Chapter 16 - HER MOTHER
Vanessa's mother was named Diane Kent.
Dad knew the name.
Twenty-eight years earlier, Diane had worked as a bookkeeper for Walker Supply.
I had been a kid.
Dad said she was smart, organized, and trusted.
Then money disappeared.
Nearly two hundred thousand dollars.
Diane was blamed.
She was fired.
No criminal charges were filed because the money was recovered through insurance.
Vanessa's family collapsed financially soon after.
Richard's business failed.
Diane left him.
Vanessa was seventeen.
"Did she steal it?" I asked.
Dad hesitated.
"We believed she did."
"Believed?"
He looked at Mom.
Mom knew.
That was obvious.
"What aren't you telling me?"
Dad sat down.
"Diane said the accounting director was responsible."
"Who was he?"
Dad closed his eyes.
"My brother."
Uncle Paul.
The same man who had toasted Vanessa at our engagement dinner.
The same man who left the wedding quickly after Dad took the microphone.
Dad explained that Paul managed vendor accounts back then.
Diane claimed he moved money and altered ledgers.
No one believed her.
Paul denied it.
Dad chose his brother.
Diane was fired.
Years later, Dad found an old backup ledger after Paul had already left the company.
The entries supported Diane's story.
I stared at him.
"You knew she was innocent?"
"By then, yes."
"What did you do?"
"I tried to find her."
"Did you clear her name?"
"No."
The word felt like a slap.
Vanessa had built an entire fraud around my family.
But buried beneath it was a real wrong.
Dad had protected the company.
Protected his brother.
Protected the Walker name.
At Diane's expense.
Mom whispered, "Charles has regretted it every day."
I stood.
"Regret is cheap."
Dad accepted that.
Then Margaret called.
Uncle Paul had withdrawn forty thousand dollars that afternoon and disappeared.
Police now believed someone had warned him about the wedding evidence.
I thought about the Northline deal.
The old theft.
Vanessa's surveillance.
"Was Paul working with her?"
Dad shook his head.
"I don't know."
Then my phone rang from an unknown number.
I answered.
Uncle Paul.
His voice was shaking.
"Ethan, your father is lying again."
I looked at Dad.
Paul continued.
"Vanessa didn't choose your family for revenge."
May you like
A pause.
"She chose you because your father still owes her mother money."
