Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO HELPED HIM DESTROY MEI had imagined meeting Vanessa Cross a hundred times.
In some versions, I screamed at her.
In others, I demanded to know how she could sleep with a married man.
Sometimes I imagined throwing her out of my house and slamming the door behind her.
But I had never imagined sitting across from her in a police interview room, thirty-three weeks pregnant, while she cried over a photograph of her three-year-old daughter.
And I certainly hadn't imagined that she would be the person who finally told me what my husband had intended to do.
Two days after the attack, Dr. Morgan determined that my pregnancy was stable enough for discharge with careful follow-up.
I wasn't returning to the mansion.
Instead, Rachel had arranged a secure, temporary residence near the hospital.
My mother was staying with relatives under a separate safety plan.
Oliver would remain with me.
And Derek had become the subject of an expanding criminal investigation.
Detective Hayes asked whether I felt able to participate in a supervised interview with Vanessa.
My attorney and medical team agreed that it was my decision.
I said yes.
Not because I wanted revenge.
Because I needed answers.
The interview took place in a plain room with pale walls, a rectangular table, and a box of tissues nobody touched at first.
Hayes sat beside the door.
Rachel sat next to me.
Vanessa entered wearing jeans and a gray sweater.
Without makeup, she looked older than she had in our foyer.
Exhausted.
Frightened.
She stared at my stomach.
Then at the small photograph of Oliver tucked into my phone case.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
I didn't respond.
She sat across from me.
"I never meant for your baby to get hurt."
My voice was steady.
"But you grabbed me while I was holding him."
She looked down.
"I know."
"You saw that I was pregnant."
"I know."
"You knew I could fall."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Yes."
I leaned forward.
"Then don't tell me what you meant. Tell me what you did."
Vanessa flinched.
Detective Hayes spoke.
"Ms. Cross, you've agreed to give an account of your involvement. Start with the original plan."
Vanessa took a trembling breath.
"Derek said Claire was going to have a breakdown."
I stared at her.
"He said she'd been having problems since Oliver was born. That she'd become paranoid and might hurt herself."
"Did you believe him?"
"At first."
"And later?"
She twisted her hands.
"Later, I knew he was exaggerating."
"Exaggerating?"
My voice rose.
"He was trying to have me declared mentally incompetent!"
Vanessa began crying.
Rachel touched my arm gently.
I forced myself to breathe.
Hayes asked, "What were you instructed to do?"
Vanessa wiped her cheeks.
"Go to the house. Argue with Claire. Get her upset. Derek wanted video evidence of her losing control."
"Did he tell you to slap yourself?"
She nodded.
"He said if Claire wouldn't hit me, I should make it look like she had."
I felt sick.
"And Oliver?"
Vanessa hesitated.
"Derek said the baby would be with the nanny."
I stared at her.
"But the nanny was off that day."
"I know that now."
"Who told her not to come?"
Vanessa covered her face.
"Derek."
My hands curled into fists.
He had arranged for me to be alone.
Pregnant.
Holding our infant son.
With no witness except the woman he had invited into our home.
And he'd known exactly what would happen.
Hayes leaned forward.
"When did the plan change?"
Vanessa lowered her hands.
"The night before."
"Explain."
"Derek came to my apartment. He was furious. He said Rachel Bennett had frozen a transfer account."
Rachel's posture changed.
"Which transfer?"
Vanessa shook her head.
"I don't know. He said he'd run out of time."
I remembered Derek pacing in his study that Wednesday evening.
He'd snapped at me over dinner.
When I'd asked what was wrong, he'd accused me of interrogating him.
"He said he needed Claire to be taken to a hospital," Vanessa continued. "Not just evaluated. Admitted."
"Why?"
"He wouldn't tell me."
Hayes waited.
Vanessa swallowed.
"He told me to make sure she fell."
The words seemed to hang in the air.
I could hear the fluorescent lights humming above us.
"Fell?" I repeated.
Vanessa nodded.
"He said she was already unsteady because of the pregnancy. He thought a fall would be easy to explain."
I looked at Detective Hayes.
"Did he tell you to hurt my daughter?"
Vanessa's face crumpled.
"I didn't understand everything he was saying. I swear."
"Did he?"
She nodded once.
"He said a medical crisis would buy him time."
I stared at her.
"And you still went to my house."
"Yes."
"You still grabbed me."
