Chapter 5 - Grace’s Warning
Ryan needed someone who had seen Vanessa before the cameras did.
Claire gave him the name.
“Grace.”
Ryan looked up.
Their former nanny.
Grace Miller had worked for Ryan for nearly two years after Emily died.
Six months after Vanessa moved into the house, Grace suddenly resigned.
At least, that was what Ryan had believed.
“She didn’t resign,” Claire said.
“What?”
“She called me afterward.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
Ryan stared at her.
Claire’s face hardened.
“You said Vanessa thought I was interfering in your marriage.”
He remembered.
Claire had warned him that Vanessa seemed possessive.
Ryan had dismissed it as jealousy between women who both wanted influence over Lily.
“You should have tried harder.”
Claire recoiled.
The accusation hung between them.
Ryan immediately regretted it.
“No. That was unfair.”
“Yes, it was.”
“I’m sorry.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“I did try, Ryan. You were so desperate to prove you had rebuilt a family that every concern sounded like an attack.”
He had no defense.
Grace lived forty minutes away.
Ryan called.
She hung up.
He called again.
A text arrived.
DON’T CONTACT ME.
Helen advised caution.
Ryan ignored her and drove to Grace’s apartment.
Claire went with him specifically because she no longer trusted his instincts.
Grace opened the door but kept the chain attached.
When she saw Ryan, fear crossed her face.
“I told you not to come.”
“I need to know why you left.”
“You know.”
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Vanessa really never told you?”
Ryan shook his head.
Grace looked toward the parking lot.
Then she unlocked the door.
Inside, she opened a drawer and removed an old phone.
“I kept this because someday I thought I might need it.”
The phone contained messages.
Dozens.
From Vanessa.
QUIT BY FRIDAY OR I WILL REPORT THE CASH YOU TOOK.
Ryan frowned.
“Cash?”
Grace looked ashamed.
“Your daughter’s birthday envelope.”
Ryan remembered two thousand dollars disappearing from a desk.
Vanessa had implied a contractor might have taken it.
Grace swallowed.
“I borrowed three hundred dollars from the envelope.”
Claire stared at her.
“I was desperate. My mother needed medication. I was going to replace it on payday.”
“You still stole it,” Ryan said.
“I know.”
Grace looked directly at him.
“But Vanessa filmed me taking it.”
Ryan understood.
“She blackmailed you.”
Grace nodded.
“She said if I told you what she was doing to Lily, she’d report me and make sure nobody hired me again.”
“What was she doing then?”
“Nothing like the dog bowl.”
Grace’s eyes lowered.
“Not at first.”
Vanessa had begun by undermining Lily’s attachment to Ryan.
If Lily asked when he was coming home, Vanessa said, “Maybe he changed his mind.”
If Lily wanted to sleep with Ryan’s old sweatshirt, Vanessa took it away.
“She wanted Lily anxious,” Grace said. “She wanted her crying when you came back.”
“Why?”
“So Vanessa could tell you Lily needed stricter routines.”
Ryan remembered those conversations.
Vanessa had recommended a private child-behavior consultant.
He grabbed his phone.
“What was the consultant’s name?”
“Dr. Peter Rowe.”
Ryan went cold.
Mark’s brother-in-law.
Ryan had met him twice.
Dr. Rowe ran a private behavioral-health network.
Helen later discovered the business received consulting payments from Cole Secure Systems’ employee-wellness program.
The payments had been approved by Mark.
The conspiracy widened.
Grace had something else.
A voice message Vanessa sent accidentally one night.
Grace played it.
Vanessa’s voice came first.
“Ryan won’t sign unless Lily gets worse.”
Then Mark.
“Then make her worse.”
A rustling sound.
Vanessa said, “She’s four, Mark.”
“And worth forty million if Ryan disappears.”
The recording ended.
Ryan stared at Grace.
“Why didn’t you give this to police?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of Vanessa?”
“Of what she knew.”
Grace unlocked another folder.
Photographs appeared.
One showed Grace taking money.
Another showed her brother entering a rehabilitation clinic.
One showed her mother’s house.
“They wanted me to understand they could reach my family.”
Claire whispered, “Jesus.”
Ryan felt sick.
This was not improvisation.
Mark and Vanessa had been controlling people for months.
Maybe longer.
On the drive back, Helen called with preliminary results from the company’s financial review.
“There’s a vendor I need you to recognize.”
“What vendor?”
“Northstar Family Strategies.”
Ryan frowned.
“Never heard of it.”
“The company paid them eight hundred seventy thousand dollars over fourteen months.”
“For what?”
“Executive-family risk consulting.”
“I never approved that.”
“Mark did.”
Ryan tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“Who owns it?”
“A Delaware LLC owns another LLC. We’re tracing it.”
Claire looked at him.
“Ask about Rowe.”
Ryan did.
Helen answered after checking.
“Northstar subcontracted clinical services to Rowe Behavioral Group.”
Grace’s story was now supported by corporate money.
Ryan ended the call.
Claire stared through the windshield.
“Vanessa wasn’t just hurting Lily.”
“No.”
“She was getting paid?”
“Maybe.”
Ryan’s phone rang again.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A man spoke.
“Mr. Cole?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Aaron Price. I work in accounts payable at Cole Secure Systems.”
Ryan slowed the car.
“What do you need?”
“I think they know I found the transfers.”
“Who?”
The man breathed shakily.
“Mr. Dalton.”
Ryan heard a door slam on the caller’s end.
Then Aaron whispered, “Northstar isn’t the biggest problem.”
“What is?”
“There’s another company.”
“What company?”
“Graybridge Holdings.”
Ryan exchanged a look with Claire.
“How much?”
“Three point eight million.”
Ryan’s stomach dropped.
“What was it for?”
“That’s why I called.”
Aaron lowered his voice.
“Graybridge bought shares in your company last month.”
Ryan felt the blood drain from his face.
“With whose money?”
Aaron answered.
May you like
“Yours.”
Then the call disconnected.
