Chapter 11 - PATRICIA’S PLAN
Vanessa stared at the screen.
“Mom doesn’t handle Dad’s business,” she said.
Daniel pulled up another filing. Patricia had signed it herself. The company had been formed eight months earlier, long before George showed Ethan the option agreement.
“You knew nothing about this?” Ethan asked her.
“No.”
I believed her surprise. That did not erase what she had done, but it changed what we knew about the deal.
Patricia called Vanessa while we were still sitting there. Vanessa let it ring. Then a message appeared.
Come home. Your father is upset.
A second followed.
Do not sign anything for Helen.
Vanessa handed the phone to her attorney. “I think she knows where I am.”
Her attorney advised her not to answer. Nora asked if she could preserve screenshots of the messages, and he agreed.
Daniel traced a payment from Patricia’s company to Calvin Pierce’s firm. Its description read document preparation. The amount was unusually large for drafting one property transfer, though the payment alone proved little. It gave Nora and the investigator another lead.
That afternoon, Officer Reed called me back. The forgery report had been referred to a detective. Marsha’s statement and the title company logs had been provided to him. Reed asked me to keep the original recording and not send it to anyone else without retaining a copy.
“I already made backups,” I told her.
“Good.”
Ethan went home to collect his things. He had been staying at my house since the party, but some of his work files remained in Belle Meade. I went with him.
The property looked empty without the tents. A gardener was gathering fallen rose petals along the path. He raised a hand when he saw us.
Inside, Vanessa’s clothes were gone. She had returned her key through her attorney.
Ethan walked to the dining room and stopped in front of the wall where they had planned to hang their wedding photograph.
“I thought she understood me,” he said.
“I know.”
“I thought George respected what I built.”
“He saw how hard you worked. That isn’t the same thing.”
Ethan let out a long breath. “I’m embarrassed.”
“Come sit down.”
He shook his head. “I signed that agreement. I brought them into your life.”
“You made a mistake. We can deal with what it cost. I care more about what you do now.”
A phone rang in the home office. Ethan went to answer it. It was the security company.
Someone had used a valid access code to enter the gate an hour earlier. The system showed no exit.
We checked the rooms together. The front of the house was empty. In the office, Ethan’s desk drawers stood open.
He held up his hand and called the police. Then we backed toward the hallway.
May you like
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Someone was still in the house.
