Chapter 8: Three Against One
They came in like they'd rehearsed it.
Daniel first, hands visible, voice measured — the voice he used in meetings when he needed a room to believe him.
Rebecca behind him, chin raised, the green dress replaced by something dark and carefully chosen, like she'd dressed for a negotiation.
And Vanessa last, quiet, eyes down, which was worse than if she'd come in swinging.
Marcus stayed in the hall.
Grace was at the table with everything spread in front of her.
She didn't stand up.
Daniel looked at Grace, then back at me.
"I'd like to speak to my wife privately."
"That's not going to happen," I said.
"Chloe—"
"You brought your sister and your girlfriend to my front door, Daniel.
Whatever you wanted to say privately, you've lost that option."
Rebecca stepped forward.
"We're here because this has gone far enough.
Daniel has spoken to Gregor.
There is a fair settlement on the table.
A generous one.
And continuing to pursue this in the way you're planning is going to cause damage to this family — including to Lily — that cannot be undone."
"Lily's trust fund cannot be undone either," I said.
"But you knew that when you suggested he access it."
Rebecca's expression didn't change.
"I don't know what you think you have, but—"
"The email," I said.
"Subject line: *the Lily arrangement.* Sent from your personal account.
Twenty-two months ago." I watched her eyes.
"Would you like me to read it back to you?"
A silence.
Rebecca's chin dropped one centimeter.
Daniel turned to look at her.
"Rebecca.
You told me that was—"
"Don't." She said it sharply, without looking at him.
Vanessa had not moved from near the door.
She was looking at the table, at the folders spread across it, at Patricia's face — and then she recognized Patricia.
Something shifted behind her eyes.
"You," Vanessa said softly.
Patricia looked up.
"Hello, Vanessa."
"You came to her."
"I did."
Vanessa turned to Daniel.
Her voice was very quiet.
"You told me Patricia signed everything.
You told me it was contained."
Daniel's jaw worked.
"It was—"
"It wasn't, clearly." She took a step away from Rebecca.
"You told me the trust transfers were a formality.
A temporary restructuring.
You told me Lily's money was safe."
"It is safe.
It will be—"
"Four hundred thousand dollars is not a formality." Vanessa's voice cracked on the last word.
She pressed her mouth together.
She looked at me for the first time — really looked at me — and what I saw on her face was not what I had expected.
It wasn't defiance.
It was something that looked like shame.
"I didn't know about the trust," she said.
"I swear to you I didn't know."
"I'm not interested in what you knew," I said.
"You're here to help him.
That's enough."
"I'm not helping him." She looked at Daniel.
"I came because he told me if I came it would help Lily.
That it would show the court that the family was intact." A pause.
"I should have known better."
"Vanessa." Daniel's voice dropped into a warning register.
She picked up her bag from the floor where she'd rested it by the door.
"I'm sorry," she said.
To me.
Not to him.
She walked out.
The door didn't sl@m.
It closed so quietly it was almost worse.
Daniel stared at the door for a moment.
Then he turned back around, and for the first time since he'd walked back into my life the previous night, he didn't have a voice for the room.
He just looked like a man standing in the wreckage of a plan that had stopped working.
Rebecca tried once more.
"Daniel, we should—"
"Sit down, Rebecca," Grace said.
It was the first time she had spoken since they arrived.
She said it without raising her voice.
"I have a document here with your signature as registered director of Cassel Property Holdings LLC.
I have the transfer records for three properties.
I have your email.
And I have a recording of our phone conversation this morning."
Rebecca sat down.
"The filing happens tomorrow morning," Grace continued.
"All of it.
The only question before us right now is whether you both choose to cooperate, or whether we add obstruction to what's already a considerable list." She paused.
"I'd recommend you each call your own attorneys before eight a.m."
Daniel looked at me one last time.
"Was any of it real?" he said.
"For you.
Was any of it ever real?"
I thought about Lily in her yellow dress, running through a garden on her fourth birthday, laughing at nothing.
I thought about the morning I found the first discrepancy.
The way I had sat at my desk for an hour before I called Grace, hoping I'd made an error, knowing I hadn't.
"I was real," I said.
"You weren't."
He walked out.
Rebecca followed him without speaking.
The house was quiet.
Grace looked at me across the table.
May you like
"Tomorrow," she said.
"Tomorrow," I agreed.
