Chapter 14 - VANESSA'S CONFESSIONVanessa was found the next morning.
Not by police.
By us.
She was hiding in an abandoned office owned by Black Harbor.
When Robert entered, Vanessa stood.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Robert looked at her.
“You killed Elias.”
“No.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“The recording says you did.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I killed the man they told me was Elias.”
Robert froze.
“What does that mean?”
“They gave me the wrong man.”
Silence.
She looked at me.
“Eleanor, you were never the target.”
I said nothing.
“Daniel was.”
“Why?”
“Because your son is the last legal heir.”
Robert nodded.
“Who ordered the killing?”
Vanessa began to cry.
“I never saw his face.”
“Then how did you receive instructions?”
“Through your father.”
Robert's face hardened.
“My father.”
“He recruited me.”
“When?”
“Before I met Daniel.”
“You knew who he was?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked destroyed.
“Did you ever love me?”
Vanessa didn't answer.
That silence was enough.
She placed a small envelope on the desk.
Inside was a bank key.
Another brass key.
Number 28.
“This opens the final account.”
Arthur took it.
“What final account?”
Vanessa looked at Robert.
“The inheritance account.”
Robert's face changed.
“That's impossible.”
“What?”
“That account was closed in 2004.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
She smiled bitterly.
“It was transferred.”
“To whom?”
She looked at me.
“Eleanor.”
I stared.
“What?”
“You've had access to it for forty years.”
“That makes no sense.”
Vanessa pointed to my wedding ring.
Robert looked at it.
My ring.
He had given it to me on our wedding day.
Inside the band were tiny letters I had never noticed.
E.W.
Robert whispered,
“Eleanor Whitmore.”
Vanessa said,
“The trust was created in your name.”
I looked at my husband.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“All these years?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because the trust required one thing.”
“What?”
Robert took my hand.
“You had to be married to me for forty years.”
I stared.
The forty-year anniversary was six months away.
Robert had died six months before we reached it.
Unless...
I looked at him.
“You were never supposed to die.”
Robert shook his head.
“No.”
“Then why fake it now?”
He was silent.
I understood.
“You needed them to force the trust open.”
“Yes.”
“And you needed me to be threatened.”
“Yes.”
My anger returned.
“You used me.”
His face collapsed.
“I protected you.”
“You destroyed me.”
He could not answer.
Then Arthur checked the bank key.
His expression changed.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“The trust opened yesterday.”
“Who accessed it?”
Arthur looked at Daniel.
“Your son.”
Daniel went pale.
“I didn't.”
Arthur turned the screen toward us.
A transaction had been made.
Twenty-eight million dollars.
Transferred out.
To an unknown account.
Then another notification appeared.
ACCOUNT HOLDER: ELEANOR WHITMORE.
I stared at my own name.
“I didn't move that money.”
Arthur whispered,
“Someone did.”
May you like
And then the account sent one final message.
SEE YOU AT THE PENTHOUSE.
