Chapter 9 - THE MARRIAGE WAS PART OF IT
Vanessa had not only married a criminal.
She had married a man who chose her because of our mother’s shares.
Their entire relationship looked different after that.
They met nine months before Mom died.
Derek proposed six weeks after the funeral.
At the time, everyone called it romantic.
He said grief reminded him life was short.
Now police reviewed his financial history.
Derek had almost nothing.
He rented expensive cars.
He carried credit card debt.
He exaggerated the success of his marketing company.
Three previous business ventures had collapsed.
Then he met Vanessa Bellamy.
A woman about to inherit millions.
I asked Vanessa when she learned he had debt.
“After we were engaged.”
“Why didn’t you leave?”
“He said it was temporary.”
“Everything with Derek was temporary until my inheritance arrived.”
She looked ashamed.
“He made me feel like I finally had someone who chose me first.”
There it was.
The wound beneath all our fights.
Vanessa always believed Mom loved me more.
She believed I was the responsible daughter.
The easier daughter.
The one teachers praised.
The one relatives trusted.
Derek found that resentment and fed it.
He told Vanessa I looked down on her.
He told her Mom had secretly given me more money.
He told her I would eventually try to control Bellamy.
Then he offered a solution.
Take control first.
“He said you would never respect me unless I made you.”
Vanessa whispered.
I looked at my sister.
“For years, I wondered why you hated me.”
“I didn’t hate you.”
“You helped him load metal into something he pointed at my face.”
She started crying.
“I thought it was tiny foil pieces.”
“Why add anything at all?”
She had no answer that helped.
Marissa entered before the conversation ended.
Police had found Derek’s laptop.
Most files were encrypted.
One folder was not.
It was labeled AFTER.
Inside were photographs of Bellamy’s corporate building.
Our mother’s house.
Harold’s office.
My apartment.
Vanessa’s apartment.
And the emergency entrance of the hospital where I had been treated.
The final image showed me.
It had been taken from across the street the morning after the wedding.
Someone had been watching my building.
Then investigators opened another folder.
Its name was PHASE TWO.
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Inside was a document titled:
CLAIRE REFUSES TRANSFER - ALTERNATIVE PLAN.
