his glasses slightly as he pulled up a file.

“The discrepancies began in Q3,” he pointed out. “At least, that’s when they became noticeable. Revenue projections were consistent on the surface, but the internal allocations-”

“They were too clean,” someone else cut in.

“Exactly.”

I didn’t speak- at least not yet.

picked up one of the documents in front of me instead, letting my eyes move over the numbers, the formatting, and most importantly, the structure.

Everything aligned. Too well.

That was the first red flag.

I flipped one page, then another.

The timestamps were consistent.

The formatting was uniformed.

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I noticed that the language was identical across departments that shouldn’t have matched that precisely.

That’s when something clicked internally.

“This isn’t a revision issue.” I spoke up, my voice cutting through the room quietly.

Not too loud, but loud enough.

The conversation paused.

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CLAIRES POV

Another voice, more thoughtful this time-

“Or post-editing at a high level.”

I shook my head slightly.

“No.”

That drew more attention.

“If it were post-edited, there would be inconsistencies,” I said. “Version conflicts. Metadata discrepancies. There aren’t any.”

I let the words settle before adding-

“These weren’t edited.”

A beat.

“They were designed.”

That was when the room shifted completely.

Not visibly.

But I felt it.

The difference between being present-

and being heard.

Margot’s gaze didn’t leave me.

“Walk me through that again,” she said.

So I did.

Step by step.

No hesitation.

No over-explanation.

Just the facts. The patterns. The logic.

By the time I finished, no one interrupted.

No one dismissed it.

One of the senior lawyers leaned back slightly, exhaling under his breath.

“That would require system-level access,” he said.

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AN AIRE POV

“Yes,” I replied.

“And foresight,” he added.

I held his gaze.

“Yes.”

Another pause.

Then-

“Which means this wasn’t opportunistic,” he continued. “It was planned.” 1

Margot closed the file in front of her.

The soft sound echoed more than it should have.

Her eyes lifted to mine.

“You’ll stay on this,” she said.

Simple.

Direct.

But there was weight behind it.

I nodded once.

“Understood.”

She held my gaze for a moment longer, assessing.

Then-

“And you’ll represent us at the Langford function.”

That was new.

I didn’t react immediately.

Didn’t let anything show.

“Understood,” I repeated.

Around the table, a few glances were exchanged.

Subtle.

But noticeable.

It wasn’t a small assignment.

+25 Bonus

4/6

It wasn’t routine.

It was visibility.

Margot shifted her attention back to the room.

“We move carefully from here,” she said, “If this holds, we’re not dealing with negligence.”

No one needed her to finish the sentence.

We all knew what it meant

Deliberate manipulation.

Internal.

High-level.

The meeting moved on, but the atmosphere had changed.

Sharper.

More focused.

And when it ended, no one dismissed me as just another presence at the table.

I gathered my files quietly, stacking them with deliberate precision before standing.

The room began to empty around me.

Conversations resumed in low tones. Strategies forming. Angles being considered.

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