Chapter 4 - MY SISTER’S BIGGEST LIEFor a moment, even Alexander seemed surprised.
“The baby isn’t Daniel’s?” I asked.
Vanessa shook her head.
Tears ran down her face.
“No.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I sat.
“Start talking.”
Vanessa looked toward Maya.
“Can she leave?”
“No.”
“Claire—”
“No.”
My sister wrapped her coat tighter around herself.
“The baby belongs to Ethan Ross.”
The name meant nothing to me.
“Who?”
“He was my boyfriend.”
“Was?”
“He left three months ago.”
“Why did you tell Daniel it was his?”
“I didn’t.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Daniel knew.”
Nothing made sense.
Vanessa wiped her eyes.
“He knew the dates didn’t match. He didn’t care.”
Alexander leaned against the table.
“Because the pregnancy was useful.”
She nodded.
Daniel needed a public reason to abandon me and align himself with Vanessa.
Pregnancy made the betrayal impossible to negotiate away.
It created maximum humiliation.
It also created the image of a new family—Daniel, Vanessa, and an apparent Cole-Mercer heir.
“Whose idea was the wedding?” I asked.
“Daniel’s.”
“And the dress?”
Her eyes dropped.
“Mine.”
At least she admitted it.
“Why?”
Her voice became barely audible.
“Because I wanted you to hurt.”
The honesty landed harder than an excuse would have.
“Why?”
Vanessa looked at me then.
“Because everyone always chose you.”
I blinked.
“What are you talking about?”
“Grandpa chose you to run the company. Dad listened to you. Teachers compared us. Mom bragged about your grades. You got Daniel.”
“You didn’t even like Daniel.”
“I liked that he chose you.”
The room went silent.
I looked at my sister and realized I had never understood how much resentment lived inside her.
“You hated me.”
“No.”
“You copied my wedding dress and walked down the aisle claiming my fiancé.”
“I hated being second.”
“Those aren’t the same thing.”
“They felt the same.”
I stood.
“Do you have any idea how many times I protected you?”
Her eyes filled again.
“When you wrecked Dad’s car at seventeen, I said I had borrowed it. When you dropped out of college, I gave you a job. When you couldn’t pay rent, I covered it for eight months and never told Dad.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t get to say you know.”
My voice cracked.
“You destroyed my wedding because you thought my life looked better than yours.”
Vanessa started crying.
Part of me wanted to embrace her.
The larger part wanted her gone.
Alexander spoke gently.
“Why does Daniel want to hurt you now?”
Vanessa removed her phone.
“He thinks I’m going to confess.”
“You are confessing.”
“He doesn’t know where I am.”
Maya took the phone.
There were forty-seven missed calls from Daniel.
Twelve from Charles Mercer.
One text stood out.
YOU WALK AWAY NOW AND YOU LOSE EVERYTHING.
Another:
DON’T MAKE ME SOLVE THIS DIFFERENTLY.
Maya photographed them.
“Do you have evidence of the fraud?”
Vanessa nodded.
“My laptop.”
“Where is it?”
“At Daniel’s apartment.”
Maya’s expression said what we were all thinking.
Not ideal.
“There are emails,” Vanessa continued. “Contracts. Messages with his father. Recordings.”
“Recordings?”
“I started recording Daniel after I realized he planned to blame the whole thing on me if something went wrong.”
I laughed bitterly.
“So you were betraying each other while betraying me.”
She flinched.
Fair.
“Can we get the laptop?” I asked.
Maya shook her head.
“Not without permission or law enforcement.”
Vanessa pulled a key from her purse.
“I’m on the lease.”
That changed things.
Within an hour, Vanessa and Maya left with two attorneys and off-duty law-enforcement security personnel.
Alexander stayed with me.
“You don’t have to marry me tomorrow,” he said.
I looked at him incredulously.
“Again?”
“You just discovered your sister’s pregnancy was part of a corporate fraud conspiracy.”
“I’m aware.”
“I don’t want our marriage becoming another tactical decision.”
I walked toward the enormous window overlooking San Francisco.
Fog drifted beyond the glass.
“What if it isn’t?”
“Isn’t what?”
“Tactical.”
He became very still.
I turned.
“When I was twenty-six, Grandpa was in the hospital. Daniel said he had an important client dinner.”
Alexander remembered.
“You stayed all night.”
“Yes.”
“When Grandpa died, Daniel spent half the funeral reception networking with investors.”
Alexander said nothing.
“You drove me home.”
“Yes.”
“I fell asleep in your car.”
“You drooled on a very expensive jacket.”
I stared at him.
“I did not.”
“You absolutely did.”
I laughed despite myself.
He walked closer.
“I kept the jacket.”
My smile faded.
“Why?”
His voice softened.
“Because you were wearing it when you fell asleep.”
That one sentence nearly undid me.
“Why did you never say anything?”
“Because loving someone doesn’t give you the right to disrupt her life.”
“And now?”
“Now you disrupted mine.”
We stood inches apart.
“Alexander.”
“Hmm?”
“If we marry tomorrow, I don’t want separate rooms.”
His eyes sharpened.
“Claire.”
“I’m not asking for anything else.”
“You’re standing three feet away looking at me like that. You are definitely asking for something else.”
I laughed.
He touched my face.
Just his fingertips.
No entitlement.
No assumption.
“Tell me to stop.”
I didn’t.
He kissed me.
Slowly.
Nothing like Daniel.
Daniel kissed as though affection were something he deserved.
Alexander kissed as though he had been given something fragile.
When we separated, my forehead rested against his.
“Well,” I whispered.
“That complicated things.”
His quiet laugh warmed my skin.
My phone rang.
Maya.
I answered.
“Did you get it?”
Silence.
Then:
“We got the laptop.”
Relief surged through me.
“But there’s a problem.”
“What?”
“Daniel wasn’t at the apartment.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where is he?”
“We don’t know.”
Then someone pounded on the suite door.
Three violent blows.
Alexander pushed me behind him.
Maya’s voice came sharply through the phone.
“Claire, do not open that door.”
Another pounding.
Then my mother screamed from the hallway.
“Claire!”
I rushed forward.
Alexander caught my arm.
“Wait.”
“My mother’s out there.”
Security opened the door after checking the cameras.
Mom stumbled inside.
Her face was ghost-white.
“Daniel took Vanessa.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He called me ten minutes ago.”
Mom held out her phone.
A message.
A photograph.
Vanessa sitting inside a vehicle.
Terrified.
Daniel beside her.
May you like
Underneath were six words.
SIGN THE TRANSFER OR LOSE HER.
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