Chapter 3 - The Sister Who Never LostBrooke disappeared from the window the moment she realized I had noticed her.
“Mom?”
Vanessa moved first.
“Give me that.”
Daniel stepped back.
Her desperation confirmed what I already suspected.
I looked around the lawn.
Thirty guests had become thirty witnesses.
“Maybe we should go inside,” I said.
Vanessa shook her head.
“This is ridiculous. Daniel, your mother came here pretending to be homeless. She obviously planned this.”
“Planned what?” Daniel demanded. “For you to humiliate her?”
“I made a mistake!”
“No. You made a choice.”
His voice cracked.
That hurt me more than the water.
Because Daniel had loved her.
Whatever Vanessa was, whatever she had done, my son’s heart had been real.
I put my hand on his arm.
“Inside.”
He nodded.
Vanessa followed us toward the estate.
“Daniel, please.”
He didn’t answer.
The woman in the pale blue dress hurried after us.
“Vanessa?”
Vanessa snapped, “Not now, Brooke.”
Interesting.
I remembered that name.
Brooke Cole.
Vanessa’s older sister.
She was mentioned in the documents I had received.
Inside the library, Daniel locked the door.
Vanessa stood beside the fireplace.
I sat on a leather sofa while Daniel found me a towel.
“You’re shaking.”
“I’m cold.”
“And furious?”
“Mostly disappointed.”
He gave me a sad smile.
“That sounds worse.”
“It is.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“Can we stop acting like I committed a felony?”
Daniel turned.
“You sprayed my mother in front of thirty people.”
“I did not know she was your mother!”
“There it is again.”
“What?”
“You keep saying that like it helps.”
She blinked.
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“If she had really been homeless, would what you did have been acceptable?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Daniel looked away.
For the first time, I saw that he understood.
Not merely what she had done to me.
Who she had revealed herself to be.
I reached for the envelope.
“Daniel.”
He came closer.
“Before you open this, you need to know I didn’t go looking for dirt on Vanessa.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Sure.”
I ignored her.
“Last Thursday, I received a package at my home in Charleston. No return address. It contained photocopies of financial records and several photographs.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“Photographs of what?”
“Open it.”
Vanessa lunged.
Daniel pulled away.
“Stop.”
“You don’t understand!”
“Then explain.”
“I can’t.”
That sentence landed heavily.
Daniel opened the envelope.
The first photograph showed Vanessa entering a hotel in Charlotte with an older man.
The second showed them having dinner.
The third showed the man handing her a folder.
Daniel looked up.
“Who is he?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“A client.”
Daniel examined the next page.
It was a wire transfer.
$75,000.
Sender: Ridgeway Development Holdings.
Recipient: V. Cole Consulting LLC.
Daniel’s company was currently negotiating against Ridgeway Development for a major downtown redevelopment contract.
A contract worth nearly eighty million dollars.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
“What is this?”
“It’s not what it looks like.”
I nearly laughed.
There are sentences people use because they are useful.
Then there are sentences guilty people use because they cannot think of anything better.
Daniel flipped to another transfer.
$50,000.
Then another.
$40,000.
His hands began to shake.
“What did you give them?”
“Nothing.”
“Vanessa.”
“Nothing!”
He slammed the papers onto the desk.
“You had access to my office!”
“So?”
“You had access to my proposal!”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I would never hurt you.”
“Then why did my competitor send you one hundred sixty-five thousand dollars?”
She sat down suddenly.
Brooke knocked on the door from outside.
“Vanessa?”
Nobody answered.
I studied Vanessa carefully.
Something bothered me.
She looked terrified.
But not like someone caught stealing.
Like someone afraid of something larger.
Daniel leaned over the desk.
“Tell me the truth.”
Vanessa whispered, “I can’t.”
He stared at her.
“Then the wedding is off.”
Her head snapped up.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel, please.”
“I cannot marry someone who refuses to explain why my business rival paid her a fortune.”
Vanessa began crying.
“You don’t understand what they’ll do.”
That changed everything.
Daniel stopped.
“Who?”
She covered her mouth.
I leaned forward.
“Vanessa.”
Her eyes met mine.
For the first time that afternoon, the arrogance was gone.
“What will who do?”
She shook her head.
“They’re watching.”
“Who is watching?”
Before she could answer, someone pounded on the library door.
“Daniel!”
It was one of his employees.
“Daniel, open up!”
Daniel unlocked the door.
His CFO, Marcus Hale, rushed inside holding his phone.
He looked pale.
“We have a problem.”
“What happened?”
Marcus glanced at Vanessa.
“The redevelopment proposal leaked.”
Daniel went still.
“How much?”
“All of it.”
“Where?”
“Sent anonymously to Ridgeway forty minutes ago.”
Vanessa stood.
Daniel looked at the timestamp on Marcus’s phone.
Then at her.
Forty minutes earlier.
Vanessa had been outside.
In front of dozens of people.
She could not have sent anything from Daniel’s office.
Marcus continued.
“And there’s more.”
“What?”
“Someone transferred two point four million dollars from the project escrow account.”
Daniel’s face drained of color.
Vanessa whispered, “Oh my God.”
Marcus looked directly at her.
“The authorization was made using Vanessa’s credentials.”
Daniel stared at his fiancée.
She stared back.
Then she whispered something I had not expected.
“They finally did it.”
Daniel’s voice was barely audible.
“Who?”
Vanessa looked toward the window.
And I followed her gaze.
Across the lawn, standing alone beside the champagne table, was her sister Brooke.
May you like
Watching us.
Smiling.
Related Stories
