Chapter 5 - The Lie Vivienne Had Been Building for Months)
Vivienne did not attack immediately.
That was what made the next hour so dangerous.
She stepped back.
Adjusted her dress.
And became calm.
Tessa had expected rage.
Instead, Vivienne sat on the sofa.
"Let's be adults."
Tessa remained near the front door with Noah.
"You just tried to take something that belonged to Elise."
"Something that belonged to me."
"Elise recorded you."
Vivienne's eyes sharpened.
"So you watched it."
"Enough."
"What exactly did you hear?"
Tessa said nothing.
Vivienne leaned back.
"If you knew anything useful, you would already be screaming."
Tessa tried the front door.
The deadbolt would not turn.
She frowned.
Vivienne smiled.
"New electronic lock."
"Grant didn't install this."
"No."
Tessa looked at her phone again.
Still no signal.
Vivienne continued.
"I had a great deal of time to prepare."
"For what?"
"For people like you."
Tessa tightened her grip on Noah.
Vivienne's voice remained smooth.
"Caregivers become attached. They start believing they understand families better than the families themselves."
"Elise wasn't confused about you."
Vivienne's smile vanished.
"You didn't know Elise."
"I know what she recorded."
"You know fragments."
"She said you forged her signature."
Vivienne looked toward the window.
"Elise became paranoid after Noah was born."
"Convenient."
"She was exhausted. She barely slept."
"Did Grant know that?"
"Grant knew his wife better than you ever could."
"Then why did she hide recordings from him?"
That struck something.
Vivienne stood.
Tessa immediately moved Noah behind her shoulder.
Vivienne stopped.
For a moment she looked almost offended.
Then she laughed.
"You think I'm going to hurt a baby?"
Tessa did not answer.
Vivienne's smile thinned.
"You know what Grant will see when he comes home?"
Tessa waited.
"A woman he barely knows standing in his living room after striking his partner."
"You aren't his partner."
"Not officially."
"You think that matters?"
Vivienne moved toward the console table.
Tessa tracked her.
Vivienne pointed toward the camera.
"That stopped recording twenty minutes ago."
"How?"
Vivienne ignored the question.
"There will be no proof of what happened before Grant arrives."
"Except the card."
Vivienne looked at her.
"Which you are going to give me."
"No."
Vivienne sighed.
Then she took out her phone.
She opened a photograph.
Tessa could not see it clearly at first.
Vivienne held the screen toward her.
Tessa's stomach dropped.
It was a photograph of Tessa.
Standing outside Grant's bank.
Another photograph showed her entering an attorney's office.
Another showed her sitting in a cafe with a gray-haired woman.
"Who took these?"
Vivienne smiled.
"Does it matter?"
The gray-haired woman was Margaret Hale, Elise's former housekeeper.
Tessa had found her name in an old emergency contact notebook.
They had met two days earlier.
Margaret had told Tessa something disturbing.
Elise had been frightened before her death.
And Vivienne had been at the Mercer house on the afternoon Elise died, despite telling police she had not seen Elise for three days.
Tessa had not yet told Grant.
Vivienne scrolled to another photograph.
A document.
Tessa recognized her own signature.
She stared.
It appeared beneath a declaration stating that Grant Mercer was emotionally unstable and should not retain sole custody of Noah.
"What is that?"
"A statement."
"I never signed that."
"It looks like you did."
Tessa's heart pounded.
Vivienne smiled.
"Remember the payroll update you signed last month?"
Tessa understood.
Vivienne had copied her signature.
"You forged it."
"Such an ugly word."
"What are you planning?"
Vivienne put the phone away.
"Nothing, if you give me the card."
"And if I don't?"
Vivienne looked at Noah.
Then back at Tessa.
"Grant will receive evidence that you have been secretly documenting his parenting."
"That's false."
"You've been meeting with Elise's former housekeeper."
"Because I was worried."
"Exactly."
"You've been researching Noah's trust."
"Because you were stealing."
Vivienne smiled.
"Can you prove that?"
Tessa said nothing.
Vivienne stepped closer.
"You see the problem."
Tessa's mind raced.
Vivienne had been preparing this narrative for weeks.
Maybe months.
Tessa was an employee.
Vivienne was wealthy, polished, connected to Elise's family and trusted by Grant.
If the evidence vanished, Tessa could be made to look obsessive.
Dangerous.
Maybe even predatory.
Noah whimpered.
Tessa whispered, "Grant will believe his son."
Vivienne's expression changed.
"His son is twelve months old."
"He knows who he's afraid of."
Vivienne's jaw tightened.
Tessa realized she had found the wound.
Vivienne could manipulate documents.
She could manipulate Grant.
But she could not control Noah.
The child had disliked her for weeks.
Perhaps because babies remembered what adults dismissed.
Vivienne moved suddenly toward Noah.
Tessa turned her body.
"Don't."
"I want to hold him."
"No."
"I said give him to me."
"No."
Vivienne reached.
Tessa knocked her hand away.
Vivienne stared at her.
The room became still.
Then Vivienne said softly, "You should not have done that."
Tessa backed toward the sofa.
Noah squirmed.
Tessa lowered him behind her, keeping one hand extended protectively.
Vivienne's face twisted.
All the patience disappeared.
She stepped forward.
Noah began crawling toward his toy.
Vivienne looked down at him.
Then at Tessa.
Tessa saw something terrible happen behind Vivienne's eyes.
It was not loss of control.
It was choice.
Vivienne moved toward the child.
May you like
Tessa lunged forward.
And somewhere above them, unknown to both women, the supposedly disabled security system began reconnecting to its emergency cloud server.
