Chapter 2
Daniel stared at his daughter.
“What did she take?”
Lily pressed herself against Elena.
“I don’t know. It was a big yellow envelope.”
Vanessa’s fear vanished behind a cold smile.
“She had a nightmare. She doesn’t know what she saw.”
“I wasn’t sleeping,” Lily said. “I was looking for Elena.”
Daniel rushed into his office.
The police followed him.
Behind a framed photograph of his late wife was a wall safe.
He entered the code.
The door opened.
Several folders remained inside, but one shelf was empty.
Daniel’s hands began to shake.
“The trust documents are gone.”
“What trust documents?” the officer asked.
“My late wife created a trust for Lily. It includes company shares, property, and her inheritance.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“You gave me access to this house. That doesn’t make me a thief.”
“I never gave you the safe code.”
“You entered it while I was standing nearby.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“So you admit opening it?”
Vanessa realized her mistake.
“I didn’t say that.”
The officer asked permission to search her belongings.
Vanessa refused.
“You have no warrant.”
Daniel looked at the security chief.
“Check every camera from last night.”
They returned to the monitor.
At 1:13 a.m., the footage showed Vanessa entering Daniel’s office.
Nine minutes later, she left carrying a large envelope beneath her robe.
Another camera showed her entering the guest bedroom.
But there was no footage of her leaving it.
Daniel hurried upstairs.
The guest room looked untouched.
He searched the closet, dresser, and bathroom.
Nothing.
Elena entered and noticed a faint line in the carpet beneath the bed.
“Someone moved this.”
Daniel and a security guard lifted the bed frame.
A loose floor panel sat underneath it.
Daniel pulled it open.
The compartment was empty.
Vanessa laughed from the doorway.
“You found nothing.”
Daniel looked at the dust inside the compartment.
A fresh rectangular mark showed that something had recently been stored there.
“You hid the envelope here,” he said. “Where is it now?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lily suddenly pointed at Vanessa’s phone.
“She took a picture of every page.”
The officer asked Vanessa to surrender the phone.
She held it against her chest.
“You can’t take my property.”
“We can preserve it as evidence while we seek a warrant,” he said.
Vanessa stepped backward.
Then she threw the phone against the wall.
It cracked and fell to the floor.
Everyone stared at her.
The officer immediately detained her.
“You just destroyed potential evidence.”
“It was my phone!”
Daniel picked up the damaged device.
The screen was broken, but the phone was still powered on.
A message appeared.
TRANSFER CONFIRMED.
Daniel tapped the notification.
The banking app demanded a password.
His stomach tightened.
“What did you transfer?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Daniel ran downstairs and checked his accounts.
The family trust was secure.
His personal accounts appeared normal.
Then he opened the business account used for household expenses.
Eight hundred thousand dollars was missing.
The money had been sent to a company named Holloway Consulting.
Daniel searched the name.
The company had been formed only six weeks earlier.
Its registered manager was Vanessa’s brother, Marcus Reed.
Daniel looked at her.
“You stole eight hundred thousand dollars.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears, but they looked practiced.
“I borrowed it.”
“You stole it.”
“I was going to replace it.”
“With what?”
She didn’t answer.
Lily took Elena’s hand.
“Is Vanessa going away?”
Vanessa snapped her head toward the child.
“This is your fault.”
Elena moved Lily behind her.
“Do not speak to her.”
Vanessa struggled against the officer holding her.
“You think you won, Elena? You have no idea what you’ve done.”
The officers led her outside.
Daniel watched through the window as Vanessa was placed in a patrol car.
He should have felt relieved.
Instead, he felt sick.
He had invited that woman into Lily’s life.
He had almost married her.
Elena touched his shoulder.
“We should change every lock and every password.”
Daniel nodded.
Then his computer rang.
It was a video call from Marcus.
Daniel answered.
Vanessa’s brother appeared on the screen.
He was standing inside an empty warehouse.
The stolen trust envelope lay on a table behind him.
“You had my sister arrested,” Marcus said.
Daniel leaned closer.
May you like
“You have Lily’s documents.”
“Yes. And unless Vanessa walks free tonight, those documents will be used to take your daughter away from you.”
