Chapter 8 - THE BRIDE'S CONFESSION
Daniel found Vivian at his penthouse two hours later, sitting on the kitchen floor in her wedding dress.
The gown was still wet where Noah had spilled the water.
The sight no longer mattered.
"Where is your mother?" he asked.
"Gone."
"Did you know about the warehouse?"
"No."
"The forged authorization?"
Vivian closed her eyes.
"Not exactly."
Daniel laughed once. "That's an impressive answer."
She looked up. "I knew my mother wanted the marriage completed before Monday."
"Why?"
"Because your board votes Monday on the foundation restructuring. Once we're married, she believed I could influence your proxy."
"Influence? She forged it."
Vivian's mouth trembled.
"I didn't know she went that far."
"But you knew something."
Silence.
"Say it."
"I knew she paid people to keep problems quiet."
Daniel thought of the Cross List.
"Thirty-one people?"
Vivian looked away.
"I didn't count."
"You hit them, threatened them, got them fired, and your mother cleaned it up."
"I was angry."
"You were cruel."
Her eyes flashed. "Do you think I don't know that now?"
"You knew it when you did it."
That landed.
Vivian wiped her face with the back of her hand.
"Marissa started working for my mother years ago. If she took Noah's child, then Mom is scared."
"Of what?"
Vivian looked at him.
"Of you learning what happened to your father."
Daniel went still.
His father had died three years earlier after a stroke during a charity dinner hosted by Celia Cross.
"What does my father have to do with this?"
Vivian stood slowly.
"The night he died, he and my mother had a private meeting."
"About what?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I heard one sentence through the door."
Daniel waited.
May you like
Vivian swallowed.
"Your father told her, 'If Daniel ever finds out what you did, the Cross family is finished.'"
