Chapter 3 - The Mistress Had Her Own Plan
Vanessa was gone.
By the time Dominic opened the salon doors, the place where she had been waiting was empty.
Her champagne glass remained on a side table.
Her coat was gone.
So was her phone.
Dominic called her.
Straight to voicemail.
Again.
Voicemail.
Evelyn watched him from several feet away.
"She left you."
"Not now."
"Interesting feeling, isn't it?"
Dominic looked at her.
The remark landed.
He deserved it.
And for once, he knew it.
Gabriel's security specialist arrived ten minutes later.
The attempted authorization transfer had originated from a Vale Holdings executive account.
Vanessa's.
But that didn't necessarily mean Vanessa had submitted it.
Dominic's chief legal officer explained that executive credentials could theoretically be compromised.
Dominic wasn't interested in theories.
He called his security director.
"Lock her corporate access."
"Already doing it."
"Find her."
Evelyn folded her arms.
"No."
Dominic turned.
"What?"
"You're not dragging her back here like a criminal."
"She tried to take control of your trust."
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"You lied to me for eight years. Gabriel appeared three hours ago. Your mother has been dead for six years. Now someone has used Vanessa's account. Forgive me if I've stopped accepting the first explanation powerful men hand me."
Gabriel smiled faintly.
Dominic noticed.
"You find this amusing?"
"No. I find your wife impressive."
Something ugly flickered across Dominic's expression.
Jealousy.
Evelyn almost couldn't believe it.
He had brought Vanessa publicly to the gala, yet the idea of another man admiring Evelyn irritated him.
Gabriel noticed too.
"Don't," he said.
Dominic's gaze hardened.
"Don't what?"
"Confuse respect with whatever story your pride needs."
Evelyn interrupted.
"Both of you stop."
They did.
That surprised her.
"Nobody makes another decision concerning my trust without asking me first."
Dominic started to speak.
She raised one finger.
"Especially you."
His mouth closed.
"Gabriel, can the transfer be stopped?"
"It already has been."
"Good. Then we find Vanessa and ask what happened."
Dominic's phone rang.
Vanessa.
He answered immediately.
"Where are you?"
Her voice shook.
"Dominic, someone used my account."
"Where are you?"
"Parking garage."
"Stay there."
"No."
"Vanessa—"
"They're going to blame me."
"Who?"
A pause.
Then she whispered, "Marcus Bell."
Dominic went completely still.
Gabriel's expression changed.
Evelyn noticed both.
"Who is Marcus Bell?"
Neither answered.
"Dominic."
He exhaled.
"My chief financial officer."
"No," Gabriel said. "Tell her the rest."
Dominic looked irritated.
Gabriel continued.
"Marcus Bell was Victor Vale's protégé."
Dominic's father's.
Evelyn suddenly understood.
This wasn't about an affair anymore.
Maybe it never had been.
They found Vanessa twenty minutes later inside Gabriel's armored sedan in the underground garage.
She looked nothing like the glamorous woman who had entered the gala.
Her hands shook.
Mascara had smudged beneath one eye.
When Evelyn entered the car, Vanessa stared at her.
"I didn't know."
Evelyn sat opposite her.
"About what?"
"The trust."
"Then why was your account used?"
Vanessa looked at Dominic.
"Because Marcus has my credentials."
Dominic's voice hardened.
"Why?"
"He told me the restructuring team needed temporary executive authorization."
"And you gave him your password?"
"He had IT install an authentication profile."
Dominic swore under his breath.
Vanessa's eyes filled.
"I thought it was normal."
"You are a vice president."
"Of public relations, Dominic! Not corporate finance."
He fell silent.
Vanessa turned toward Evelyn.
"I knew about the divorce."
Evelyn's expression didn't change.
"I assumed."
"I knew Dominic planned to announce our relationship."
That hurt more than Evelyn wanted it to.
"But I didn't know he hadn't told you yet."
Dominic looked toward Vanessa.
"You knew enough."
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
"Don't suddenly discover morality because your wife walked in with Gabriel Cross."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
She continued.
"You told me your marriage had been over for years."
Evelyn looked at him.
Dominic didn't deny it.
Vanessa shook her head.
"You told me Evelyn wanted privacy. That she knew everything."
