Chapter 15 - THE WOMAN IN THE EMPTY HOUSEThe threat changed the investigation.
Police assigned protection to Caroline, Nathan, and Ethan.
Caroline refused to return to the mansion.
She moved to a secure apartment owned by her attorney’s firm.
Nathan remained at the estate under guard.
Ethan focused on locating Vanessa.
The note contained no fingerprints.
The paper came from Nathan’s own office.
Security footage showed a figure entering the mansion through a maintenance tunnel built decades earlier.
Only a few senior employees knew the tunnel existed.
Damian was one of them.
Ethan examined the wedding ring.
Caroline had left it on the anniversary table the night Vanessa announced the pregnancy.
Nathan believed it had been locked inside his office safe.
When he checked the safe, several documents were missing.
Among them was an insurance policy worth fifty million dollars.
The policy listed Caroline as Nathan’s beneficiary.
But a recently forged amendment named Vanessa.
The amendment would be worthless once the fake pregnancy was exposed.
Unless something happened to Nathan before the fraud case was completed.
Ethan realized the threat was not directed at Caroline.
It was directed at his brother.
Nathan had become more valuable to Vanessa dead than alive.
Police relocated him to a secure guest house outside the city.
Only Ethan, Caroline, Melissa, and the lead detective knew the address.
That night, Caroline received a call from an unknown number.
Vanessa’s voice came through the speaker.
“You always thought you were better than me.”
Caroline remained calm.
“Where is Damian?”
“He thinks he’s in control.”
“And is he?”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“No man is ever in control when he believes a woman needs him.”
Caroline recorded the call.
“What do you want?”
“My money.”
“You mean Nathan’s money.”
“I earned it.”
“By wearing a costume?”
Vanessa’s voice sharpened.
“By understanding him better than you ever did.”
Caroline looked toward Ethan, who was tracing the signal.
“You understood his guilt,” Caroline replied.
“You never understood his heart.”
The call remained active for four seconds longer than Vanessa intended.
It was enough.
Ethan traced the signal to a vacant house in Lake Forest.
Police entered the property twenty minutes later.
Vanessa was not there.
They found the white dress from the baby shower in an upstairs bedroom.
The torn support band lay beside it.
On the bathroom counter sat three additional silicone bellies in different sizes.
A wall calendar showed how Vanessa had planned to change them month by month.
The deception had been designed to last until the supposed birth.
Inside a closet, police found a hospital bassinet.
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A newborn adoption file rested inside it.
Vanessa had planned to replace the fake pregnancy with a real baby.
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