Chương 5
“That experience made me suspicious.”
Her voice sounded flatter than she intended.
“Sometimes too suspicious.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“Is that why you dressed like this?”
“Partly.”
“What was the other part?”
Margaret met her eyes.
“Three people who worked around you became afraid of you.”
Vanessa went very still.
Ethan frowned.
“What people?”
Margaret did not answer immediately.
Vanessa did.
“The driver.”
Ethan looked at her.
Vanessa stared at the carpet.
“And Melissa.”
Margaret felt something tighten in her chest.
She had known about the driver.
She had known about the housekeeper.
Melissa was new.
“Who is Melissa?” Ethan asked.
Vanessa’s silence lasted too long.
Ethan came away from the fireplace.
“Vanessa.”
“She worked for your foundation.”
“Worked?”
“Until April.”
Ethan’s face changed.
“What happened in April?”
Vanessa crushed the tissue between both hands.
“I asked her to resign.”
“You don’t run the foundation.”
“No.”
“Then how did you ask her to resign?”
Vanessa looked at Margaret, and suddenly the hose on the lawn no longer felt like the worst thing they were going to discuss that night.
Ethan did not sit down.
“Tell me.”
Vanessa pressed the tissue against her palm until it tore.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Margaret watched her carefully.
People often began with those words when the facts were already bad.
Ethan’s voice stayed quiet.
“Then tell me what it was like.”
Vanessa looked toward the library door as if measuring the distance to it.
“Melissa had access to donor files.”
“So?”
“She was careless.”
“With what?”
“Names, schedules, event lists.”
Ethan frowned.
“She worked in development.”
“I know what she did.”
“Then what exactly did she do wrong?”
Vanessa drew in a breath.
“She sent me something by mistake.”
Margaret glanced at Ethan.
He was watching Vanessa with the same stillness he used when someone across a conference table had changed a number without explaining why.
“What did she send you?” he asked.
“A spreadsheet.”
“What spreadsheet?”
“Donor notes.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“Those aren’t supposed to go outside the foundation.”
“I didn’t ask her to send it.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Vanessa stood suddenly.
“I said she was careless.”
“And you asked her to resign because she accidentally emailed you an internal spreadsheet?”
Vanessa crossed the room and stopped beside the window.
Outside, workers were beginning to clear abandoned glasses from the lawn.
The engagement party looked smaller from inside.
Tables.
Flowers.
Wet grass.
A hose curled near the shrubs like something forgotten after yard work.
“She had notes about me,” Vanessa said.
Ethan blinked.
“What kind of notes?”
Vanessa did not answer.
Margaret felt the shape of the conversation change.
This was no longer about a woman bullying an employee.
It was about fear.
“Vanessa,” Margaret said.
Vanessa turned.
For once, there was no polish left in her face.
“She had written that I was influencing donor access.”
Ethan’s brow tightened.
“Were you?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Margaret saw Ethan hear it.
He moved to the desk and placed both hands on the edge.
“What does influencing donor access mean?”
“I introduced people.”
“To whom?”
“To you.”
“That is not donor access.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“She made it sound like I was trading introductions for favors.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Were you?”
“No.”
This time the answer was slower.
“What favors?”
“Nothing illegal.”
Margaret closed her eyes briefly.
Ethan looked at the ceiling.
“That is an extraordinary way to answer that question.”
Vanessa flinched.
“I mean dinners.”
“Dinners.”
“Invitations.”
“To what?”
“Private events.”
“Mine?”
“Ours.”
Ethan straightened.
“There is no ours in the foundation.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“There was going to be.”
“No.”
His voice sharpened.
“You were going to marry me.”
He pointed toward the floor.
“You were not going to inherit every institution I work with.”
Margaret felt a small, ugly flicker of relief.
She hated herself for it immediately.
A mother could love her son and still be pleased when he finally said the thing she had wanted him to say for months.
Vanessa stared at Ethan.
“I helped you.”
“I never asked you to.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“That doesn’t make it yours.”
The words landed harder than either of them seemed to expect.
Vanessa’s shoulders dropped.
For a moment she looked less angry than wounded.
Margaret saw the injury beneath the arrogance then.
Vanessa had not only wanted Ethan.
She had wanted entry.
Belonging.
Recognition.
Maybe safety.
Maybe proof that the world finally had to treat her as someone important.
Margaret knew that hunger.
She simply disliked what Vanessa had done with it.
“What favors?” Ethan asked again.
Vanessa sat down.
“There were people who wanted invitations to events.”
“What people?”
“Business people.”
“That is not an answer.”
“People who wanted to meet you.”
“Names.”
Vanessa rubbed both palms against her dress.
“Calvin Ross.”
Ethan’s face changed.
Margaret recognized the name.
Ross owned a regional chain of rehabilitation clinics and had spent two years trying to get Ethan’s investment group into a healthcare real estate deal.
Ethan had declined twice.
“Who else?”
“Andrew Pike.”
Ethan exhaled through his nose.
“Jesus.”
Margaret knew that name too.
Pike had appeared at a museum dinner the previous winter and somehow spent twenty minutes beside Ethan despite not being on the guest list.
At the time, Vanessa had laughed it off as a seating mistake.
“Who else?”
Vanessa looked down.
“Two or three others.”
“Two or three is not a number people forget.”
“I don’t remember right now.”
“You remember.”
“I’m tired.”
“So am I.”
Margaret said nothing.
She was beginning to understand why Melissa had frightened Vanessa.
Not because the employee had discovered a crime.
Because she had noticed a pattern.
Ethan picked up his phone.
“Where is Melissa now?”
Vanessa’s head lifted.
“You cannot call her.”
“Why not?”
“Because she signed something.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What did she sign?”
“A separation agreement.”
“You said you asked her to resign.”
“She did resign.”
“Who gave her a separation agreement?”
Vanessa hesitated.
May you like
Margaret stood.
Her damp trousers clung unpleasantly behind her knees.
