Chapter 6 - The Enemy Across the FenceVanessa Cole’s father arrived at Aurelia before sunset.
Margaret hired a forensic attorney named Daniel Rhodes.
Daniel looked like a tired high-school history teacher and spoke in sentences so calm they made bad news sound terrifying.
He arrived at Aurelia carrying two laptops and a legal pad.
Three hours later, he asked me a question.
“How much do you know about Vanessa?”
“She works for my husband.”
“That’s what she does now.”
“What did she do before?”
“Private equity, I think.”
Daniel turned his laptop toward me.
Vanessa had worked for Halcyon Ridge Capital.
I recognized the name immediately.
“They buy distressed companies.”
“More specifically, they acquire debt positions in vulnerable privately held businesses.”
My pulse quickened.
“Bennett Global?”
“Halcyon currently owns twenty-eight percent of Bennett Global’s secured secondary debt.”
I stared at him.
“Vanessa’s former employer is one of Andrew’s creditors?”
“Yes.”
“Does Andrew know?”
“Almost certainly.”
“And he hired her?”
“Eight months ago.”
Nine months ago, the affair began.
Eight months ago, Vanessa joined his company.
Daniel tapped another document.
“Her employment agreement is strange.”
“How?”
“Her compensation includes a transaction bonus if Bennett Global completes any acquisition exceeding seventy-five million dollars.”
“Aurelia.”
“That would qualify.”
I felt sick.
“So she sleeps with the CEO and gets millions if he buys my inheritance?”
“We don’t yet know how much she knew about your connection to Aurelia.”
I remembered Vanessa’s face after Gabriel announced my ownership.
She had looked shocked.
But shock can be performed.
“What else?”
Daniel hesitated.
“That’s where it becomes complicated.”
“Tell me.”
“Halcyon has an option to increase its ownership position if Bennett Global breaches certain debt covenants.”
“Meaning?”
“If Andrew defaults, Halcyon could effectively take control.”
Everything inside me became still.
“So if Andrew buys Aurelia, Vanessa gets a bonus.”
“Yes.”
“And if he fails badly enough, her former employer could take his company.”
“Yes.”
“Either way, somebody close to Vanessa wins.”
Daniel nodded.
I stood.
Outside the library windows, workers moved through the vines.
Real people.
Real jobs.
That was what angered me most.
Andrew was playing games with assets.
But businesses weren’t abstract things.
They were paychecks.
Mortgages.
School tuition.
Health insurance.
Dreams.
My phone buzzed.
A message from Vanessa.
We need to talk woman to woman.
I laughed.
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
“Something funny?”
“The woman who shoved me wants to talk woman to woman.”
“Don’t meet her alone.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
An hour later, Vanessa arrived at Aurelia.
She wore cream trousers, oversized sunglasses, and confidence.
Security escorted her to the smaller tasting room.
Gabriel stood near the door.
Daniel listened from the library through a legal conference call.
Vanessa removed her sunglasses.
“You look tired.”
“You look unemployed.”
Her mouth tightened.
“Andrew didn’t fire me.”
“I did.”
“You don’t own Bennett Global.”
“No. I own this property, and you are banned from conducting business here.”
She sat without invitation.
“I came to help you.”
“That would be a first.”
“Claire, Andrew is in trouble.”
“I know.”
“Do you know how much?”
“Forty-two million in bridge financing.”
Vanessa blinked.
Good.
I knew more than she expected.
“What about Halcyon?” I asked.
Her expression disappeared.
There.
Daniel had told me not to reveal our knowledge too early.
But I wanted to see her reaction.
“Who told you about Halcyon?”
“Does it matter?”
She leaned back.
“Andrew’s finances are complicated.”
“Were you sleeping with him before or after you started advising his creditors?”
Her eyes sharpened.
“I never advised Halcyon regarding Bennett Global.”
“You worked there.”
“I left.”
“You still own equity?”
Vanessa didn’t answer.
That was interesting.
“What do you want?”
