Chapter 5 - MY SISTER COMES TO MY DOOR
Vanessa arrived at my apartment shortly after midnight.
She knocked for nearly five minutes.
I watched through the door camera.
Her wedding ring flashed beneath the hallway light.
“Claire.”
She whispered my name.
“Please open the door.”
I called Marissa first.
She told me not to let Vanessa inside.
I spoke through the door.
“What do you want?”
Vanessa pressed both hands against the wood.
“You’re destroying my life.”
I almost laughed.
“My eye is still bandaged.”
“And somehow you’re the victim?”
“I didn’t know what Derek put in the cannon.”
“You held the bag.”
“It was dark.”
“It was a service hallway.”
“There were lights.”
Silence.
Then she began crying.
“You don’t understand him.”
“What does that mean?”
“He gets obsessed.”
“With what?”
“Winning.”
I leaned against the door.
“Was hurting me winning?”
“No.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
There it was.
Not denial.
Not anymore.
“What was supposed to happen?”
She did not answer.
“Vanessa.”
“The cannon was supposed to scare you.”
“Why?”
Another silence.
“Because Derek wanted you to sign something.”
My pulse changed.
“What?”
“He thought if you were upset enough, you’d leave the reception early.”
“That part worked.”
“He said he would bring paperwork to your apartment the next morning.”
“What paperwork?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop lying.”
“I swear.”
Her voice broke.
“He handled it.”
“Handled what?”
“Our future.”
I heard footsteps on the stairwell.
Police.
Vanessa heard them too.
She stepped back.
“Claire, please.”
“What?”
“If Derek finds out I came here, he’ll know I talked.”
“So?”
For the first time, my sister looked genuinely afraid.
She glanced toward the stairs.
“You don’t know what he did before he met me.”
Then she ran.
Officers stopped her downstairs.
Marissa called twenty minutes later.
Vanessa had agreed to speak without Derek present.
But only about one thing.
The paperwork.
Derek had created an agreement that would have transferred my voting rights in Bellamy Manufacturing to Vanessa.
Not permanently.
Just for three years.
He told Vanessa it was necessary to prevent an outside investor from taking control.
“Did Claire know?”
Marissa asked her.
Vanessa said no.
“How did Derek expect her to sign?”
Vanessa looked down.
May you like
“He said after what happened at the wedding, she’d be shaken.”
Then she whispered, “He said scared people sign whatever makes the problem go away.”
