Chapter 16 - Vanessa Takes Sophie
I ran from the boardroom.
Malcolm was already calling every guard he trusted.
Olivia caught up beside the elevator.
“Vanessa took her.”
“We don’t know that.”
“She disappeared when the alarm started.”
My phone buzzed.
A video message.
Sophie sat in the back seat of a moving car.
She was crying but unhurt.
Vanessa held the phone.
“Ethan, if you want her back, come to the old Carter beach house. Alone.”
Olivia grabbed my arm.
“You are not going alone.”
The video continued.
Vanessa turned the camera toward the front seat.
Detective Bell was driving.
Then she said, “Bring the black ledger.”
The message ended.
Mason arrived beside us.
“Beach house?”
I nodded.
He swore.
“What?”
“That property has a private road and a dock. Easy exit.”
Lucas stepped from the boardroom.
“What happened?”
I hit him.
He went down hard.
Company counsel shouted.
I grabbed Lucas by the jacket.
“Where is my daughter?”
“I don’t know!”
“Vanessa took her.”
His face changed.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“She wasn’t supposed to do that.”
I almost hit him again.
Olivia stopped me.
“What was she supposed to do?”
Lucas wiped blood from his mouth.
“Scare Ethan into signing. That’s it.”
“You let her hurt Sophie?”
“I never told her to touch Sophie.”
“Congratulations. You’re a better monster than she is.”
Lucas looked at the ledger in my hand.
“If she wants that, she’s not taking orders from me anymore.”
“Who is she taking orders from?”
“I don’t know.”
Mason crouched in front of him.
“Think.”
Lucas’s face drained.
“Bell.”
“Bell is a cop on your payroll.”
“No. He was Dad’s man first.”
The old scheme again.
My father’s shadow was still in every room.
Lucas continued, “Dad created an emergency reserve after Harbor Point. Cash. Offshore accounts. Bearer bonds. The ledger is the only map.”
“How much?”
“Maybe forty million.”
Vanessa wasn’t just trying to protect the guardianship plan.
She was stealing the escape money.
Olivia looked at me.
“If Bell gets the ledger and Sophie, he has leverage over everyone.”
Lucas pushed himself up.
“There’s one more thing.”
I turned.
“The beach house has a basement room Dad used for private meetings.”
“So?”
“No cameras. Reinforced door.”
My stomach turned.
“He kept Olivia there once.”
Olivia went still.
“What?”
Lucas looked at her.
“The night before Harbor Ridge.”
She shook her head.
“I was never at the beach house.”
“Yes, you were.”
“I would remember.”
Lucas whispered, “Not if Vanessa gave you the same thing she gave Ethan.”
Lucas followed us into the executive elevator.
“You think Vanessa went rogue because of money?” he asked.
“What else?”
“She hates us.”
I turned.
“All of us?”
“Her older brother died at Harbor Point.”
Olivia stopped.
Vanessa’s history suddenly made terrible sense.
She had entered the Carter system as a nurse after the collapse.
My father hired her.
Then used her anger, her debt, and eventually her own crimes to control her.
Lucas continued, “At first she wanted evidence. Then Dad offered her enough money to disappear.”
“She took it?”
“She took the money and stayed.”
“Why?”
Lucas looked toward the lobby cameras.
“Because she realized controlling Sophie could give her the power to destroy the company herself.”
Vanessa had not merely been working for my family.
She had been waiting for a chance to take revenge on it.
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