She crossed her legs.
“I want Aurelia sold.”
I almost admired the directness.
“To Andrew?”
“To someone capable of maximizing it.”
“So yes.”
“You inherited a complex agricultural and hospitality operation. You’re about to have a baby. You’ve never run a company this size.”
“You really researched me poorly.”
“What does that mean?”
“I ran operations for a nonprofit with a seventy-million-dollar annual budget for six years.”
She waved one hand.
“Charity.”
I smiled.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The mistake people keep making.”
She frowned.
“You think because I wasn’t giving interviews in business magazines, I wasn’t working.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
I leaned forward.
“Andrew used to know what I did.”
Something softened in her expression.
Not sympathy.
Recognition.
“He talked about you.”
“I’m sure he did.”
“He said you chose to step away.”
“I reduced travel during fertility treatments and my grandmother’s illness.”
“He said you didn’t understand his ambition.”
I studied her.
“And you believed him?”
“I understood him.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Vanessa looked toward the window.
For the first time, she seemed less certain.
Then she said, “Your marriage was over before me.”
I felt the sentence, but I didn’t let her see it.
“Maybe.”
She looked back.
“That’s all?”
“What would you like? Tears?”
“I expected you to blame me.”
“I do blame you for shoving a pregnant woman.”
Her jaw tightened.
“But Andrew made vows to me. You didn’t.”
That landed.
She looked almost annoyed that I wouldn’t play the hysterical wife.
I continued.
“You slept with a married man. That says something about you. But he betrayed me. That says something about him.”
Vanessa stood.
“You’re calmer than I expected.”
“My grandmother taught me never to negotiate angry.”
“This isn’t a negotiation.”
“Everything is a negotiation when you come asking for my property.”
She picked up her sunglasses.
“Then here’s the deal.”
I waited.
“Sell Aurelia to Bennett Global for ninety-two million.”
“No.”
“You keep twenty percent equity in the combined luxury wine portfolio.”
“No.”
“Andrew stabilizes the company. Investors keep their positions. Employees keep jobs.”
“No.”
“Your child inherits wealth from both parents instead of watching her father implode.”
There it was.
My daughter.
Vanessa had found another pressure point.
I smiled.
“You’re not very good at pretending this is about employees.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“I’m being realistic.”
“You’re being desperate.”
She moved toward the door.
I stopped her.
“Vanessa.”
She turned.
“How much do you still own in Halcyon?”
For the first time, real fear crossed her face.
Tiny.
But unmistakable.
“Goodbye, Claire.”
She left.
Gabriel entered after security escorted her from the building.
“You frightened her.”
“Not enough.”
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I answered.
“Well?”
His voice sounded grim.
“She lied.”
“About?”
“I just received the employment filings we requested.”
“And?”
“Vanessa didn’t merely work for Halcyon.”
I waited.
“She helped create the investment vehicle that purchased Bennett Global’s debt.”
My skin prickled.
“So she was involved from the beginning.”
“Yes.”
“How beginning?”
“Fourteen months ago.”
That was five months before the affair.
I sat down.
Daniel continued.
“And Claire?”
“Yes?”
“I found one more connection.”
“What?”
“One of Halcyon’s limited partners invested through a family trust.”
“Whose?”
“Vanessa’s father.”
My mind began racing.
“What does her father do?”
“He owns wineries.”
“Where?”
“Napa.”
My pulse quickened.
“Name.”
“Cole Crest Estates.”
I knew Cole Crest.
Everyone did.
It bordered Aurelia’s northern parcels.
My grandmother had fought them for years over water access and development boundaries.
Then I remembered something Eleanor once said.
Some people don’t want to buy your land, Claire.
They want you unable to keep it.
I stood so quickly my chair scraped backward.
“This was never about Andrew.”
Daniel paused.
“What do you mean?”
“Vanessa didn’t choose him because she loved him.”
May you like
I looked through the window toward the ridge separating Aurelia from Cole Crest.
“She chose him because he was married to me.”
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