CHAPTER TEN
ALYSSA
Martin called before Damian returned from the hospital.
“Charles Laurent wants to speak with you.”
Alyssa sat in the library with her injured foot raised on a leather ottoman. The local anesthetic had worn off twenty minutes earlier. Each pulse reached the stitches beneath the white dressing.
“Why me?”
“Because several transfers carry your foundation authorization. Charles cannot prove the signatures were forged without your internal records. He claims Vanessa has been diverting money through companies linked to their joint accounts. He also says she prepared custody documents before filing the police report.”
“Does he have proof?”
“He says he does.”
“Have you seen it?”
“Enough to know the financial records exist. I have not verified the signatures or source accounts.”
Alyssa looked through the glass doors.
Across the lawn, pool contractors inspected the safety gate beneath portable lights. Julian had ordered every employee who worked the reception to provide a statement. A security officer had already confirmed that Vanessa’s access card opened the gate.
Damian had replied by asking whether Sophie could have taken it.
“Charles is under a protection order,” Alyssa said.
“He cannot contact Vanessa directly. Speaking to you is not prohibited unless he uses you to pass messages or threaten her.”
“Which he might.”
“He understands the distinction.”
“Men under pressure often understand distinctions until they become inconvenient.”
Martin gave a dry sound that might have been approval. “That is why I will be present.”
“Where?”
“My conference room.”
“No.”
“You prefer somewhere public?”
“I prefer a location Vanessa cannot connect to you.”
A pause followed.
“You think she monitors my office?”
“I think she researched the estate before arriving. She knows my staff, my medical history and the foundation systems. Assuming she ignored my attorney would be generous.”
“I have a client suite above a bank in Coconut Grove. Private entrance. No firm directory.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow at ten.”
Alyssa checked the time. Nine-fifteen.
“Send me the address through the account you created.”
“Bring no estate vehicle.”
“I know.”
“Your foot?”
“Painful.”
“Can you drive?”
“Yes.”
“That was not the question.”
“I can arrange a car.”
“Not through Vader Global.”
“Martin.”
“I enjoy repeating instructions to wealthy people. It balances the years they spent ignoring everyone else.”
Alyssa ended the call before he found a fourth instruction.
Damian arrived shortly after ten.
She heard him enter through the main doors, speak to security and ask Carmen where Alyssa was. His steps crossed the marble hall.
He appeared at the library entrance without his jacket. Sophie’s pool water had dried in pale marks across one trouser leg.
“How is she?” Alyssa asked.
“Stable. The doctor found no respiratory complications.”
“Is she staying overnight?”
“For observation.”
“And Vanessa?”
“With her.”
Damian came farther into the room. His attention dropped to Alyssa’s bandaged foot.
“You should be in bed.”
“The doctor recommended elevation. He did not prescribe a bedroom.”
“You need rest.”
“I’ll rest when security explains who disabled the lock.”
His mouth tightened. “The magnetic latch was deliberately obstructed during the afternoon.”
“After Vanessa’s card opened it.”
“The card log establishes access. It does not establish who carried the card.”
“Vanessa said Sophie took it.”
“Yes.”
“Before Sophie woke.”
“Vanessa noticed it was missing from her handbag.”
“Convenient.”
Damian sat across from her. “You believe she deliberately put her daughter in the pool.”
“I believe she sent Sophie to retrieve the bracelet.”
“That would require her to risk her own child.”
“She uses Sophie to support every accusation.”
“That is different from drowning her.”
“Sophie was supposed to reach the ledge and climb out. Vanessa misjudged the danger.”
“You cannot know that.”
Alyssa leaned back.
The position pulled at the stitches. She moved her heel until the pain eased.
“Did you inspect the bracelet?” she asked.
“What?”
“The silver bracelet Sophie said she dropped.”
“No.”
“Did anyone find it?”
“Security searched the pool.”
“And?”
“They found it on the submerged ledge.”
“Near the glass?”
“Several feet away.”
“Too far for a child to reach from the side.”
Damian’s gaze held hers.
“You have already decided,” he said.
“I collected facts.”
“You arranged them around the conclusion you wanted.”
“Vanessa’s card. Vanessa’s glass. Vanessa’s bracelet. Vanessa’s accusation.”
“Sophie said you told her children were unwelcome.”
“She repeated a sentence her mother had fed her.”
“Again, you cannot know.”
Alyssa looked toward the doorway. “You should return to the hospital.”
“I came back to check on you.”
“You checked.”
“Alyssa.”
