Chapter 7: The Last Bargain
Daniel held out his hand.
“Give Helen your phone.”
Vanessa slipped it into her handbag.
“You have no authority to search my property.”
Helen closed the folder.
“I can request the access records through official channels.”
“And while you wait, I’ll file an injunction against Anna,” Vanessa said.
“Her housing is unstable, her medical records are questionable, and she left two children alone.”
“You caused every condition you just named,” Anna replied.
“Can you prove that?”
A man in a gray suit rose from the last row.
“I can.”
Vanessa turned.
“Owen, sit down.”
Owen Price had been her executive assistant for four years.
He carried a laptop beneath one arm.
“You told me Anna was extorting Daniel,” he said.
“That’s why I booked the clinic and arranged the driver.”
“She was extorting him.”
“Then I heard the recording from the driver.”
Owen opened the laptop.
Vanessa’s voice came through the speakers.
“Take Anna’s bag when she enters the clinic.
Keep her there until Daniel signs the marriage certificate.
Once I’m his wife, the trust amendment becomes permanent.”
Victor stared at his daughter.
“What trust amendment?”
Vanessa looked at Daniel.
“You should ask your attorney.”
Miles opened his briefcase and removed a document.
“She asked me to prepare an amendment granting her voting control if the marriage occurred today.
Daniel never approved it.”
“I discussed it with him.”
“You placed his copied signature on the authorization page.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Was this ever about loving me?”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“Love doesn’t protect anyone.
Power does.”
“You kept my children from me for power?”
“I kept a waitress and her child from destroying the life we deserved.”
Anna took Lily’s hand.
“You did not erase us.
You only delayed the truth.”
Vanessa pointed at Owen.
“You helped arrange everything.
If I fall, you fall too.”
“I already gave Helen the messages and access logs.”
Owen passed her a drive.
Vanessa lunged toward it.
Martin caught her wrist before she reached Helen.
“Let go of me!”
“Step back,” Martin said.
Vanessa pulled free and turned to Daniel.
“We can still fix this.
Marry me privately.
I’ll withdraw every complaint, fund Anna’s treatment, and give the girls anything they want.”
“You cannot return six birthdays.”
“I can give them a future.”
“They already have one.
You are no longer in it.”
Vanessa’s voice dropped.
“If you reject me, I will tell the board you concealed an heir.
They’ll remove you before Monday.”
Victor took out his phone.
“Not after they hear this.”
“You would choose strangers over your daughter?”
“I am choosing two children over the woman who tried to use them.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You’ll regret humiliating me.”
“No,” Victor said.
“I regret teaching you that money could clean up every choice.”
Two investigators entered and spoke quietly with Helen.
One held up an identification card.
“Ms.
Hale, we have authorization to take possession of the phone and laptop connected to the forged filings.”
Vanessa backed toward the side exit.
“You cannot do this at my wedding.”
Daniel looked at the ring lying on the altar.
“There is no wedding.”
The investigators blocked the doorway.
Vanessa removed her phone and held it over a pitcher of water.
“One more step and every message disappears.”
Owen lifted his laptop.
“They’re stored on the company server.”
Her hand fell.
As she was escorted toward the doors, Vanessa twisted back toward Anna.
“You think he’ll become a father because a report tells him to?
He missed everything that mattered.”
Daniel put one arm around Lily and the other around Anna and Rose.
“You’re right about one thing,” he said.
“I missed too much.
That ends today.”
Miles’s phone chimed.
He read the message twice, then handed it to Daniel.
“The independent laboratory finished the priority comparison.”
Daniel looked at the result, but Anna watched his face instead.
May you like
Lily finally asked the question no document could answer.
“Are you still going to call me your daughter when all these people leave?”
