Chapter 5 - The Assignment
“He wanted information.”
Vanessa sat across from me with her attorney beside her.
“What information?”
“Your father’s estate.”
My father, William Sterling, had died eleven months earlier.
Caleb believed Sterling Capital owed him millions from an investment strategy he claimed senior executives had stolen before firing him.
“Did my father know?”
“I don’t know.”
“What were you supposed to find?”
“Private correspondence. Account records. Anything mentioning Caleb.”
“And you decided marrying me would be convenient?”
Her face crumpled.
“It wasn’t supposed to go this far.”
That sentence hurt more than I expected.
I had bought a ring.
Introduced her to Sophie.
Planned a wedding.
“How far was it supposed to go?”
“Dating. Access to the house.”
She looked down.
“Then I fell in love with the life.”
Not me.
The life.
At least she didn’t insult me by pretending otherwise.
Caleb had instructed Diane Mercer to install surveillance before Vanessa moved in because he didn’t trust Vanessa to provide everything.
That explained the hidden camera.
It did not explain Sophie.
I leaned forward.
“Did Caleb tell you to frighten my daughter?”
“No.”
“Grab her?”
“No.”
“Threaten her?”
“No.”
“Then why is she terrified of you?”
Vanessa’s attorney touched her arm.
Vanessa pulled away.
For several seconds she said nothing.
Then:
“She cries constantly.”
I stared at her.
“She’s fourteen months old.”
“I know.”
“Apparently you don’t.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“She throws things. Spills drinks. Screams when she doesn’t get what she wants.”
Each complaint described a toddler.
Not misconduct.
A toddler.
“What did you do when she cried?”
“I disciplined her.”
“How?”
Vanessa refused to answer.
That refusal became its own answer.
Laura recommended Sophie remain away from Vanessa while the situation was investigated.
Vanessa agreed to leave voluntarily and stay elsewhere.
As she stood, Sophie watched from Eleanor’s arms.
Vanessa looked toward her.
Sophie immediately covered her head with both hands.
The gesture destroyed whatever remained of my willingness to rationalize.
Then Marcus entered.
He had recovered local fragments from the hidden camera.
Most footage had been remotely erased.
One thirty-eight-second clip survived.
It showed Vanessa alone in the living room two days earlier.
Sophie was crying off-camera.
Vanessa looked directly toward the hidden camera.
Then she said:
“I’m doing what you wanted. Tell Caleb I need the rest of my money.”
I turned toward her.
She went pale.
Because five minutes earlier, she had told me Caleb never instructed her regarding Sophie.
May you like
Now we had proof she had discussed Sophie’s treatment with someone connected to him.
📖 Vanessa’s own words destroyed her first story, and recovering the payment she demanded would reveal exactly what someone thought my daughter’s fear was worth. 👇
