Chapter 13 - Vanessa’s Offer
Vanessa wanted a deal.
Her attorney contacted prosecutors.
She would testify against Grant and Conrad.
In exchange, she wanted reduced charges.
Marcus told me before the news became public.
“How do you feel?”
I laughed.
“Why does everyone keep asking me that like I have one feeling?”
He nodded.
Fair.
Vanessa admitted she abused Lily.
Not with those words initially.
She said discipline became excessive.
Prosecutors rejected the phrasing.
Eventually she admitted.
She intentionally frightened Lily.
She grabbed her.
Punished her for refusing to disclose my belongings.
Pressed her shoe on Lily’s hand the morning I returned.
Then she blamed Grant.
“He told me Lily needed structure.”
He told her I was a terrible mother.
He said Lily manipulated adults.
He said I had spoiled her.
Some of that may have been true from Grant’s perspective.
It did not make Vanessa’s actions less deliberate.
Then Vanessa admitted the North Star contact.
She said her father introduced her to Cole.
She asked Cole to monitor me because Grant wanted leverage.
Grant never explicitly asked anyone to harm me.
But he knew she was communicating with people connected to criminal freight operations.
He told her to be careful.
Not to stop.
Then came the detail I did not expect.
“Grant was afraid Evelyn would discover the invoices.”
The North Star payments were not primarily about trafficking.
Grant’s company had laundered money through Vale Meridian in exchange for hidden investment capital.
If I saw the books during a divorce, I might notice.
Vanessa smiled during the interview.
“He said Evelyn notices everything.”
I did.
Eventually.
Not soon enough.
Vanessa continued.
“That’s why we needed Lily to find the black phone.”
They believed I might have copied evidence before deployment.
I had not.
The irony almost hurt.
They abused Lily searching for proof I did not even possess.
Then Vanessa said something that made the room silent.
“Lily found something else.”
The prosecutor leaned forward.
“What?”
“A flash drive.”
My heart stopped.
“What flash drive?”
Vanessa said Lily found it in Grant’s desk.
She hid it before Vanessa could take it.
“Where?”
Vanessa shrugged.
“She never told us.”
May you like
Then she looked toward the camera.
“Ask Lily.”
