Chapter 6 - Thomas Had Known Vanessa First
The cassette was converted to digital audio the next morning.
Daniel listened with Eleanor, Vanessa, attorneys, and investigators
present.
Thomas’s voice filled the conference room.
Older.
Tired.
“I’m recording this because written records can be altered.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Thomas explained Laura Reed’s role.
She had discovered illegal payments.
He threatened her.
Eleanor helped contain the scandal.
Then Thomas said something nobody expected.
“Laura was pregnant when she left.”
Vanessa stared.
Her hands began shaking.
“My mother?”
Thomas continued.
“The child was mine.”
Silence.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa looked at him.
For one terrible second, neither breathed.
Then Thomas clarified.
“Laura lost the pregnancy before leaving Connecticut.”
Daniel exhaled sharply.
Vanessa covered her face.
They were not related.
But the revelation remained devastating.
Thomas had had an affair with Laura.
Vanessa had known nothing about it.
Eleanor stood abruptly.
“You liar.”
Thomas’s recorded voice continued.
“Vanessa was already four years old when Laura and I became involved.
She is not my daughter.”
Eleanor slowly sat again.
Daniel stared at his mother.
“You knew about the affair?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you wanted Laura gone.”
Eleanor looked ashamed.
“It was part of it.”
“Part?”
Eleanor began crying.
“Your father told me Laura was blackmailing him.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
That answer silenced the room.
Thomas continued.
Laura had hidden copies of financial records.
Before disappearing, she placed them with a lawyer.
Thomas spent years searching.
Then Laura contacted him again.
She wanted to clear her name.
He agreed to meet.
The date on the recording was one week before Thomas’s death.
Daniel frowned.
“My father died before they met?”
Vanessa looked at Eleanor.
Eleanor did not answer.
Daniel noticed.
“Mom.”
Nothing.
“What happened that week?”
Eleanor’s face changed.
“He met her.”
Vanessa stood.
“You said he didn’t.”
“I lied.”
“Where?”
“Harbor House.”
The rehabilitation center.
The same place in the photograph.
Vanessa stared.
“My mother was there.”
Eleanor nodded.
“She had been living under another name.”
“And Rachel?”
“Worked there.”
Daniel looked at the old photograph.
That explained how Rachel and Vanessa knew each other.
Rachel had helped Vanessa visit Laura secretly.
Daniel asked, “Why was Laura in rehabilitation?”
Eleanor’s voice lowered.
“Because someone had spent years convincing doctors she was unstable.”
Vanessa’s face drained.
“Who?”
Eleanor looked at Daniel.
“Thomas.”
The room went silent.
Daniel understood why his mother had been afraid.
Not only because someone was giving her medication.
Because the same pattern had happened before.
Drugs.
Memory problems.
Claims of confusion.
A woman made to doubt herself while other people controlled the story.
Eleanor whispered, “When Rachel started changing my medicine, I knew
exactly what it looked like.”
Then Vanessa turned toward Rachel’s signed agreement.
“If Rachel knew what happened to my mother, why would she do the same
thing to Eleanor?”
Nobody had an answer.
Until Daniel checked the ledger again.
Rachel Morgan’s name was already inside it.
May you like
Dated thirteen years earlier.
Before Rachel had supposedly ever met the Hart family.
