Chapter 16 - His Name on the Paper
The threat came wrapped in an ordinary scanned letter. Vanessa had kept a document Adrian signed the previous year, authorizing routine transfers while he was working out of state. The page he remembered had listed supplier payments. The copy in her possession described withdrawals from Olivia's trust.
"Did you sign a blank page?" his attorney asked.
Adrian stared at it. "I signed a packet she brought me at the job site. I didn't read every page."
"Then we tell investigators exactly that."
"I sound like an idiot."
"You sound like a man who handed someone authority and failed to check what she did with it. Those are not the same thing as stealing. Don't make them the same by hiding facts now."
Adrian gave the detective his travel records, the original project file, and the names of everyone who had been present at the site. He also disclosed the packet he had signed. The investigators would decide what it meant.
Olivia heard about the document from him, not from a rumor. "You trusted Aunt Vanessa with my future," she said. "But you didn't trust Clara with what happened in our own hallway."
"You're right."
"I'm tired of being right after something awful happens."
She walked away before he could answer.
Ruth's team traced Vanessa's land purchases and obtained orders to preserve the remaining assets. The company kept making payroll, but Adrian had to sell equipment he had planned to keep for another decade. He did it without making a speech.
That evening, the detective called. Vanessa had booked a flight under her own name and arranged to transfer the last available funds to an account outside the state.
"We're moving to stop her," he said. "Please don't try to find her yourself."
Adrian looked at Emma's empty high chair in the kitchen. He had spent years believing he could fix every problem by getting there first.
May you like
For once, he stayed home. Then Ruth called: "Vanessa booked the flight using money from Emma's stolen account."
HE SLAPPED THE WOMAN WHO SAVED HIS BABY |
