Chapter 12 - The Original Plan
Vanessa stared at the message until her hands started shaking.
"What original plan?"
Daniel did not answer because he had the same question.
Evan traced Patricia's phone.
It had gone offline near an abandoned office park south of Nashville.
Before agents moved, Vanessa finally told Daniel something she had hidden since they met.
Her mother had encouraged the relationship.
Not subtly.
"She told me where you'd be at the charity dinner."
"You said your coworker invited you."
"That was a lie."
"Another one."
"Yes."
Vanessa did not defend herself.
Patricia told her Robert Stellan had destroyed Martin Keene and hidden evidence somewhere close to Daniel. Vanessa agreed to get near him and search.
"Were you supposed to marry me?"
"No."
"But you did."
"Because I fell in love with you."
Daniel looked away.
"That sentence doesn't fix the first part."
"I know."
After their engagement, Patricia ordered Vanessa to keep looking for Robert's archive. Vanessa stopped cooperating.
Then Lily was born.
Patricia disappeared from their lives almost completely.
"I thought she was angry because I chose you."
"Maybe she was waiting."
Evan returned with a recovered file from Patricia's old email account.
Subject: ORIGINAL PLAN.
The message was sent four years earlier, before Lily's birth.
Patricia wrote to an unknown recipient:
VANESSA HAS BECOME EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED. IF DANIEL WILL NOT PROVIDE THE ARCHIVE VOLUNTARILY, WE MAY NEED A LOSS EVENT THAT FORCES THE FOUNDATION INTO SUCCESSION.
Daniel read the phrase again.
"Loss event."
Evan's face was grim.
The foundation bylaws transferred control of certain historical assets if Daniel died or became incapacitated.
Control would pass to Thomas.
Then to a secondary trustee.
Daniel asked, "Who?"
Evan checked.
The successor trustee had changed six years earlier.
Patricia Monroe.
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Daniel understood.
May you like
Their marriage had not been the original endgame.
It had been the failed version of a plan that once expected him not to be alive.