“I am tired, Damian. I have four stitches in my foot and a ruined reception outside. I do not have the energy to watch you sand every edge off Vanessa’s conduct.”
He stood.
“I’ll sleep in the west bedroom tonight,” he said.
“That is unnecessary.”
“You need space.”
“I already took it.”
His expression altered, though the answer should not have surprised him.
Damian glanced at the foot again. “Call me if the pain worsens.”
“I’ll call the doctor.”
He left without replying.
At eight the following morning, Alyssa ordered a rideshare under the name of her design company and asked the driver to stop at a pharmacy before continuing to Coconut Grove.
The painkillers made her light-headed, so she took one tablet instead of the prescribed pair. Her flat shoe pressed against the dressing every time the car slowed.
Martin waited inside the bank lobby.
He looked at her foot. “I said arrange a car.”
“I did.”
“You look as though you walked here.”
“You look as though you bill by the criticism.”
“I bill by six-minute increments. Criticism is complimentary.”
The client suite occupied the fourth floor. Frosted glass separated a narrow conference room from an empty reception area.
Charles Laurent stood at the window.
Alyssa recognized him from photographs before he turned. He was broad through the shoulders, graying at the temples and dressed in a suit too formal for a concealed meeting. His face showed the heavy fatigue of a man who had stopped sleeping well months earlier.
He did not approach her.
“Mrs Vader.”
“Mr Laurent.”
“Thank you for coming.”
“I have not agreed to help you.”
“I understand.”
Martin indicated the chair nearest the door for Alyssa. Charles remained on the opposite side of the table.
A black document case sat between them.
Charles opened it.
“I discovered discrepancies in our family investment accounts six months ago,” he said. “At first, I believed Vanessa had paid personal expenses through one of the companies. She has always been careless with boundaries.”
“Careless?” Alyssa asked.
He accepted the correction. “Entitled.”
“What did she take?”
“Just over nine hundred thousand dollars across seven months, including money routed from your foundation.”
Martin leaned forward. “From which accounts?”
Charles passed him a folder.
“Vanessa created nominee consulting companies, forged my authorization to connect them to Laurent accounts and used your foundation’s old payment patterns to make the transfers look routine. Money left the foundation, passed through the shell companies and moved into accounts she controlled.”
Alyssa looked at the transfer dates.
Several began before Vanessa arrived at the estate. Others matched foundation payments Martin had begun tracing.
“These companies received money from my foundation,” she said.
“I know.”
“How?”
“I found the foundation name on a remittance report after Vanessa left.”
“Did you contact Damian?”
“I tried. His office referred me to legal. Vanessa filed the police complaint the next morning.”
Martin examined the signatures. “These appear to be yours.”
“Some are. Several are forged.”
“And the allegations of abuse?”
Charles’s expression hardened.
“I never struck my wife.”
“That was not the question,” Alyssa said.
He looked at her.
“I controlled business accounts,” he replied. “I challenged her spending. I told her I would seek sole custody if she continued involving Sophie in financial disputes. Vanessa calls any limit abuse.”
“Did you lock her inside your home?”
“No.”
“Restrict her movement?”
“No.”
“Take her phone?”
“Once. She was using it to photograph confidential files after I confronted her.”
Alyssa thought of the marina.
“What did you do with it?”
“Placed it on my desk while we spoke. She took it when she left.”
“You understand how that sounds.”
“Yes.”
Charles did not soften the answer.
“I controlled the accounts,” Charles said. “I threatened to use custody when we fought, and I made leaving financially difficult. I am not asking you to call me innocent. I did not strike her, chase her to Miami or send the threats she has shown Damian.”
Martin removed another packet from the case. “What is this?”
“Custody preparation. I found the complete laptop backup only after Vanessa left. My attorneys warned that handing it to police immediately could look like retaliation while the protection order was active, especially because several forged documents carry my signature. Vanessa contacted three lawyers before the police complaint. She drafted a statement claiming I threatened Sophie. She also compiled information about Damian, the estate and Mrs Vader.”
Alyssa opened the packet.
Printed photographs showed the waterfront property from the road.
Another page listed staff names. Carmen’s nephew appeared beneath a note about immigration sponsorship.
Beside it Vanessa had typed: renewal vulnerable; aunt controls household movements.
Carmen had confirmed the rideshare destination at the service gate.
If Vanessa had forced the information from her, the note explained why Carmen might have surrendered it.
Alyssa stopped reading.
“Where did this come from?”
“Her laptop backup.”
“She included Carmen’s nephew.”
“I don’t know why.”
Alyssa did.
“Do you have the original laptop and original files?”