Chapter 9 - Adrian's Final Secret
Adrian came voluntarily.
No lawyer beside him.
No expensive suit.
He looked at the photograph and closed his eyes.
“What haven't you told me?” I asked.
“One thing.”
“What?”
He stared at the table.
“Vanessa didn't introduce herself to me.”
I waited.
“I approached her.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because I knew she worked with Ellison Global.”
“She never worked for us.”
“I know that now.”
My stomach tightened.
Adrian explained that two years earlier, he had become obsessed with discovering my family's finances.
He suspected my father was richer than I admitted.
Instead of asking me, he hired a private intelligence consultant.
Vanessa.
“She told me your father was Jonathan Ellison.”
I stared at him.
“You knew?”
“Not immediately.”
“How long?”
“About fourteen months.”
Fourteen months.
“You knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“And never told me.”
“I was embarrassed.”
“Why?”
“Because I had investigated my own wife.”
The betrayal landed differently.
He had spent years accusing me of hiding something while secretly researching me.
“Did you marry me because of Dad?”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I didn't know when we married.”
That matched the timeline.
But it didn't excuse anything.
“What did Vanessa promise?”
“Access.”
“To Dad?”
“To investors.”
There it was.
Adrian had kept Vanessa close because he believed she could help him enter my father's financial network.
The affair came later.
Greed opened the door.
Infidelity walked through it.
Then Vanessa took control.
Adrian's voice cracked.
“I thought I was using her.”
“And she was using you.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“I think we're finished.”
“Claire.”
I stopped.
“I loved you before I knew.”
I looked back.
“Maybe.”
His eyes filled.
“But after you knew, you stopped treating me like someone you loved.”
He had no answer.
I left.
Outside, Daniel was waiting.
“They found Vanessa.”
“Where?”
“Airport.”
My pulse jumped.
“Arrested?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“She isn't leaving.”
“What is she doing?”
Daniel looked confused.
“She bought a ticket.”
“To where?”
“Zurich.”
Martin Vale's home.
“But she never went through security.”
“Then where is she?”
“She left the airport twenty minutes ago.”
“Why?”
Daniel showed me surveillance footage.
Vanessa exiting a taxi.
Then entering another vehicle.
The driver turned toward the camera.
Thomas Keane.
The former CFO.
The supposed victim.
I stared.
“No.”
Daniel nodded grimly.
May you like
“We've been trusting the wrong man.”
And suddenly, the only person who claimed to understand Vanessa better than anyone else was driving away with her.
