Chapter 8: What Vanessa Did Next
She didn't wait for Michael to call.
By noon, she had called Claire Morgan at the venue and disputed the invoice.
Claire called me at twelve-seventeen.
"She's claiming the event was disrupted by the venue owner's interference," Claire said.
"She's saying the announcement constituted a breach of hospitality and that the invoice is therefore void."
I was in my study.
I had the loan document open on my desk — Diane had sent it through within the hour, as promised.
"She's claiming breach," I said.
"Her exact words were that you weaponized your ownership to humiliate a guest and that no court would enforce an invoice generated under those circumstances."
"What does our contract say?"
"The contract is airtight, Eleanor.
You know that.
You drafted the hospitality terms yourself six years ago." Claire paused.
"But she's saying she'll take it to a solicitor.
She's saying she'll make it public.
She mentioned the press."
I looked at the loan document.
$340,000.
Invalid collateral.
A penalty clause buried in paragraph nine.
"Let her take it to a solicitor," I said.
"Send her a copy of the signed contract and the full payment terms.
Give her seventy-two hours."
"And if she goes to the press?"
"Then the press will also receive a copy of the signed contract," I said.
"And they'll write whatever story they find most interesting."
Claire was quiet for a moment.
"She also called the florist.
And the orchestra.
She told them the invoice was under dispute and that they should not expect payment from her account."
"Did she."
"The florist called me in a panic.
The orchestra manager called twice."
I set down the loan document.
"Call them both back.
Tell them their payment is guaranteed directly from Whitmore Properties.
They'll receive full settlement within five business days regardless of the dispute outcome."
"That's generous."
"They did their jobs.
They shouldn't be caught in the middle of this."
"Eleanor." Claire's voice shifted slightly.
"She's not going to stop at the invoice."
"I know."
"She's going to come at you from every angle she can find."
"I know that too."
"What do you want to do?"
I looked out the window at the garden.
The same fence the bird had landed on that morning.
Empty now.
"I want you to pull the original venue booking file," I said.
"Everything Vanessa submitted when she made the reservation.
The name she booked under.
The payment details.
The correspondence."
"I have it."
"Is there anything in there that doesn't match what she told Michael about how the wedding was arranged?"
Claire was quiet for a moment.
I could hear her moving through files.
"Eleanor," she said slowly.
"The initial deposit."
"What about it?"
"It was paid from a business account." A pause.
"Not a personal account.
A company called HV Consulting Limited."
"What is HV Consulting?"
"I don't know.
But the account number is registered to a director." Another pause.
"The director's name is listed as Hartwell-Voss.
Vanessa Hartwell-Voss."
I was very still.
"She has a company," I said.
"It appears so."
"A company that paid the deposit on a wedding she told my son she couldn't afford without his help."
Claire said nothing.
She didn't need to.
"Pull everything," I said.
"Every document she submitted.
I want it all."
"I'll have it to you within the hour."
I ended the call and sat for a moment in the quiet of my study.
Then I picked up my phone and called my solicitor.
Not because I was angry.
May you like
Because Vanessa had just made her first move in a fight she didn't understand she had already lost.
And I wanted everything in order before she made her second.
