Chapter 5 - Daniel’s First Wife
The words remained on every television screen.
ASK HIM WHAT HAPPENED THE NIGHT HIS FIRST WIFE DIED.
Olivia stared at Daniel.
Her contractions were growing stronger, but for several seconds, the physical pain disappeared beneath the shock.
“First wife?”
Daniel looked as though someone had struck him.
“Olivia, this isn’t the time.”
“You had a wife named Claire?”
Vanessa leaned against the wall, watching him with bitter satisfaction.
“He didn’t just have a wife.”
“Stop,” Daniel warned.
Vanessa ignored him.
“He had the perfect wife.”
Olivia tightened her grip around the edge of the sofa.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Daniel glanced toward the television.
The live image showed all three of them from an angle near the ceiling.
Whoever controlled the hidden camera was listening.
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“After the twins were born.”
“You’ve had three years.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I didn’t want Claire’s death hanging over our marriage.”
“You let me believe I was your first wife.”
“I never said that.”
Olivia stared at him.
The technical truth sounded worse than a direct lie.
“You allowed me to believe it.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“Of losing you.”
Vanessa laughed quietly.
Daniel turned toward her.
“This is not amusing.”
“It is to me.”
She pointed toward the screen.
“Claire always said your greatest talent was making secrets sound like sacrifices.”
Olivia looked at Vanessa.
“You knew her?”
Vanessa’s smile faded.
“We were sisters.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Daniel’s face tightened.
Olivia looked from one to the other.
“Claire was your sister?”
“My older half sister.”
Vanessa spoke with a trembling calmness.
“She was the one everyone admired.”
“Beautiful, intelligent, generous.”
“She married Daniel when they were twenty-six.”
Olivia looked at her husband.
He did not deny it.
Vanessa continued.
“Six years ago, Claire discovered that millions of dollars were disappearing from Bennett Holdings.”
“She believed someone close to Daniel was responsible.”
“Three days later, her car went through a guardrail.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“It was an accident.”
Vanessa looked directly at him.
“That is what you told the police.”
“That is what the investigators concluded.”
“Because the evidence disappeared.”
Daniel stepped toward her.
“I spent years blaming myself for not being in that car.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“You were supposed to be.”
Daniel stopped.
Olivia’s breathing grew shallow.
“What does she mean?”
Daniel looked away.
Vanessa answered for him.
“Claire had asked Daniel to meet her that night.”
“She said she had proof of who was stealing from the company.”
“But Daniel never arrived.”
“Why?” Olivia asked.
Daniel said nothing.
Vanessa reached into her pocket.
She removed an old phone.
The screen was cracked, but it still worked.
She opened an archived message.
A photograph appeared.
Daniel stood in the lobby of a luxury hotel.
Beside him was a younger Vanessa.
The date was the same night Claire died.
Olivia felt as though the room had tilted.
“You were with Vanessa?”
Daniel shook his head.
“It isn’t what it looks like.”
Vanessa laughed.
“You always say that.”
Daniel turned toward Olivia.
“Vanessa called me that night.”
“She claimed Claire was having a breakdown.”
“She told me Claire planned to destroy the company.”
“So you went to a hotel?”
“Vanessa said the documents were there.”
Olivia looked at Vanessa.
“You lured him away from Claire.”
Vanessa’s expression changed.
“For years, I believed I had.”
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa looked toward the television screens.
“Because the message playing now could only have come from Claire.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Claire is dead.”
“Then who recorded Vanessa attacking me?” Olivia asked.
No one answered.
A new message appeared on the television.
VANESSA DID NOT KILL CLAIRE.
Vanessa stepped closer to the screen.
Her lips parted.
The message changed.
BUT SHE KNOWS WHO BENEFITED.
Daniel looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa slowly lowered the old phone.
“I didn’t come here only for the money.”
“You threatened my children,” Olivia said.
Vanessa looked at her.
“I needed the trust code before someone else took everything.”
“Who?”
Vanessa hesitated.
A violent pounding suddenly shook the front door.
“Daniel Bennett!”
A male voice echoed from outside.
“Open the door!”
Daniel recognized the voice.
“Samuel?”
Family attorney Samuel Price pounded again.
“Daniel, do not authorize anything!”
“The trust has been compromised!”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“No.”
She hurried toward the front door.
Daniel blocked her.
“What are you doing?”
“We cannot let him inside.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel Price was the last person Claire called before she died.”
The television screens went black.
Then a final message appeared.
DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR.
At the same moment, Samuel shouted from outside.
May you like
“Vanessa is trying to kill Olivia!”
“Open the door before she finishes what she started!”
