Chương 5
Nathan sat down.
She was alive.
That was the first good thing that happened.
It did not feel good.
Rosa had a skull fracture, a concussion, and a broken wrist. She had been confused on arrival and gave staff only her first name before losing consciousness. Her identification was not with her.
Harper asked who could have driven her.
Ethan, brought back into the kitchen only after the child-services worker arrived, said Vanessa had changed clothes before she returned to the basement the second time.
The old camera showed the same thing.
At 2:13 Vanessa wore dark flats and a cream blouse.
At 2:27 she wore the black dress she still had on.
Between those timestamps, something had happened outside the camera’s view.
Nathan thought of the stain on her sleeve.
He looked toward the dining room.
Vanessa was gone from the chair.
For one second his body reacted before his mind did.
“Where is she?”
An officer near the foyer said, “With counsel in the library.”
Nathan walked there.
Laura caught up with him.
“Nathan.”
He kept going.
“Nathan.”
He stopped at the library door.
Vanessa sat on the sofa. Her attorney, Richard Haines, stood beside the fireplace holding her phone in a sealed evidence pouch he had apparently convinced an officer to preserve on the table rather than seize immediately pending process.
Vanessa looked exhausted.
Not terrified now.
Not dominant.
Exhausted.
Nathan found that harder to look at.
Haines stepped between them.
“This is not a good idea.”
Nathan ignored him.
“Rosa is alive.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Her shoulders dropped.
Relief crossed her face.
Real relief.
Nathan hated that too.
“She’s alive,” he repeated.
Vanessa whispered, “Thank God.”
“Did you take her to the hospital?”
Haines said, “Do not answer that.”
Vanessa looked at Nathan.
“I couldn’t leave her.”
“You left the kids.”
“I was coming back.”
“To do what?”
“Nathan.”
“To do what?”
Haines moved closer.
“Mr. Cole, my client is not discussing this.”
Nathan laughed.
It surprised him.
Nothing was funny.
The sound made Vanessa flinch.
“You drove an unconscious woman to a hospital, left her without identification, came home, changed clothes, locked my children underground and told me they were in Connecticut.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“I panicked.”
“Where is the blue folder?”
Haines looked at her.
That was enough.
Nathan saw it.
Vanessa had told her lawyer many things.
Not that.
“What blue folder?” Haines asked.
Nathan almost smiled.
Vanessa stood.
“Get out.”
“It was what Rosa was holding.”
“Nathan.”
“She said you couldn’t keep doing something.”
“Get out of the room.”
“What was in it?”
Haines said, “This conversation is over.”
Nathan stared at Vanessa for another second.
Then he left.
He did not slam the door.
That mattered to him for reasons he could not explain.
At 11:34 p.m., police told Vanessa she was being taken to the station while investigators consulted with prosecutors about what had occurred. Haines objected to nearly every word used to describe the process. Nathan did not follow the legal argument closely.
Sophie had fallen asleep on his lap.
Ethan had not.
He watched Vanessa walk through the foyer between two officers.
Her coat had been brought from the closet.
At the front doors, she stopped.
Nathan thought she would look at him.
She looked at Sophie.
Her expression broke.
Only for a moment.
“Sophie.”
Sophie woke at the sound of her name.
She saw Vanessa.
Her small body became rigid.
Vanessa noticed.
Whatever she had been about to say disappeared.
She lowered her head and walked outside.
Ethan waited until the doors shut.
Then he asked, “Is she coming back?”
Nathan looked at his son.
“I don’t know.”
It was the first promise he kept.
He did not tell Ethan no.
He did not tell him everything was safe.
He did not say nothing bad could happen now.
He simply said, “I don’t know. But you and Sophie aren’t going anywhere without me knowing about it. Tonight you stay with me.”
“Where?”
Nathan looked around the mansion.
The answer should have been obvious.
Home.
Instead he said, “Anywhere you want.”
Ethan considered it.
“Not here.”
They spent the night at Laura’s apartment.
It was not designed for children, which turned out to be useful.
There were no guest rooms prepared with cheerful blankets. No household staff. No spaces connected to Vanessa.
Laura gave Ethan her bedroom and made up the office sofa for Sophie. Nathan slept on the floor between them because Sophie would not close the office door.
At 3:20 in the morning Ethan whispered, “Dad?”
Nathan opened his eyes.
“Yeah.”
“Rosa told you before.”
Nathan pushed himself onto one elbow.
“Told me what?”
“That Vanessa was taking money.”
Nathan did not move.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ethan.”
“Months ago.”
“How do you know?”
“I heard them arguing.”
“Rosa and Vanessa?”
“No. You and Rosa.”
Nathan searched his memory.
Nothing.
Then something surfaced.
Not an argument.
A conversation in his home office in September.
Rosa had stood near the door holding invoices. Nathan had been on a call with the Singapore team, trying to close a hotel acquisition. She had said several event expenses did not make sense.
He had told her to send them to accounting.
She had said accounting had already approved them.
He had said then they were approved.
Rosa had hesitated.
“Mr. Cole, I think you should look yourself.”
Nathan had been irritated.
Vanessa chaired the family foundation’s annual education benefit. She overspent every year. Nathan considered it annoying but harmless.
He had said, “If Vanessa ordered it, it’s fine.”
Rosa had not moved.
“I’m not sure it is.”
Nathan had muted the call.
“Rosa, I’m in the middle of something.”
The memory ended there because at the time nothing about it had felt important enough to store.
On the office sofa, Sophie shifted in her sleep.
Ethan whispered, “You got mad at her.”
Nathan sat up.
“I did.”
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“She told me later it was okay.”
Nathan rubbed a hand over his face.
