Chapter 7 - Caleb Begs for HelpThe strange thing about terror is how quickly it rearranges enemies.
I wasn't stupid anymore.
Or maybe I had finally stopped confusing recklessness with courage.
Vanessa wanted to meet in the underground parking garage beneath a luxury apartment building near the river.
Marcus positioned security two levels away.
Elena waited in a vehicle nearby.
I walked the final fifty feet alone because Vanessa insisted.
She stood beside a silver Mercedes wearing sunglasses despite the darkness.
When she saw me, she almost flinched.
"You're late."
"By two minutes."
"You brought people."
"Of course I did."
Her mouth tightened.
"Then maybe this was a mistake."
I looked at the bruise beneath her makeup.
"Did Richard do that?"
She looked away.
"No."
"Caleb?"
"No."
"Then who?"
"Does it matter?"
"Apparently."
Vanessa opened the passenger door.
"Get in."
"No."
"You're impossible."
"Yesterday you sat in my living room wearing my robe while my husband hit me."
Her face changed.
"Fair."
We remained standing.
Finally, she removed her sunglasses.
The bruise was darker than I'd realized.
"I didn't know he would hit you."
I said nothing.
"I swear."
"You knew he was married."
"Yes."
"You entered my house."
"Yes."
"You wore my clothes."
Her eyes dropped.
"Yes."
"And you laughed."
She swallowed.
"I was cruel."
It wasn't enough.
But at least it was true.
"Why are you here?"
Vanessa leaned against the car.
"Because Richard is going to destroy Caleb."
"That sounds like a Prescott family issue."
"And your father."
My blood cooled.
"Explain."
"Richard has been building a case that William Vance knowingly manipulated Prescott Development's debt to gain control of company assets."
"That's false."
"I know."
"How?"
"Because I helped create the emails."
For one second I couldn't process the sentence.
"You forged emails?"
"Not personally."
"But you participated."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Her composure cracked.
"Because Richard paid me."
"How much?"
"At first? Fifty thousand dollars."
"At first?"
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
"I didn't start as Caleb's mistress."
"What were you?"
"A consultant."
"For Richard?"
She nodded.
"My job was to get close to Caleb."
"Why?"
"Richard thought Caleb was too emotional."
I almost laughed.
"He punched a wall because a restaurant ran out of sea bass."
"Exactly."
Despite myself, I understood.
Vanessa continued.
"Richard needed someone to influence him."
"Into stealing from me?"
"Into everything."
"What changed?"
"I became useful."
"And then?"
"I became stupid."
There was no self-pity in her tone.
Just exhaustion.
"I thought Caleb loved me."
The absurdity nearly escaped as laughter.
Vanessa saw my expression.
"Yeah. I know."
"You thought the married man hitting his wife was going to make you happy?"
"I didn't see the hitting until last night."
"You saw everything before it."
Her eyes filled.
"I know."
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then she opened her handbag and removed a phone.
Not her regular phone.
A cheap prepaid device.
"Richard gave me this."
"Why?"
"Instructions."
She unlocked it.
Dozens of messages.
Some from a contact named R.
Keep C focused on acquisition.
S is becoming suspicious.
Encourage distance.
Push the argument.
Make him believe she is monitoring him.
Another:
Once papers are executed, your bonus doubles.
I felt sick.
"Why keep these?"
"Because people like Richard eventually decide witnesses are liabilities."
She was right.
"What's the threat against my father?"
Vanessa swiped through emails.
One appeared to show my father ordering subordinates to manipulate Prescott Development's loan conditions.
The wording was convincing.
But it wasn't Dad.
I knew his emails.
He never wrote "Regards."
He thought it sounded passive-aggressive.
"Fake."
"Yes."
"There are more?"
"Enough to create headlines."
"Not convictions."
"No."
"Then why does Richard care?"
Vanessa looked at me.
"Because he doesn't need your father convicted."
I understood.
"He wants a scandal."
"Exactly."
Vance International was preparing a major public offering of one of its logistics subsidiaries.
A scandal, even false, could cost billions temporarily.
Richard planned to use the threat as leverage.
I asked, "What does he want?"
"Your father to sell him the Prescott debt for almost nothing, sign releases, and walk away."
"And if Dad refuses?"
"He releases everything."
I stared at her.
"Why are you telling me?"
Vanessa's eyes lowered.
"Because last night I realized what happens to women when we're no longer useful to these men."
My anger returned.
"Do not compare yourself to me."
"I'm not."
"Good."
"You didn't deserve what happened."
"No."
"I helped create it."
"Yes."
She took the answers without defending herself.
Then she whispered:
"I want to testify."
That changed the air between us.
"Against Richard?"
"And Caleb."
"Why?"
"Because I'm afraid."
"Of prison?"
"Of becoming someone I can't recognize."
I thought that answer might have been rehearsed.
Then she showed me something else.
A voice recording.
Richard's voice.
Clear.
"Caleb doesn't need to know the Vance documents are manufactured. He only needs to believe they're real enough to repeat the story."
Another male voice responded.
Caleb.
"What happens after William sells us the debt?"
Richard laughed.
"Then Savannah becomes irrelevant."
My stomach twisted.
Caleb asked:
"And the marriage?"
Richard:
"End it however you want."
Caleb said something that made my blood freeze.
"I don't want her getting suspicious before the transfer."
Richard replied:
"Then keep her small."
The recording ended.
I stared at Vanessa.
"When was this?"
"Three weeks ago."
Three weeks.
Three weeks earlier Caleb had brought me flowers.
Three weeks earlier he had suggested we take a vacation.
Three weeks earlier he'd kissed my forehead in bed and told me work stress was making him distant.
Keep her small.
I closed my eyes.
The pain came.
But this time it passed through me instead of taking over.
When I opened my eyes, Vanessa was crying.
"I am sorry."
I believed she was sorry.
That didn't mean I forgave her.
"Give the phone to Elena."
"Will I be protected?"
"That's not my decision."
"Will you tell investigators I cooperated?"
"If you cooperate, I'll tell the truth."
She nodded.
That was all I could offer.
As we walked toward the exit, tires screeched above us.
Marcus shouted through my earpiece.
"Savannah, stop."
A black SUV flew down the ramp.
Straight toward us.
Vanessa screamed.
I grabbed her arm.
We jumped behind a concrete pillar as the vehicle blasted past.
It slammed into her Mercedes, crushing the driver's side.
Airbags exploded.
Glass flew.
The SUV reversed.
Marcus and another security officer ran toward us.
The driver accelerated away.
My heart pounded so hard it hurt.
Vanessa slid to the ground.
"Oh my God."
Marcus reached us.
"Are you hurt?"
I shook my head.
Vanessa couldn't answer.
Elena came running.
She looked at the wrecked Mercedes.
Then at the retreating SUV.
"This wasn't intimidation."
"No," Marcus said.
He looked at the crushed driver's door.
"If you'd been sitting inside when they arrived..."
He didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
Vanessa looked at me with genuine terror.
"Richard knows."
"Knows what?"
"That I have the phone."
Marcus scanned the garage.
"Then we move. Now."
We rushed toward the other vehicle.
My phone rang.
Caleb.
I almost ignored it.
Then something made me answer.
His voice came immediately.
Panicked.
"Savannah, where are you?"
"Why?"
"Listen to me. Get somewhere safe."
I stopped walking.
"Why?"
A long pause.
May you like
Then my husband whispered:
"Because my father just tried to have Vanessa killed."
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