Chapter 7: The Confrontation She Chose to Have
Nathaniel found me the following evening.
I was in the upstairs linen room counting the post-gala inventory, which was the kind of task that required enough attention to be useful and not enough to stop thinking.
He knocked on the open door before entering, which he had never done before.
"Do you have a few minutes?"
"Yes."
He came in and stood near the shelves.
He looked like a man who had not slept, which I recognized because I looked the same way.
"The board met this afternoon," he said.
"The transfers have been formally reported.
Arthur Fenwick gave a full statement.
Your photograph has been submitted as corroborating evidence through Claire's office."
"All right."
"The wedding is postponed." He said it flatly.
"Indefinitely."
I kept the inventory clipboard in my hands.
"I'm sorry."
"Are you?"
I thought about it honestly.
"I'm sorry it happened.
I'm not sorry it stopped."
He looked at the shelf of folded pillowcases for a moment.
"She wants to meet with me tonight," he said.
"She called an hour ago.
She says she has information that will change my understanding of the entire situation.
She wants to meet here, in the house."
"Are you going to?"
"Claire advised against it."
"That seems right."
"I know." He paused.
"She also said she wants you present."
I set the clipboard down.
"Vanessa did?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"She didn't say.
She said she wanted the person who started this to hear what she has to say." His eyes met mine.
"You don't have to.
Claire said absolutely not, in fact."
"What did you say?"
"I said I'd ask you."
I thought about the kitchen.
Seven forty-five.
*You have a daughter.
Think carefully.*
"Tell her yes," I said.
Claire was not pleased.
She said so in four direct sentences when Nathaniel called her.
She then said she would be present by phone, on speaker, and that if Vanessa's attorney arrived, the meeting ended immediately.
Vanessa came alone.
She sat across the dining room table from Nathaniel.
I stood near the window.
Gerald was in the hallway.
She looked at me first.
"I want to know," she said, "what you think you've accomplished."
"This isn't Elena's meeting," Nathaniel said.
"You asked for her to be here.
She's here.
Talk to me."
Vanessa opened a folder of her own.
Cream colored.
She slid a single page across the table.
"Elena Vasquez," she said.
"Hired five years ago.
Previous employer: Hargrove Estate, Winnetka.
Left after fourteen months." She looked at me.
"Do you want to tell him why you left, or should I?"
My hands were still at my sides.
"There was a theft at the Hargrove household," Vanessa continued.
"Jewelry.
Never formally charged, but the family requested her resignation.
I have the letter."
Nathaniel didn't look at the page.
"Elena," he said.
"Mrs.
Hargrove's daughter took the jewelry," I said.
"She was seventeen and she had a problem.
The family asked me to leave because I was the one who found it and they didn't want it to go further.
I signed a confidentiality agreement.
I have a copy."
Silence.
Vanessa's expression didn't change.
"That's a convenient story."
"I have the document," I said.
"Claire Ashworth has a copy as of this morning."
Nathaniel looked at Vanessa.
"Is that what you came here with?" he said.
"There's more—"
"Is that what you came here with?"
Her jaw tightened.
"The foundation transfers were authorized.
I have emails—"
"From an account you created using my name," Nathaniel said.
"Our IT team found it this afternoon.
Registered eight days after we got engaged."
The room went very quiet.
Vanessa set both hands flat on the table.
"I want to speak to you alone," she said.
"Without her."
"No."
"Nathaniel.
Eight years.
I have given you eight years—"
"We've been engaged for eleven months."
"Before that.
I was there before that.
I built things with you—"
"You stole from children," he said.
"The Meridian Foundation runs after-school programs.
The money you moved funded three of them.
They've been operating at a deficit for over a year and no one could understand why." His voice didn't rise.
"That's what you took."
Vanessa stood up.
"You'll regret this," she said.
"I know things about this company, about you, that your board has never seen."
"Then you can share them with the state attorney's office," he said.
"I'll give you the number."
She looked at me one last time.
Whatever she intended that look to mean, I held it without moving.
She left.
Gerald's footsteps followed her down the hall.
The front door opened and closed.
May you like
Nathaniel sat back in his chair.
On the phone on the table, Claire's voice said: "I got all of that."
