Chapter 5 - Vanessa Went For The Study Before She Went For Adrian
When Conrad and I stepped back into the main hall, the atmosphere had changed.
The guests were no longer pretending this was a private marital disturbance. They were clustered in uneasy little circles, speaking in lowered voices, every elegant face turned toward the corridor leading to Adrian’s study.
Because Vanessa was gone.
Adrian noticed me noticing.
His jaw tightened.
“Where is she?” I asked.
He gave me the kind of smile he used when he thought charm could still solve everything.
“She’s upset,” he said. “Unlike some people, she has a sense of discretion.”
“Discretion?” Conrad repeated, almost mildly. “Interesting choice of word.”
Adrian straightened, regaining some of his arrogance now that he was standing again.
“This is between my wife and me. Whatever misunderstanding Maren has created, I’m prepared to handle it privately.”
My father looked at him as if he were something found under a stone.
“Your wife just walked into my daughter’s dinner party covered in marks you put on her body.”
Adrian’s face flickered.
There it was—the first crack. He hadn’t expected my father to claim me so openly, or so publicly.
Before he could respond, one of Conrad’s men appeared at the end of the hallway.
“Sir. We found her.”
Vanessa was escorted back moments later, pale and furious, clutching a navy folder against her chest.
My folder.
The one Adrian had waved in front of me before dragging me downstairs.
“I wasn’t stealing anything,” she snapped. “I was protecting company records.”
“From whom?” I asked.
Vanessa’s eyes cut to me. “From someone hysterical enough to destroy them.”
Conrad held out his hand.
“The folder.”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then Adrian made a mistake.
“Give it to him,” he said too quickly.
I watched Vanessa register it—the way he had not defended her, not even for appearance’s sake. He wanted the folder controlled. Nothing else mattered.
She handed it over.
Conrad opened it, glanced at the top page, and his expression changed almost imperceptibly.
Then he passed the first sheet to me.
It was not a transfer authorization.
It was a power-of-attorney form bearing my forged signature.
And below that, a second signature line had already been prepared.
For Vanessa.
I looked up slowly.
Adrian saw it in my face before anyone said a word.
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And for the first time, he stopped pretending this was a misunderstanding.
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