Chapter 8 - VANESSA'S VERSION
Vanessa hired counsel and gave a statement.
She refused to be cast as a passive mistress.
“I knew he was married.”
No excuse.
She also insisted she built her company without Ethan.
Mostly true.
Grant Event Strategies existed four years before the affair.
It had legitimate clients.
Good work.
Strong references.
Then she said:
“Ethan helped me get rooms I was qualified to compete for.”
That sentence mattered.
Not:
he gave me fake contracts.
Access.
Vanessa admitted she knew he had not disclosed the affair internally.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted the contracts.”
Clear.
Then Claire met Vanessa once.
Not alone.
Lawyers present.
Claire asked:
“Why did you tell me at the gala?”
Vanessa looked almost embarrassed.
“I was angry.”
“At me?”
“At him.”
Ethan had told Vanessa the relationship would end after the gala.
Not the marriage.
The affair.
Why?
He had started feeling guilty.
Also afraid compliance would discover the conflict.
Vanessa thought he was choosing Claire.
So when Claire confronted him, Vanessa exposed everything publicly.
She wanted to destroy the option of returning quietly to his wife.
Claire stared.
“You used me to punish him.”
“Yes.”
Honest.
Then:
“And I hated that you didn’t even know who I was.”
Claire frowned.
Vanessa had attended events near Claire.
Passed her.
Spoken once.
Claire never noticed.
Vanessa interpreted invisibility as arrogance.
Claire said:
“I didn’t know my husband was sleeping with you. Why would I study every vendor at his events?”
Vanessa looked away.
Her resentment had built around a relationship Claire did not know existed.
Then Claire asked:
“Did Ethan ever promise to leave me?”
Vanessa paused.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Many times.”
“Specific date?”
No.
The oldest affair cliché survived because people keep believing vague futures.
Then Vanessa said:
“He told me the Hales would never accept me.”
May you like
Claire almost laughed.
“They didn’t know you existed.”
