Chapter 7 - THE THREAT VANESSA DENIED
Vanessa denied sending the message.
The number was unregistered.
No direct technical link led to her.
Julian's investigators traced it through layered prepaid accounts.
The trail ended at a security firm Vanessa had once hired.
Her attorney called that circumstantial.
Julian called it enough to remove her access to every Vale property.
Vanessa anticipated that too.
She voluntarily moved into a hotel and publicly announced she was giving Julian space.
Privately, she filed to recover wedding expenses and personal property.
The claims were modest.
Reasonable.
Designed to make her appear calm.
Then she attacked Mara where it hurt.
A newspaper received copies of Mara's psychiatric history.
Headlines described her as "the presumed-dead mother at center of Vale family breakdown."
Mara's old diagnoses appeared beside photographs taken outside the cathedral.
No context.
No explanation.
Julian knew Vanessa had access to those records through her father.
Vanessa said thousands of people did.
Mara refused to hide.
She gave no interview, but she allowed Julian to publish authenticated records proving Adrian had paid Douglas.
Public sympathy began shifting.
Vanessa changed strategy again.
She accused Eleanor.
Specifically, she produced a handwritten ledger showing Eleanor received payments not only from Adrian but also from Harrow Crest Partners.
Recent payments.
Eleanor denied knowing Harrow Crest.
Bank records proved money had entered an investment account in her name.
Eleanor looked devastated.
"I didn't open that account."
Julian believed she might be telling the truth.
But belief had become useless.
His forensic accountants discovered the account had been created using identity documents stored at Vale Hospitality's executive office.
Someone with internal access had framed Eleanor.
The employee who retrieved the documents was Julian's longtime chief of staff, Noah Pierce.
Noah disappeared before investigators could question him.
Vanessa claimed she barely knew Noah.
Phone records showed otherwise.
They had spoken eleven times during the month before Adrian's death.
Julian confronted her.
Vanessa finally admitted Noah had been helping plan a surprise wedding acquisition: a vineyard property Julian once admired.
She produced emails supporting the story.
Noah's missing status prevented verification.
Another dead end.
Then Mara remembered something about Claire Hart.
Vanessa's mother.
Claire had been Adrian's accountant before marrying Douglas.
She had access to Vale accounts.
If the missing cassette exposed why Mara was committed, Claire might also have kept financial records.
Douglas searched old storage boxes.
He found Claire's journal.
One entry repeated a phrase:
THE CHILD ACCOUNT.
Mara went pale.
She remembered Adrian using the same phrase once.
Julian traced old bank records.
A hidden trust had been established twenty-eight years earlier.
Beneficiary unnamed.
Current value: over sixty million dollars.
Control transferred upon Adrian's death to the person holding a physical certificate.
That certificate was missing.
Vanessa's motive suddenly looked larger than marriage.
If she possessed it, she could claim the trust.
But the beneficiary's identity remained sealed.
Then Thomas Bell finally resurfaced.
He called Julian from an unknown number.
"Vanessa is not after your company."
"What is she after?"
"The child account."
"Who is the beneficiary?"
Thomas hesitated.
"You."
Julian exhaled.
Then Thomas corrected him.
May you like
"Not you, Julian. The other child."
And the call cut off.
