Chương 10
“I did. Mine told me not to contact anyone, which usually means they think I’m about to be blamed.”
Emily looked toward the center’s entrance. Daniel had not yet come out.
“Five minutes,” she said.
Claire sighed. “I charge by the tenth of an hour.”
They moved beside Emily’s car.
Vanessa took off her sunglasses. She had slept badly. Concealer had settled beneath her eyes.
“Daniel says I submitted the bank package.”
“Did you?”
“I sent documents his assistant prepared.”
“From his account?”
“He told me to use it.”
“Did you know my authorization was false?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Claire said, “Answer through your attorney.”
“I’m trying to figure out whether Daniel is protecting me or setting me up.”
Emily folded her arms.
Vanessa looked toward the family center. “He said you had agreed to guarantee Ashford but were delaying because you wanted to force him off the board.”
“That was false.”
“I know that now.”
“Did you know then?”
“I knew he didn’t have a signed original.”
“That is not the same question.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened. “I thought married people signed things for each other all the time.”
“No,” Claire said. “They do not.”
“He had a file with her signature. His assistant built the package. I forwarded it.”
“Why from his account?” Emily asked.
“First Continental knew him. They didn’t know me.”
“Did he tell you to send it?”
“He said, ‘Get them what they need.’”
Claire made a note.
Vanessa stared at Emily. “He told me the house would be his after the divorce.”
“He was wrong.”
“He said your trust owed him because he put his career into the estate.”
Emily almost asked what career Daniel had put into Bellweather House. Then she remembered the years he had hosted donors there, introduced himself beneath portraits of Emily’s ancestors, and allowed magazines to photograph him in the library. The estate had given him stature. He had mistaken access for authorship.
“Why did you wear my pearls?” Emily asked.
Vanessa looked away.
“Daniel brought them to my apartment. He said you would notice immediately.”
The honesty surprised Emily.
“So you knew.”
“I knew they were yours.”
“You wanted to hurt me.”
Vanessa’s voice became defensive. “You treated me like staff.”
“You were a consultant.”
“I was the person keeping his company visible while you flew around meeting investors who wouldn’t return his calls.”
“I was doing what he asked.”
“He said you were preparing to take control.”
“And you believed him.”
“I believed what fit.”
The answer held more truth than an apology would have.
Daniel emerged from the building.
When he saw the three women beside Emily’s car, he stopped.
Vanessa put on her sunglasses.
“He asked me last night to sign a statement saying I used his account without permission,” she said quickly. “I haven’t signed it.”
Daniel crossed the parking lot.
“What are you doing?”
Vanessa faced him. “Making sure I don’t go to prison because you’re afraid of losing a company that is already gone.”
His face drained.
“No one said prison,” Claire said sharply. “And this conversation is over.”
Vanessa opened her car door.
Daniel caught the top edge before she could close it. He did not touch her, but his body blocked the door.
“You came here after I told you not to.”
“You don’t tell me anything anymore. You give instructions.”
“You forwarded the package.”
“Because you told me to.”
“I told you to finish the lender file, not create an authorization.”
“Your assistant created it.”
“On your instructions.”
“On yours.”
The argument became fast and ugly. Neither seemed aware of Emily until Janice appeared at the center’s door with Noah and Lily behind her.
Emily moved at once.
“Enough.”
Daniel turned.
Lily saw Vanessa and hid behind Janice.
Vanessa stepped into her car. “Ask him where he was on Tuesday night.”
Daniel slammed his palm against the roof of the convertible.
Vanessa flinched. So did the children.
The sound emptied the parking lot of movement.
Daniel stared at his own hand as if it belonged to someone else.
Janice guided the children back inside.
Emily’s anger became cold.
“You will not do that near them again.”
“I didn’t touch her.”
“You frightened them.”
“She came here to provoke me.”
“You chose what your hand did.”
Daniel looked toward the glass doors. Noah was visible through them, watching.
His shoulders dropped.
“I’m sorry.”
“Tell them. Not now. When you can do it without explaining why it was someone else’s fault.”
Claire opened Emily’s passenger door. “We’re leaving.”
Daniel called after her. “Tuesday night was nothing.”
Emily stopped.
He looked instantly regretful.
“What happened Tuesday night?”
“Nothing.”
Vanessa started her engine.
Emily stepped toward the convertible. “What happened?”
Vanessa lowered the window. “Ask Susan about the wire.”
Then she drove away.
The wire was for eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Susan had discovered it Tuesday night while reconciling project accounts. The money had moved from Ashford Commons reserves to a newly created vendor called Vantage Lifestyle Partners. The approval carried Daniel’s authorization and a secondary approval under Susan’s credentials.
Susan denied approving it.
Vantage Lifestyle Partners had been formed six weeks earlier. Its mailing address matched Vanessa’s branding agency.
Daniel claimed the transfer was a legitimate advance for sales and marketing services.
Vanessa’s original contract was worth ninety thousand dollars.
The additional services existed in a twelve-page amendment signed three days before the transfer. Daniel had signed for Carter Residential. Vanessa had signed for Vantage.
No board approval appeared in the file.
Emily sat in the independent restructuring officer’s temporary office while an auditor described the transaction. The room had previously belonged to Daniel. His photographs remained on the shelves: Daniel with a senator, Daniel cutting ribbons, Daniel beside Emily at a housing award dinner.
One frame had been turned facedown.
May you like
Emily picked it up.
It showed Daniel’s father, Charles, standing outside the company’s first office. The sign behind him had been painted by hand. Charles wore a brown suit and held a Styrofoam coffee cup.
