Chapter 13 - THE LAST THING GRANT HAD
Lucy went straight to her mother.
Anna called Elaine from upstairs.
Then she walked into the study.
Charles rose.
“You should be resting.”
“So should everyone who gets dragged into Grant’s emergencies.”
Grant stood near the fireplace.
“How much did you hear?”
“Enough.”
He held a small black drive between two fingers.
“There are emails on this. Old ones. Your name. Your account.”
Anna looked at it.
Then at him.
“What do you want?”
“The fund complaint withdrawn. A statement that the payments were misunderstood. I resign, we settle privately, everyone gets their happy family ending.”
Charles’s voice went cold.
“No.”
Grant ignored him.
“Think about Lucy. Her mother’s name in a criminal investigation. Again.”
Anna gripped the back of a chair.
For a moment, Charles saw the frightened twenty-three-year-old he had ordered out of his house.
Then she straightened.
“Put it on the desk.”
Grant hesitated.
“You want to see?”
“Yes.”
He connected the drive to his own laptop.
A printed-looking email appeared on the screen.
Anna’s old address.
Instructions to approve a vendor payment.
She leaned closer.
Then she smiled.
It wasn’t a happy smile.
“You should have asked your mother.”
Grant’s face tightened.
“About what?”
“This email is dated March seventeenth.”
“So?”
“Of the year after I left.”
He shrugged.
“I didn’t say you sent it from this house.”
“No. But it’s signed with my married name.”
Charles looked at the screen.
Anna Bennett.
Anna rested a hand on the chair.
“I didn’t meet Daniel until August.”
Grant’s fingers moved toward the keyboard.
“Names can be—”
“Don’t touch it,” Charles said.
Elaine appeared in the doorway with the house manager, who had let her in.
Grant slammed the laptop shut.
“You can’t keep my property.”
Elaine remained calm.
“No one has said that. But we’ve heard your proposal, and we’ll preserve our notes about this conversation.”
Grant looked from face to face.
His advantage had vanished so quickly he didn’t know where to put his anger.
Finally he pointed at Anna.
“You have no idea what this family is like.”
She looked around the study.
“Oh, I do.”
He pushed past Elaine and left.
Charles expected relief.
Instead, Anna sank into the chair, pale and breathing hard.
He knelt beside her.
She waved away his first panicked question.
“I’m okay. Just tired.”
Elaine’s phone buzzed.
She read the message twice.
“What?” Charles asked.
“The auditors found the archive Grant said was missing.”
Anna looked up.
May you like
Elaine turned the screen toward them.
“Vivian gave them the password.”