"Yes."
"You still lied to the police."
"Yes."
There was nothing left to say.
For a moment, I hated her more than I had hated anyone in my life.
Then I looked at the photograph she had placed on the table.
A little girl with dark curls and a missing front tooth.
Lily.
Derek's daughter.
Another child who had never asked to be part of his lies.
"Does Lily know about Oliver?" I asked.
Vanessa blinked.
"What?"
"Does she know she has a brother?"
Tears rolled down Vanessa's cheeks.
"No."
"Does she know her father is married?"
"She thinks he's away on business."
I closed my eyes.
The same excuse.
The same lies.
Different homes.
Different women.
Different children.
All waiting for the same man.
Vanessa whispered, "He told me you were getting divorced."
"When?"
"Four years ago."
I opened my eyes.
"He told you that before Lily was born?"
She nodded.
"He said you were staying married for appearances because of your father's company."
I almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the lies were so elaborate that I'd spent years living inside a story written by someone else.
Vanessa took a deep breath.
"There was something else Derek told me."
Hayes looked up.
"What?"
"He said Claire's father had cheated him."
Rachel went completely still.
"My father?" I asked.
Vanessa nodded.
"He said Thomas Bennett promised him a share of the medical company and then changed his mind."
I frowned.
"That's impossible. My father never offered Derek ownership."
"That's what Derek claimed."
Rachel slowly opened her briefcase.
"Claire, there's a part of your father's history we haven't discussed."
I turned toward her.
"What?"
She took out an old photograph.
My father stood outside his company's original headquarters beside two other men.
One was his longtime partner, Robert Ellis.
The other looked strangely familiar.
Younger.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
Derek's father.
"That's Andrew Whitmore," Rachel said.
I stared at her.
"Derek's father worked for my dad?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Nearly twenty years ago."
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
Rachel sighed.
"Because the relationship ended badly."
I looked from her to the photograph.
"What happened?"
"Andrew Whitmore was dismissed after financial irregularities were discovered. The company recovered some of its losses, but the incident damaged his reputation."
My mouth went dry.
"Derek knew?"
"His father almost certainly discussed it with him. What Derek believed about the incident may have been very different from the documented findings."
Vanessa whispered, "He talked about revenge."
I turned toward her.
"What?"
"Derek said the Bennetts owed his family everything."
I looked at the photograph again.
My father.
Derek's father.
Two men standing side by side.
Twenty years earlier.
And suddenly, our marriage seemed less like an accident of love and more like the final chapter of an old grudge.
I remembered meeting Derek at a charity fundraiser.
He'd known my favorite author.
My favorite restaurant.
Even the name of the horse I'd ridden as a teenager.
I'd thought it was romantic.
Attentive.
Proof that he cared.
Now I wondered how long he'd studied me before introducing himself.
Rachel spoke quietly.
"Claire, your father became concerned about Derek shortly before his death."
I turned toward her.
"Why?"
"He asked us to investigate whether Derek had concealed their families' history."
"And?"
"We found evidence that Derek had been accessing business records without authorization."
I shook my head.
"Then why didn't Dad stop the wedding?"
"Because by then you were already married. He didn't want to make accusations he couldn't prove. He strengthened the trust instead."
My chest tightened.
My father had tried to protect me without destroying my happiness.
And Derek had spent years trying to defeat those protections.
Detective Hayes's phone vibrated.
He read the message.
Then stood abruptly.
"We need to conclude this interview."
Rachel frowned.
"What's happened?"
Hayes looked at me.
"An investigator just recovered a message from Derek's encrypted business archive."
My heart began pounding.
"What did it say?"
Hayes hesitated.
"It was sent to an unknown contact shortly after the confrontation."
"Read it."
He looked at Rachel.
She nodded.
Hayes read slowly.
Plan A failed. The camera was active. Move to Plan B before she delivers.
I gripped the edge of the table.
"Plan B?"
Vanessa looked terrified.
"I don't know anything about that."
Hayes put away his phone.
"We're following several leads."
But I wasn't looking at him anymore.
I was staring at Rachel.
Because her face had changed.
And I realized she knew something she hadn't told me.
"Rachel?"
She swallowed.
"What is Plan B?"
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she opened her briefcase.
May you like
And removed a document bearing my father's signature.
"Claire," she whispered, "there's something about your daughter that Derek may have discovered before you did."
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