Chapter 8 - Vanessa Was Supposed to Be Claire’s Witness
Mara arranged the meeting in a hotel conference room with two private security officers outside.
Vanessa arrived alone.
No makeup.
No designer dress.
For the first time Ethan had ever seen, she looked exhausted instead of controlled.
He felt no sympathy.
“You hurt my daughter.”
Vanessa nodded.
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No performance.
“I need you to say it clearly,” Ethan said.
“I pinched her. I grabbed her too hard. I scared her on purpose. I made her practice statements.”
Ethan’s chair scraped backward.
Mara put a hand on his arm.
Vanessa did not move.
“I deserve whatever happens for that.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because Claire didn’t die because I wanted her dead.”
She placed her phone on the table and played an audio file.
Claire’s voice filled the room.
“If I give you the files, can you get me inside Greybridge?”
Vanessa answered, younger and frightened.
“I can try.”
“I need names.”
“You don’t understand my mother.”
“I understand my daughter is being profiled by people I never hired.”
The recording ended.
Ethan stared at Vanessa.
“You were helping her.”
“I was trying to leave Greybridge.”
“What changed?”
“My mother found out.”
Vanessa’s hands tightened.
“She threatened Daniel. His sister. Me. Then Claire died, and I understood what happened to people who made themselves expensive.”
“You married me anyway.”
“I was told to stay close.”
The answer made Ethan sick.
“And Sophie?”
Vanessa looked down.
“At first, observation only. Then the trust deadline got closer. My mother needed a believable unfit-parent file.”
“You could have walked away.”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
Ethan appreciated the lack of excuses almost as much as he hated her.
Vanessa slid a flash drive toward Mara.
“Twelve families. Doctors. evaluators. lawyers. People who make the paperwork look independent.”
Mara picked it up.
“Why give us this?”
“Because Judith is going to burn everything.”
A vehicle horn sounded outside.
Then tires screamed.
One of the security officers shouted.
The wall shook as a black SUV slammed into the parked car directly below the conference-room windows.
Everyone stood.
Vanessa looked through the glass.
Her face went white.
“I know that driver.”
Ethan saw a man crawl from the damaged SUV.
Owen Hale.
Margaret Bennett’s head of security for nineteen years.
---
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
May you like
If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://vibe.treeiq.biz
New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