"I never said everything."
"You said enough to make me believe what I wanted."
That sentence silenced the car.
Because everyone there understood it applied to more than Vanessa.
Dominic had spent years giving people precisely enough truth to make his preferred version believable.
Evelyn finally asked, "Why Marcus?"
Vanessa took a shaky breath.
"Because the restructuring isn't what Dominic thinks it is."
Dominic leaned forward.
"Explain."
"Three weeks ago Marcus asked my department to prepare two announcement packages."
"What packages?"
"One if the restructuring passed."
"And the other?"
Vanessa looked at Evelyn.
"One if Dominic was removed as CEO."
Silence.
Dominic's expression turned stone cold.
"Removed by whom?"
"The board."
"They don't have the votes."
"They would if the Mercer Trust authorization transferred."
Gabriel nodded slowly.
Now the pieces fit.
Someone wanted Evelyn's voting rights.
Not merely money.
Control.
Dominic asked, "Why would Marcus use Vanessa's account?"
"Because if discovered," Gabriel said, "it looks like your mistress tried to manipulate your wife's assets."
A perfect scandal.
Dominic publicly humiliates his wife.
His mistress steals from her.
The board loses confidence.
Dominic loses control.
Marcus steps in.
Evelyn stared through the tinted glass.
All evening she had believed she was witnessing the collapse of her marriage.
Now she realized someone else had been waiting for that marriage to collapse.
Someone had planned around it.
Used it.
Perhaps even encouraged it.
"Vanessa," Evelyn said slowly, "when did you first meet Dominic?"
"About eighteen months ago."
"How?"
Vanessa hesitated.
"Marcus introduced us."
Dominic's head turned sharply.
"What?"
"At the Lakeshore Foundation dinner."
"You told me Natalie from communications introduced us."
"Marcus asked Natalie to."
Dominic leaned back.
For the first time, Evelyn saw the whole structure of his arrogance turn against him.
Marcus hadn't created Dominic's affair.
Dominic had made that choice himself.
But perhaps Marcus had seen the weakness.
And placed temptation directly beside it.
Gabriel said quietly, "A good strategist doesn't create someone's flaw. He simply gives it somewhere convenient to go."
Dominic stared at him.
"I know how strategy works."
"Apparently Marcus knows better."
Dominic ignored the insult.
"We need evidence."
Vanessa reached into her clutch.
"I have some."
She removed a small flash drive.
Dominic stared.
"What is that?"
"Copies of the second communications package and emails Marcus told me to delete."
"Why did you keep them?"
Vanessa looked down.
"Because two weeks ago I realized something."
"What?"
"If Marcus succeeded, Dominic wasn't the only person he planned to destroy."
She looked at Evelyn.
"He was going to blame everything on me."
Gabriel took the drive.
"We'll inspect this somewhere secure."
Dominic's penthouse was rejected immediately.
So was Vale Holdings.
Gabriel suggested his office.
Evelyn agreed.
Dominic didn't like it.
Nobody asked.
Forty minutes later, they stood on the fifty-sixth floor of Cross Capital.
A cybersecurity specialist examined the drive.
There were emails.
Draft statements.
Board correspondence.
And one encrypted folder.
After several minutes, the specialist opened it.
Inside were scanned documents dating back more than twenty years.
Thomas Mercer's name appeared repeatedly.
Evelyn moved closer.
Then she saw something that made her stop.
A photograph.
Her father.
Younger.
Standing beside Margaret Vale.
And beside them—
Victor Vale.
Dominic's father.
On the back was a handwritten date.
October 18, 2003.
Below it:
The agreement that saved Dominic.
Evelyn looked at her husband.
"What does that mean?"
Dominic stared at the photograph.
"I don't know."
Gabriel did.
His face had gone pale.
"Gabriel?"
He took the photograph from her.
"Your father didn't only save Vale Maritime."
"What else did he save?"
Gabriel looked at Dominic.
"Your life."
Dominic frowned.
Gabriel turned the photograph over again.
"October eighteenth, 2003."
Then he looked directly at Evelyn.
"That was the night your father took responsibility for something Dominic had done."
May you like
And suddenly, for the first time all evening, Dominic Vale looked genuinely terrified of the past.
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