Chapter 3 - The Mistress Tries to Run
Vanessa made it almost to the east corridor before Eli noticed her.
“Mom,” he whispered. “She’s leaving.”
Claire followed his gaze.
Vanessa had abandoned all the confidence she’d displayed on Adrian’s arm.
She was moving quickly now, one hand clutching a small silver purse, her eyes fixed on the service exit.
“Marcus.”
He understood immediately.
Two members of venue security intercepted Vanessa before she reached the doors.
She stopped.
“I’m a guest. You can’t detain me.”
Marcus approached without raising his voice.
“No one is detaining you. But the police are already on their way because the recording suggests attempted corporate fraud.”
Vanessa’s face drained.
Adrian came off the stage.
“You called the police?”
Claire looked at him.
“You were planning to remove me from my company tonight.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Then explain the Harbor account.”
He said nothing.
That silence told her more than any confession could have.
The gala had become strangely still.
More than three hundred donors, executives, elected officials, attorneys, and investors were watching one of New York’s most admired business couples come apart beneath crystal chandeliers.
Claire hated every second of it.
But she no longer felt humiliated.
Humiliation had burned away.
What remained was focus.
She knelt beside Eli.
“Sweetheart, I need you to go with Aunt Nora.”
Nora Bennett, Adrian’s older sister, crossed the room at once.
Unlike Adrian, she looked horrified by what she had heard.
Eli shook his head.
“No. I want to stay with you.”
Claire held his face gently.
“You already did the brave part.”
His eyes filled.
“What if Dad lies?”
Claire glanced toward Adrian.
“He probably will.”
Eli frowned.
“That’s not fair.”
“No,” she said. “But truth doesn’t stop being true because somebody lies about it.”
Eli finally let Nora take his hand.
Before he left, he looked back at Claire.
“I copied the recordings.”
Adrian swore under his breath.
Claire’s heart skipped.
“Copied them where?”
“To Grandma’s tablet.”
Everyone turned.
Claire’s mother, Evelyn Hart, stood at a table near the ballroom windows.
She looked startled.
Then frightened.
Too frightened.
Claire noticed.
So did Marcus.
Evelyn lifted both hands.
“I didn’t know.”
Claire wanted to believe her.
She needed to believe someone in the room still belonged to her.
But Marcus leaned closer.
“Ask where the tablet is.”
Claire swallowed.
“Mom. Where is it?”
Evelyn looked toward the coatroom.
“I left it in my bag.”
Nora stopped walking.
“Evelyn,” she said slowly, “you came in carrying that tablet.”
The ballroom seemed to tilt.
Evelyn’s mouth opened.
No sound came out.
Then one of the venue staff hurried from the coatroom.
“Mrs. Bennett?”
Claire turned.
“We found a purse on the floor near the service elevator.”
Evelyn went pale.
The staff member held up a damaged tablet.
May you like
Its screen was shattered.
And the memory card had been removed.
