Chapter 5 - THE EMAIL HE WISHED HE HAD NEVER SENT
Daniel found the email at 11:42 that night.
Seven months earlier.
From him to Vanessa.
Subject: RIVERLINE PARCELS.
He had written it after a disastrous board meeting in which investors threatened to withdraw if the project schedule slipped.
We need control of the western side before Q3.
I don’t want another six-month holdout situation.
Use Northcross. Push hard. Stay legal. I don’t need details unless something breaks.
Daniel read the final sentence five times.
I don’t need details unless something breaks.
Something had broken.
Not a contract.
Not a zoning application.
His father’s cheek.
Daniel sat alone in the kitchen of his condominium while Charlotte glittered through the windows.
Vanessa arrived shortly after midnight.
“You found it.”
He held up the phone.
“You saved this?”
“It’s an email.”
“I meant the way you quoted it today.”
“I knew eventually you’d try to make this all mine.”
Daniel laughed once.
“You slapped him.”
“Yes.”
No excuse this time.
Just yes.
“And that was disgusting,” Vanessa said. “I shouldn’t have done it.”
“But?”
“But don’t turn yourself into some working-class saint because you suddenly remembered where you came from.”
Daniel looked at her.
Vanessa continued.
“You wanted Riverline closed fast.”
“I said stay legal.”
“And we did.”
“That’s going to be reviewed.”
“Fine.”
She took off her earrings and placed them on the counter.
“You know what your problem is?”
Daniel waited.
“You like the story where your father sacrificed and you succeeded because it makes you look noble.”
“That’s not—”
“But when he actually shows up looking like where you came from, you hide him.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
Vanessa saw she had hit the right place.
“You never introduced us.”
“We’ve been together eleven months.”
“You told me he hated formal dinners.”
“He does.”
“You told me he was private.”
“He is.”
“You never said he cleans floors at your hotel twice a week.”
Daniel looked away.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“You made him invisible before I ever treated him that way.”
Daniel hated her for saying it.
He hated himself because part of it was true.
The next morning, the company’s preliminary review found that Northcross had operated within a broad acquisition mandate approved by Vanessa.
But the aggressive homeowner contacts were not all vendor improvisation.
Several weekly progress reports had been sent directly to Vanessa.
She had praised the team for “increasing pressure.”
Daniel read the line.
Then another.
KEEP HEAT ON REMAINING HOLDOUTS.
Walter’s address appeared three rows below.
Daniel immediately called him.
Walter listened without interrupting.
When Daniel finished, he said, “So she knew.”
“Yes.”
“Did she know it was my house?”
Daniel looked at the spreadsheet again.
The owner name read Walter Reed.
The answer seemed obvious.
Until Daniel remembered something worse.
Vanessa had never met Walter.
May you like
But she knew Daniel’s father’s name.
She had known it for almost a year.
