Chapter 7
I replayed the recording.
Then again.
Claire had known Vanessa.
Years before I believed I met her.
Thomas looked stunned.
“When was this recorded?”
The file date was three weeks before Claire’s cancer diagnosis.
My skin felt cold.
Claire’s voice continued.
“I know Grant is paying you.”
Vanessa answered calmly.
“You think you know everything.”
“I know you approached Daniel at the foundation dinner.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
I remembered that dinner.
Vanessa had introduced herself briefly.
I had forgotten.
Claire had not.
“You stay away from my family,” Claire said.
Vanessa laughed.
“Your family is already falling apart.”
The recording ended.
I sat motionless.
Vanessa had entered my life before Claire died.
Maybe not romantically then.
But she had been watching.
Waiting.
Working with Grant.
Thomas closed the laptop.
“We take this to Detective Alvarez.”
We did.
The police immediately expanded the investigation.
Financial crimes joined the case.
So did the district attorney’s office.
Grant’s lawyer issued a statement calling everything a “vindictive family dispute.”
Vanessa’s attorney claimed she had been manipulated by Grant.
Then the two of them started turning on each other.
It would have been satisfying if Lily were not caught in the middle.
Three days later, the court held an emergency hearing regarding Vanessa’s contact with Lily.
I sat beside Thomas.
Elena sat behind us.
Vanessa entered wearing a conservative gray dress.
She looked nothing like the woman screaming in handcuffs days earlier.
She looked fragile.
That was intentional.
Her lawyer argued that the slap had been an isolated incident.
He described Vanessa as overwhelmed.
He reminded the court that Elena had struck Vanessa afterward.
Then he asked for permission for Vanessa to retrieve personal belongings from my home and maintain limited supervised contact with Lily.
I almost stood up.
Thomas put a hand on my arm.
“Stay calm.”
The prosecutor played the footage.
Then another clip.
Vanessa locking Lily inside Claire’s closet.
The judge’s expression hardened.
Vanessa’s attorney stopped asking for contact.
Then Grant’s name came up.
His lawyer objected from the gallery.
The judge asked why Grant was present.
That was when Thomas handed over Claire’s notebook and the financial evidence.
The hearing changed.
It was no longer only about Vanessa.
The judge ordered that neither Vanessa nor Grant could contact Lily.
Outside the courtroom, reporters surrounded us.
I kept Lily away from the building.
She did not need this spectacle.
Grant did.
He walked toward me through the crowd.
“You think you won?”
I stared at him.
“This is not a game.”
“It always was.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“Grant, walk away.”
Grant ignored him.
“You’ve spent your entire life getting everything.”
I almost laughed.
“My wife died.”
“And everyone still loved you more.”
There it was.
The truth beneath the money.
The lies.
The resentment.
“You stole because Mom loved me more?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because Dad built everything for you.”
Our father had died ten years earlier.
He had divided ownership between us.
But he made me CEO.
Grant never forgave him.
“You had millions,” I said.
“You had control.”
“So you tried to destroy me.”
“I tried to take what should have been mine.”
“You used my daughter.”
His face changed.
Just slightly.
“I never told Vanessa to hit Lily.”
“You told her to make me look unfit.”
“I told her to create pressure.”
“She hurt a child.”
“That was her decision.”
The reporters heard everything.
Grant realized it.
He stepped backward.
Thomas smiled coldly.
“Thank you.”
Grant’s face went pale.
He pushed through the crowd and left.
That evening, a detective came to my house.
Grant had disappeared.
His phone was off.
His passport had been flagged, but police believed he might have access to another identity.
My mother sat in the library listening.
“Where would he go?” Detective Alvarez asked.
Margaret shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
She looked at me.
Then her eyes widened.
“The lake house.”
Claire’s lake house.
The property belonged to Lily’s trust.
Grant knew it was usually empty.
Police left immediately.
I wanted to go.
Alvarez refused.
“You have a daughter upstairs who needs you alive and calm.”
He was right.
I hated him for being right.
At midnight, we got the call.
Grant had been at the lake house.
He was gone when police arrived.
But they found boxes of company records.
Burner phones.
Cash.
And photographs.
Hundreds of photographs.
Pictures of my house.
My office.
Lily’s school.
Elena’s apartment.
My mother’s car.
Grant had been planning for years.
Then Alvarez told me about one final discovery.
A suitcase sat open on the bed.
Inside were clothes, money, and two passports.
One was Grant’s.
The other belonged to Vanessa.
They had planned to run together.
But Vanessa was still in town.
Which meant Grant had abandoned her.
The next morning, Vanessa called me from her attorney’s office.
I almost refused the call.
Then she said six words.
“I know where Grant is going.”
I said nothing.
She continued.
“He left me behind.”
“That sounds like your problem.”
“He’ll leave everyone behind.”
“Tell the police.”
“I will.”
“Then why call me?”
Her voice cracked.
“Because there’s something you don’t know.”
I closed my eyes.
“There is always something I don’t know.”
Vanessa whispered.
“Grant didn’t just follow Claire the night of the crash.”
My chest tightened.
May you like
“What did he do?”
“He hit her car.”
