Chapter 12 - THE SISTER WHO KNEW
Vanessa’s attorney sat beside her in the interview room.
She had changed out of her dinner clothes, but Daniel could still see the woman who had stood over Lily and called her a liar.
He watched only the portion of the recorded interview Reyes later cleared him to see.
Vanessa spoke softly.
“Marcus said we needed the documents before Claire showed Daniel.”
Reyes asked, “How did you know she had found them?”
“I saw her coming out of the storage room last week.”
“And you told Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vanessa pressed a tissue between her palms.
“He said our father could lose everything.”
“What did that have to do with you?”
A pause.
“Our father pays my expenses.”
Reyes waited.
“And Marcus told me Daniel would leave if he learned why I’d gotten close to him.”
Daniel stopped the recording.
For a moment, Rachel thought he was done.
Then he said, “Play it.”
Vanessa looked smaller on the screen.
Not harmless.
Just stripped of the room she usually controlled.
“My father wanted me to keep an eye on the house.”
“Before you married Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Before his divorce?”
Vanessa didn’t answer.
Reyes repeated the question.
“Yes.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
There it was.
Not every failure in his marriage. Not every cruel thing he had said. Those belonged to him.
But the patient encouragement. The convenient misunderstandings. The woman who always seemed to know exactly when he was lonely.
Warren had put her there.
Reyes asked about Claire.
“We only meant to scare her into signing.”
“Signing what?”
“A statement saying she took confidential records and misunderstood them.”
“Why restrain her?”
“She tried to leave.”
“And Lily?”
Vanessa started crying.
“I lost my temper.”
Reyes let the silence stretch.
Finally she asked, “Did your father instruct you to hurt the child?”
“No.”
“Did Marcus?”
“No.”
“So that was your choice.”
Vanessa covered her face.
Daniel stood and walked out before the recording ended.
In the hallway, he braced both hands against the wall.
Claire found him there.
“She was sent,” he said.
Claire nodded slowly.
“That explains her.”
He looked up.
“It doesn’t explain me.”
“No,” Claire said. “It doesn’t.”
His eyes filled.
“I know.”
For the first time, she didn’t move away.
She stood beside him until he could breathe normally.
Then Reyes approached.
“Marcus is cooperating too,” she said.
Daniel straightened.
“He’s giving us the messages.”
May you like
“What messages?”
“The ones telling him what to do if Claire refused.”
