Chapter 7
Vanessa did not deny it.
“I wanted Grant to have a real place here.”
Raffaele sat across from her at Caroline’s office.
“You gave him spending authority over a charity.”
“I asked you to.”
“You asked me to trust him.”
“And you signed.”
That was true.
Raffaele remembered barely reading the paperwork.
Vanessa had been newly married to him then.
Lily’s biological mother, Claire, had died from complications shortly after childbirth. Raffaele had spent the next two years moving through grief, business, and fatherhood like a man refusing to admit he was exhausted.
Vanessa had entered the household when Lily was eighteen months old.
She was organized.
Patient.
Useful.
She handled things Raffaele did not want to think about.
Grant was one of those things.
“I thought giving him responsibility would straighten him out,” Vanessa said.
“Did you know his company was already in debt?”
“No.”
Raffaele watched her.
“Not then.”
She looked away.
“So when did you know?”
“Last year.”
“And you still helped him.”
“He’s my brother.”
There was no drama in her answer.
Just the oldest justification in the world.
She had protected Grant because he had protected her once.
Their father drank.
Their mother disappeared for days at a time.
Grant had been eleven when he started making Vanessa’s lunches and checking her homework.
When she was nineteen and pregnant by a boyfriend who left, Grant paid for the abortion and never told their parents.
Years later, when Grant began drowning financially, Vanessa told herself loyalty required repayment.
The motive did not excuse anything.
It explained why she kept choosing him.
Caroline pushed a printed email across the table.
“Did Grant ask you to create the confrontation with Adrian?”
Vanessa read it.
The message was from Grant.
Need the kid to show himself in front of everyone.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“What did you think that meant?”
“I thought he wanted Adrian to mouth off.”
“And Lily?”
Vanessa looked sick.
“That part was mine.”
Raffaele’s voice hardened.
She forced herself to continue.
“I knew Adrian wouldn’t ignore Lily being humiliated. I thought he’d yell at Grant. Maybe shove him.”
“You rehearsed Lily kneeling.”
Vanessa nodded.
Raffaele stood so quickly Caroline touched his arm.
He stopped.
Adrian’s words returned.
Do nothing or hurt somebody.
Raffaele sat again.
Vanessa looked almost more frightened by that restraint than she had been by his anger.
Then Caroline placed another document on the table.
One of the supposedly missing vendor boxes had been scanned months earlier.
May you like
The files showed the inflated billing had started before Grant received emergency authority.
Someone else had been approving questionable payments first.
