Chapter 7 - Olivia's Little Black Notebook
Adrian changed the locks before sunrise and told Vanessa she could not return to the house. She laughed at him over the phone.
"You can't evict your own sister because your new wife got dramatic."
"You pushed Emma toward the stairs. The police have the video."
"Then let them prove it. I'll have a lawyer by noon."
"Get one. You're not coming near my daughters."
He called a family-law attorney and agreed not to contact Clara except about Emma's medical care through a designated number. When he told Olivia, she nodded but did not look impressed.
"I need to show you something," she said.
From beneath her mattress she pulled a black notebook. Each page carried a date, a short quotation, and sometimes a photograph pasted beside the words. There was a picture of Clara's shredded grocery list after Vanessa had called her worthless. Another showed a broken mug. One entry read: Aunt V told Clara that Emma would be better off with a real Cole raising her.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Adrian asked.
Olivia turned a page. "I did. You said your sister was having a hard year. You always had an explanation for her. You never had one for Clara."
He couldn't answer.
"I started writing it down so I wouldn't think I was crazy," Olivia continued. "Mom used to say when someone tells you who they are, pay attention. I thought you'd remember that."
Mae had been dead four years, but hearing her name in Olivia's steady voice made Adrian's face burn.
At the office, he suspended Vanessa's account access. The company's finance manager, Ruth Ellis, followed him into his office carrying a stack of unopened audit memos.
"I've been trying to get you to look at these since March," she said. "If your sister gets to the servers first, we're finished."
Adrian reached for the top memo. The first page showed a vendor payment approved at 2:13 a.m., using his personal digital signature.
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At 2:13 that morning, Adrian had been on an airplane with his phone switched off.
HE SLAPPED THE WOMAN WHO SAVED HIS BABY |
