Chapter 14 - Vanessa’s Confession
Vanessa disappeared before police could question her again.
Her apartment was empty.
Her phone was off.
Her passport remained registered at home.
Daniel assumed Charles had hidden her.
Emily wasn’t sure.
At midnight, a message arrived on Emily’s phone.
Come alone if you want the truth about Robert.
An address followed.
Emily showed Daniel immediately.
“I’m going.”
“So am I.”
“It says alone.”
Daniel gave her a look.
“You’ve seen how well following Vanessa’s rules has worked.”
They contacted detectives.
Then they drove to the address with officers nearby.
The location was an abandoned greenhouse owned by an old Vale company.
Vanessa stood inside.
No designer dress.
No perfect makeup.
No arrogance.
She looked exhausted.
Daniel stopped ten feet away.
“Did you follow my father on the night he died?”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Emily felt anger surge through her.
“Why?”
“My father told me Robert was going to destroy us.”
“You were twenty-three.”
“I was terrified.”
Vanessa admitted she followed Robert from the garage.
Charles was not with her.
He had instructed Vanessa only to report where Robert went.
She followed him toward the mountain road.
Then another vehicle appeared.
A black SUV.
It passed Vanessa.
Minutes later, she found Robert’s car against a barrier.
He was alive.
Daniel’s face changed.
“You saw him alive?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
Vanessa began crying.
“I called my father.”
Emily whispered, “Did you call 911?”
“No.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“My father was dying and you called Charles?”
“I was scared.”
“What did Charles tell you?”
Vanessa’s voice nearly disappeared.
“He told me to leave.”
Daniel looked as if she had struck him.
Vanessa said she obeyed.
The next morning, she learned Robert’s car had gone over the cliff.
She spent twelve years convincing herself he had already been beyond saving.
Emily asked, “Who was driving the SUV?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Then why contact me?”
“Because I know now.”
Vanessa pulled a photograph from her coat.
The image showed Charles standing beside the black SUV several months before Robert died.
Beside him was Owen Blake.
The former Mercer security chief.
Emily stared at it.
“Owen?”
Vanessa nodded.
“He worked for my father long before Daniel hired him.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Vanessa continued.
“My father planted Owen inside your security team.”
The necklace incident.
The disabled cameras.
The stolen letter.
Everything connected.
Then Vanessa looked at Emily.
“But Owen wasn’t the person driving that night.”
“Who was?”
Vanessa opened her mouth.
Before she could answer, every light in the greenhouse went out.
A vehicle roared outside.
Glass shattered somewhere behind them.
Police rushed in.
When emergency lights came on, Vanessa was on the floor.
She was conscious.
Unhurt.
But the photograph had disappeared.
May you like
And written across the dusty glass behind her were four words.
STOP DIGGING, EMILY REED.
