Chapter 4 - Daniel Stops Asking His Wife to Explain
Vanessa asked to speak privately.
Daniel refused.
They sat in the mansion library with Rebecca and Mark present.
Lily was asleep upstairs.
Vanessa kept touching the red mark on her cheek.
Daniel hated seeing it.
He also hated knowing exactly why it was there.
He had struck his wife.
Whatever she had done afterward did not erase that.
“I shouldn’t have slapped you,” he said.
Vanessa looked surprised.
“I mean that.”
Rebecca watched him carefully.
Daniel continued.
“But you restrained Lily and locked Rebecca in a room. I’m not going to let my actions become an excuse for yours.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“You think I wanted this?”
“I don’t know what you wanted.”
“I wanted to protect you.”
Rebecca scoffed.
Vanessa snapped toward her.
“You have no idea what your father left behind.”
“Our father,” Rebecca said.
Vanessa looked back at Daniel.
“Walter’s company was collapsing before he died.”
Daniel frowned.
“That’s not true.”
“You were twenty-nine. You weren’t looking at cash flow.”
“I was vice president.”
“In title.”
The insult landed because it contained some truth.
Walter Carter had kept authority close.
Daniel had believed that meant strength.
Vanessa continued.
“He was moving money everywhere. Delaying vendors. Borrowing against property. Using one entity to cover another.”
Daniel looked at Rebecca.
She was listening now.
“Where did you learn this?”
Vanessa nodded toward the hidden room.
“Those ledgers.”
Daniel’s anger shifted.
“You found them during the renovation.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
“And you told no one.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Vanessa’s voice broke.
“Because by then you had rebuilt the company’s reputation. We had Lily. You’d just refinanced two divisions. If those records came out, every old transaction would be examined.”
“That still doesn’t explain forged signatures.”
“I didn’t forge them.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“Who did?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel watched her.
For eight years of marriage, Vanessa had been many things.
Controlling.
Status-conscious.
Terrified of appearing weak.
But she was rarely sloppy.
If she truly knew nothing, she would have said so clearly.
Instead she kept giving partial answers.
Daniel stood.
“I’m calling company counsel tomorrow.”
Vanessa shot to her feet.
“No.”
Rebecca looked at her.
There it was again.
Fear.
Daniel said, “We preserve everything. Nobody removes a box. Nobody contacts the old accounting staff without counsel.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“And us?”
Daniel hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
That hurt her.
He saw it.
But it was the first honest answer he had given all night.
Later, Daniel returned alone to the hidden room.
One shelf held nothing but empty dust outlines.
Boxes had recently been removed.
He found a handwritten inventory card on the floor.
Fourteen archive boxes had once been stored there.
Only eleven remained.
May you like
Someone had taken three.
And Vanessa had never mentioned them.
