Chapter 4 - The Mistress’s Real Name
Vanessa looked smaller without the burgundy dress.
She sat behind reinforced glass wearing county-issued clothing, her blonde hair tied back, her face stripped of makeup.
But her eyes were the same.
Defiant.
She picked up the telephone.
I picked up mine.
“You came.”
“Talk.”
She smiled faintly.
“You always were efficient.”
“You don’t know me.”
“I know more about you than Daniel does.”
I refused to react.
“Your name is Vanessa Voss.”
The smile disappeared.
“So you found the photograph.”
“My father kept records.”
“Your father kept everything.”
“Where is Charles?”
For the first time, genuine emotion crossed her face.
“I don’t know.”
“Your father disappears after stealing from Carter Development, you change your surname, join the same company, sleep with its CEO, and now you expect me to believe you don’t know where he is?”
“He didn’t steal it.”
“Then who did?”
Vanessa leaned toward the glass.
“Ask Daniel.”
My stomach tightened.
“You said Daniel wasn’t the one.”
“I said he wasn’t the one stealing money back then.”
“Back then?”
She smiled again.
I hated that smile.
“Daniel learned.”
I waited.
Vanessa told me her version.
Charles Voss had discovered an internal kickback operation run through several contractors.
He intended to expose it.
Before he could, the records were altered to make him appear responsible.
He fled because he believed he would be arrested.
“Who framed him?”
“Your father knew.”
“My father thought Charles stole the money.”
“No. Richard Hale discovered the truth later.”
“Then why didn’t he clear him?”
“Because by then exposing everything would have destroyed Carter Development—and your husband along with it.”
I stared at her.
“Who was responsible?”
Vanessa’s voice dropped.
“Daniel’s father.”
I almost laughed.
Thomas Carter had died fifteen years earlier.
“That’s impossible.”
“No. It’s inconvenient.”
She claimed Thomas Carter had used company projects to conceal bribes and illegal payments. Charles discovered them.
Daniel inherited the company without understanding the full scheme.
My father discovered enough to know Thomas had been responsible—but after Thomas died, Richard chose to stabilize the company rather than destroy Daniel for his father’s crimes.
“Why?”
“Because of you.”
That landed harder than I expected.
“Your father knew you loved Daniel.”
I remembered Dad at my wedding.
His hand shaking slightly when he gave me away.
“You’re lying.”
“Probably about some things.”
Vanessa’s bluntness surprised me.
“But not that.”
“And the ledger?”
“My father kept the original.”
“Where?”
“I’ll tell you after you get me released.”
“No.”
Her face hardened.
“You think you have leverage?”
“I’m the woman you assaulted on camera.”
Vanessa leaned closer.
“You’re also the woman whose signature Daniel forged.”
“Did Daniel forge it?”
Silence.
That was my answer.
“You did.”
Her eyes flickered.
“You forged my signature.”
“I prepared documents.”
“And witnessed them.”
“Daniel knew.”
“Did he?”
She looked away.
I suddenly understood.
Daniel had authorized something.
But perhaps he hadn’t known exactly what Vanessa submitted.
That didn’t absolve him.
It simply rearranged the guilt.
“Why cut my hair?”
For the first time, Vanessa looked ashamed.
“I lost control.”
“That’s convenient.”
“I hated you.”
“You didn’t know me.”
“I knew what you represented.”
“My father?”
“Everything my family lost.”
I put down the phone.
Vanessa grabbed hers tighter.
“Wait.”
I lifted mine again.
“You have thirty seconds.”
“The ledger is in a safe-deposit box.”
“Where?”
“My attorney has the key.”
“Name.”
She hesitated.
“Vanessa.”
“Michael Trent.”
David, sitting behind me, immediately wrote the name down.
Vanessa continued.
“But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Daniel is not selling Riverside because he needs money.”
“Then why?”
“He’s buying something.”
“What?”
“Silence.”
I stared at her.
Vanessa smiled bitterly.
“He found evidence that could connect his father’s old network to people who are still powerful. Riverside contains the paper trail. The buyer promised to bury it.”
“Who is the buyer?”
Before Vanessa answered, the guard approached.
Time.
She leaned close to the glass.
“Ask Daniel why the buyer offered him sixty million dollars more than Riverside is worth.”
The line disconnected.
I remained seated.
David touched my shoulder.
“We need to find Michael Trent.”
We did.
Two hours later, we learned he was dead.
A hit-and-run.
May you like
Three days earlier.
And the safe-deposit key Vanessa claimed he possessed had vanished.
