Chapter 10 - THE MISSING CUFF LINK
Daniel looked at Grant’s bare cuff.
Grant looked down too.
Nobody spoke.
Then he laughed.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
Vanessa rushed toward him.
“Grant, leave.”
Daniel blocked the doorway.
“Where’s your cuff link?”
“I lost it.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Charles stepped closer.
“Try harder.”
Grant’s face reddened.
“I was drinking. I went upstairs. Downstairs. Outside. It’s a wedding.”
Daniel showed him the photograph from the stairwell.
Grant’s expression changed.
Not guilt.
Recognition.
“That’s mine.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
I shifted Lily higher on my hip.
“Were you with Ethan?”
Grant stared at me.
Then at Vanessa.
That glance answered part of the question.
“Yes.”
Daniel grabbed the front of his tuxedo.
Charles immediately pulled his son back.
“Let him talk.”
Grant rubbed his collar.
“Ethan asked me to meet him in the stairwell.”
“Why?”
“He thought I knew something about Vanessa’s company.”
Vanessa snapped, “You don’t.”
Grant looked at her.
“Actually, I do.”
Her face went still.
Grant explained that Vanessa had asked him two months earlier to sign paperwork as a witness for Bennett Family Capital LLC.
He refused because he didn’t understand what the company was.
“She said it was for Daniel.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“I never asked for it.”
“I figured that out.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Grant gave him a humorless smile.
“Because you hate me.”
Daniel didn’t deny it.
Family history had just cost us information.
Grant continued.
Ethan had contacted him that morning and asked about the company.
They met in the stairwell because Ethan didn’t want Vanessa to see them together.
“What happened?” I asked.
“We argued.”
“About what?”
“He accused me of helping her.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then how did Ethan fall?”
Grant’s eyes dropped.
“He heard someone coming through the upper door. He started up the stairs. I grabbed his arm because he was acting crazy.”
Daniel stared at him.
“And?”
“He pulled away. His shoe slipped.”
A fall.
Possible.
But not yet verified.
“Why did you leave him?” I asked.
Grant looked ashamed.
“I didn’t know how badly he was hurt. He told me to get out and find the second page.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What second page?”
“The one Lily had.”
Vanessa whispered, “Grant.”
He ignored her.
“Ethan said Laura Benson had split her final note in two.”
I unfolded Lily’s surviving half.
Grant nodded.
“That’s one piece.”
“Who has the other?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel stared at him.
“The witness saw you?”
“No. I never went back into the ballroom.”
That meant someone else had picked it up.
The elderly witness had said Daniel’s brother.
Maybe she had been mistaken.
Or maybe someone wanted us to think Ethan took it.
Then Grant reached into his jacket.
Vanessa lunged toward him.
Charles caught her arm.
Grant removed a tiny brass key.
“Ethan gave me this before he fell.”
Daniel stared.
“The vault?”
Grant nodded.
“He said if anything happened, don’t give it to Daniel.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Why?”
Grant looked directly at Charles.
May you like
“Because Ethan thinks somebody in your family stole the fourteen million.”
📖 Ethan’s distrust now reached inside the Bennett family itself, and the vault key forced us to choose who could safely learn what Laura had preserved. 👇
