Chapter 14 - VANESSA’S REAL JOB
Vanessa had never been random.
Neither had the affair.
That truth humiliated Ethan more than anything I could have said.
“She targeted me?”
His voice sounded hollow.
Richard looked at him.
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“Eventually.”
“And you let it continue?”
“I needed to know who she was reporting to.”
Ethan stared at him.
“So you watched me destroy my marriage to run an investigation.”
“I warned you she was dangerous.”
“You told me Mara was dangerous.”
Richard had no answer.
Luka made three calls.
Within an hour, we knew Vanessa had boarded a private jet under another name.
Destination: Montreal.
But the plane never departed.
Federal agents stopped it on the runway after Amelia turned over the M-17 ledger and Northbridge payment records.
Vanessa called Ethan from custody.
He put the call on speaker.
Her first words were not an apology.
“Did she open the last envelope?”
I stared at the phone.
Ethan’s jaw clenched.
“Why do you care?”
“Because Daniel Bennett made copies.”
“Copies of what?”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“You still don’t understand.”
I stepped closer.
“This is Mara.”
Silence.
Then Vanessa said, “Congratulations on the baby.”
My skin crawled.
“Don’t say anything about my daughter.”
“She’s why everything accelerated.”
“What does Sophie have to do with you?”
“Her blood marker activated the Moretti registry.”
I looked at Luka.
He nodded.
“That brought Luka to the hospital.”
Vanessa continued.
“And once Luka appeared, Richard panicked.”
“What were you supposed to do?”
“Get Ethan away from you.”
My stomach tightened.
“The photographs.”
“Yes.”
“The fake paternity result.”
“Yes.”
“The affair?”
A pause.
Then she laughed.
“That part was easier than expected.”
Ethan looked like she had slapped him.
I felt no satisfaction.
Only sadness for the man he might have been if weakness had not been the center of every choice he made.
“Who hired you?” Luka asked.
Vanessa’s voice changed.
“You already know.”
“Say her name.”
“Adriana Moretti.”
Luka froze.
I had never heard the name.
“Who is she?” I asked.
Luka’s face hardened.
“My cousin.”
“Carlo’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
The corrupt uncle’s child.
The branch of the Moretti family my mother had testified against.
Vanessa continued.
“Adriana has spent twenty years looking for the M-17 ledger.”
“Why?”
“Because if it becomes public, everything her father left her can be seized.”
I looked toward Ethan.
“And destroying my marriage helped how?”
“You were vulnerable.”
Vanessa sounded almost bored.
“A young mother with no parents, no money you knew about, and no support system.”
My hands curled.
“If Ethan abandoned you and challenged Sophie’s paternity, you would be emotionally isolated.”
“And then?”
“You would accept a settlement.”
“What settlement?”
“Your claim to the Bennett trust in exchange for cash and silence.”
My father’s shares.
The M-17 evidence.
Everything.
They had expected a frightened woman leaving a maternity ward alone.
They had not expected Luka Moretti to sign his name on the father line.
Vanessa’s voice lowered.
“That signature ruined everything.”
I looked at Luka.
He had known signing it would provoke them.
“You used yourself as bait.”
He met my eyes.
“Yes.”
“You could have told me.”
“I didn’t know who inside the hospital was compromised.”
“Was I bait too?”
“No.”
His answer came hard.
“Never.”
Vanessa laughed through the phone.
“How touching.”
Then she said something that silenced everyone.
“You should ask Luka what happened the first time he protected Mara.”
I stared at him.
Luka’s face went pale.
“What does she mean?”
Vanessa answered for him.
May you like
“You met Luka when you were four years old.”
And suddenly a memory I had buried for twenty-one years began crawling back.
