Chapter 7 - Vanessa Was Never Just the Mistress
Vanessa had not escaped.
She had gone to the restroom with an officer outside.
But when Ruiz questioned her again, Vanessa stopped pretending the affair was the whole story.
“My name isn’t Vanessa Cole.”
Adrian stared at her.
“What?”
She reached into her purse and handed Ruiz a driver’s license.
Vanessa Cole was an alias.
Her legal name was Vanessa Mercer.
Claire knew that name.
“Mercer?”
Marcus did too.
“Eleanor Mercer’s daughter.”
Adrian looked lost.
“Who?”
Claire turned toward him slowly.
“Eleanor was my father’s executive assistant.”
She had died fourteen years earlier in a car accident after leaving Bennett Aerospace.
Vanessa looked at Claire.
“My mother didn’t die in an accident.”
The room changed.
Claire’s first instinct was disbelief.
Her second was memory.
A winter funeral.
Her father standing alone under an umbrella.
Her mother refusing to attend.
Lauren, still a junior analyst then, whispering that Eleanor had been asking questions about missing invoices.
Vanessa continued.
“My mother found evidence that Meridian’s predecessor company was billing Bennett for services that never happened.”
Daniel’s father had owned that predecessor.
Claire sat back.
“You’re saying this started fourteen years ago?”
“I’m saying the theft did.”
Adrian looked at Vanessa as though he had never seen her before.
“You used me.”
Vanessa laughed once.
“You brought me into your marriage because I told you what you wanted to hear.”
“You said you loved me.”
“I said a lot of things.”
Claire almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Ruiz asked Vanessa why she had accessed Meridian’s office.
“To find the original billing records.”
“And the plane?”
“I didn’t touch it.”
“Did you know it was being tampered with?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Yes.”
Claire’s skin went cold.
“And you said nothing?”
“I thought Daniel was going to delay the flight.”
“By disabling a sensor?”
“I didn’t know how far he’d go.”
Claire stood.
“You let my son’s mother walk toward that plane.”
Vanessa’s eyes dropped.
“That’s why I came to the gala.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“With my husband on your arm?”
“It was the only way Daniel thought I belonged there.”
Ruiz leaned forward.
“Daniel knew your identity?”
Vanessa nodded.
“He knew before Adrian did.”
Adrian whispered, “Why would Daniel let you near me?”
“Because he thought I was helping him destroy Claire.”
Vanessa looked directly at Claire.
“I wasn’t.”
She reached into her purse again.
This time she removed a small brass key.
“Your father kept a private archive.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Vanessa placed the key on the table.
“My mother found it before she died.”
“Where?”
“At Bennett Aerospace.”
Marcus looked skeptical.
“We’ve renovated headquarters twice.”
“Not that part.”
Vanessa slid the key toward Claire.
“It opens a storage room behind the original boardroom.”
Claire stared at the key.
Vanessa’s voice dropped.
“My mother believed your father knew who was stealing from the company.”
Claire looked up.
“Then why didn’t he stop it?”
May you like
Vanessa’s answer was barely a whisper.
“Maybe because the person stealing from him was family.”
