Chapter 13 - The Other Woman’s Secret
I drove home immediately.
Rebecca was still there with Ethan.
Rachel had stayed with the children.
When I entered, Rebecca looked up calmly.
“Everything okay?”
I studied her.
Patricia’s warning repeated in my head.
I asked Rebecca to step into the library.
She followed.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Her expression barely changed.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Patricia told me to be afraid of you.”
Rebecca gave a tired laugh.
“Patricia hates me.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m the woman who slept with her married son.”
“That isn’t enough.”
Rebecca looked away.
I closed the door.
“Why did you really come here?”
“To protect Ethan.”
“From Michael?”
“Yes.”
“Then why bring him to Michael’s wife?”
She hesitated.
That hesitation mattered.
“Rebecca.”
She finally sat down.
“I needed witnesses.”
“For what?”
“In case something happened to me.”
My anger shifted into concern.
“What did Michael do?”
“Nothing.”
“Then who?”
Rebecca whispered.
“Vanessa.”
She explained that Vanessa had known about the affair for years.
At first she used it to control Michael.
Then she used Rebecca.
Whenever Michael tried to separate business money from Vanessa’s accounts, Vanessa threatened to expose the affair.
Later she discovered Ethan.
That gave her even more leverage.
“She hated me.”
Rebecca’s hands trembled.
“She said Ethan complicated everything.”
“What does that mean?”
“If Michael divorced you, you would discover the financial records.”
“So he needed custody first.”
Rebecca nodded.
“If he controlled the children, he thought he could pressure you into a quiet settlement.”
“That was Vanessa’s idea?”
“Mostly.”
I stared at her.
“But you knew.”
Rebecca began crying.
“Not all of it.”
“You knew they planned to take my children to Denver.”
“Yes.”
My anger returned instantly.
“And you said nothing.”
“I thought it was temporary.”
“They told my daughter I was sick.”
“I know.”
“You prepared a room for them?”
Rebecca looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
I stood.
“You need to leave.”
“Claire.”
“Now.”
She reached for her bag.
Then she stopped.
“There is something else.”
I did not answer.
“Michael kept copies of everything.”
“We found the storage locker.”
“Not everything.”
She looked toward the hallway.
“There’s a second place.”
“Where?”
“His father’s lake house.”
The Bennett family had sold that property years earlier.
Or so I believed.
Rebecca explained Michael secretly retained ownership through another company.
“There’s a safe under the master bedroom floor.”
“How do you know?”
“I went there with him.”
“What is inside?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I never saw it open.”
“But Vanessa wanted whatever was inside.”
“How badly?”
Rebecca looked directly at me.
“Badly enough that Michael told me if anything happened to him, I should tell you.”
I froze.
“Why me?”
“Because some of the documents belong to you.”
Three hours later, Daniel and I were driving toward the lake house.
May you like
We thought we were looking for financial records.
We had no idea we were about to find the one document that would explain why Vanessa wanted my children gone before sunrise.
