Chapter 4 - The Woman Beside Him
Vanessa Reed arrived at the military medical center expecting Clara to blame her for the affair.
She was not prepared to hear the word fraud.
After Evan’s confrontation outside the entrance, Colonel Hale instructed military security to escort him away from the patient area. Evan refused until two uniformed officers approached.
Vanessa stayed behind.
“I need to speak to Clara,” she said.
Clara studied her for a moment.
Vanessa looked exhausted. Her makeup was uneven, and her hands shook around her phone.
“Five minutes,” Clara said.
They moved to a quiet bench near the rehabilitation garden. Margaret remained inside with the nurse.
Vanessa sat but Clara remained standing.
“I did not know about the heart attack,” Vanessa began.
“You heard me tell him.”
“I heard you say your mother had chest pain. Evan told me she did that often to get attention.”
“She has never done that.”
Vanessa looked down.
“He said you were separated.”
“We ate breakfast together three days ago.”
“He told me you stayed married only because of military housing benefits.”
Clara almost laughed at the absurdity, but she was too tired.
“How long?”
“Eleven months.”
The answer hurt, but not as much as Clara expected. By then, the theft had eclipsed the affair.
“Did you notarize documents for my mother?”
Vanessa’s eyes lifted sharply.
“What documents?”
Clara removed copies from the file and placed them beside her.
Vanessa turned pale.
“I notarized these because Evan brought Margaret to the office.”
“Margaret was in a hospital on this date.”
Vanessa examined the page again.
“No. She was there. She sat in front of me.”
“What did she look like?”
“Gray hair. Blue cardigan. She used a cane.”
“My mother does not own a cane.”
Vanessa’s breathing became shallow.
Clara placed another image beside the document, a photograph of Margaret taken on the same date. She was attending a cardiac appointment two counties away.
Vanessa shook her head.
“He brought an older woman.”
“Someone pretended to be my mother?”
“I did not know.”
“You did not check her identification?”
“Evan said she had lost it.”
“And you accepted that?”
“He was my client. Then he became…”
“Your affair partner.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Clara felt no satisfaction in humiliating her. She wanted facts.
“Did Evan ask you to notarize anything else?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“He asked me to prepare documents removing you as successor trustee.”
Clara’s expression changed.
“From what?”
“Margaret’s family trust.”
The trust held the house, two small rental properties, and the remaining proceeds from Thomas Bennett’s construction business.
“Who replaced me?”
Vanessa whispered, “Evan.”
Clara sat down for the first time.
Vanessa began scrolling through her phone.
“I have messages. He told me Margaret wanted the change because you were never home. I believed him.”
“Send everything to my attorney.”
Vanessa looked toward the entrance where security had taken Evan.
“He said once the Denver office opened, we would start a new life.”
“He planned to start it with my mother’s money.”
Vanessa’s face crumpled.
May you like
Clara did not comfort her.
But she gave her Alicia’s contact information.
