Chapter 3 - The Story Vanessa Had Repeated for Years
Vanessa was waiting in the Blake family home in Beverly Hills when Emma arrived at two in the morning.
The house had always seemed enormous to Emma.
Tonight it felt defensive.
Locked gates.
Security cameras.
Heavy curtains.
Vanessa sat in the living room wearing the same black premiere gown.
Her makeup had been removed.
Without it, she looked older than fifty-six.
And far more frightened.
“Ryan came with you?”
“No.”
“Police?”
“No.”
Vanessa exhaled.
Emma remained standing.
“Dad had zolpidem in his system.”
Vanessa’s face did not move.
“You knew.”
“I knew what the coroner found.”
“You told me alcohol killed him.”
“I told you he had been drinking.”
“Point-zero-four.”
“He was exhausted, emotional, and driving too fast.”
“Did he take sleeping pills?”
Vanessa looked away.
“I don’t know.”
“That means no.”
“It means I don’t know.”
Emma walked closer.
“Who were you texting?”
Vanessa’s eyes sharpened.
“Don’t go through my phone.”
“You sent it to me.”
“By mistake.”
“Yes.”
Emma held up the screenshot.
The reel survived. She saw the ring.
“Who was that meant for?”
Vanessa stood.
“I am trying to protect you from people who destroyed your father long before that crash.”
“Who?”
“The Coles.”
“Ryan?”
“No.”
“Julian?”
Silence.
Emma felt her heart pounding.
“Were you having an affair with Julian Cole?”
Vanessa’s reaction was almost imperceptible.
Almost.
Emma stepped backward.
“Oh my God.”
“Emma.”
“You were.”
“It wasn’t that simple.”
“How long?”
Vanessa looked toward the windows.
“Ten months.”
Emma laughed in disbelief.
“Dad died eight years ago and I’m finding this out now?”
“You were nineteen.”
“I’m twenty-seven now.”
“And what would knowing have changed?”
“My entire understanding of my family.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Your father knew.”
Emma stopped.
“What?”
“He found out two months before he died.”
“Did he leave you?”
“He threatened to.”
“Threatened?”
“That is what it felt like.”
Vanessa’s grief twisted into anger.
“You remember your father as a genius because you were his daughter. I remember being married to him.”
Emma said nothing.
“Daniel controlled every contract. Every account. Every decision.”
“He loved you.”
“That doesn’t mean he didn’t control me.”
The possibility hurt because Emma knew relationships could contain two truths.
Vanessa continued.
“When he discovered Julian and me, he said he would remove me from Blake Horizon, revoke my proxy rights, and make sure I walked away with nothing from the company.”
“Did he?”
“He started.”
“Is that why Julian went to his office?”
“Yes.”
“What did he put on the desk?”
Vanessa froze.
Emma caught it.
“What was in the black envelope?”
“A settlement agreement.”
“For what?”
“The marriage. The company. Stage 18.”
Emma stared.
“Cypress Gate?”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“You’ve been talking to Ryan.”
“Cypress Gate tried to buy Stage 18 two days after Dad died.”
“It was a legitimate offer.”
“From Julian?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Vanessa walked toward the bar.
She poured water.
Her hand shook.
“Julian was advising them.”
Emma watched her.
“Was he in Dad’s office when you were?”
Vanessa stopped pouring.
“I was never in Daniel’s office that night.”
“Were you at the studio?”
“No.”
“Where were you?”
“Home.”
“What time?”
“Before eleven.”
Emma remembered Detective Ortiz saying Daniel died around one.
“You never saw him again?”
“No.”
Emma studied her mother.
Vanessa had told this story many times.
That was obvious.
The timing came too smoothly.
The pauses occurred in practiced places.
“Why destroy the film?”
Vanessa slammed the glass down.
“Because eight years ago Julian told me Daniel had secretly recorded people.”
Emma went still.
“He knew?”
“He suspected.”
“How?”
“Daniel became paranoid. He checked rooms. He stopped using studio email.”
“And Julian?”
“Said Daniel was trying to manufacture leverage.”
“Against who?”
“Everyone.”
Emma stepped closer.
“So when you saw the can tonight, you knew it could contain Julian.”
“Yes.”
“Why not let us see it?”
Vanessa’s voice broke.
“Because I knew what it would do.”
“To Julian?”
“To you!”
The shout echoed through the house.
“You think exposing every filthy thing about your father’s last months will bring him back? You think learning that your parents hated each other will heal you?”
Emma stared.
“No.”
Her voice became cold.
“But watching you tear apart the only recording of him didn’t look like protection.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“It was.”
“Then who were you protecting from the truth?”
The doorbell rang.
Vanessa flinched.
A housekeeper entered.
“Mrs. Blake, there is a detective outside.”
Detective Ortiz.
Vanessa’s attorney arrived by phone before Ortiz even entered the living room.
She asked only two questions.
First, whether Vanessa possessed any materials belonging to Daniel’s estate.
Second, whether she consented to surrender her phone voluntarily.
Vanessa refused both.
Ortiz did not argue.
She left.
Emma followed her outside.
“Do you believe her?”
Ortiz answered carefully.
“I believe she is protecting something.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“It’s the answer I can give.”
Emma’s phone buzzed.
Ryan.
You need to see this.
Attached was a corporate record.
Daniel Blake’s death had triggered a $25 million key-person insurance payment to Blake Horizon Pictures.
Emma expected that.
The next page she did not.
Thirty days after the payment, $8 million had been transferred to a Cyprus company called Orchid Meridian Holdings.
Authorized by:
Vanessa Blake.
Emma looked through the window.
Her mother stood inside the mansion, watching her.
Then Ryan sent another file.
Orchid Meridian’s beneficial ownership was hidden behind nominees.
May you like
But one director appeared in an old filing.
Julian Cole.
