Chapter 12 - The Dinner Invitation|
Vincent called the following morning.
I didn't answer.
He tried again through Evelyn, who informed me that Thomas Vale had been identified in the police report and that Vincent had offered to provide security footage from the Moretti estate.
“Do you trust him?” I asked.
“I trust evidence,” Evelyn replied. “I don't make decisions based on whether someone sounds sincere.”
That was why I liked her.
I agreed to speak with Vincent in her office, with a written agenda and no private conversation afterward.
He arrived fifteen minutes early. His face looked tired, and the usual confidence in his movements had been replaced by something more cautious.
He did not try to touch me.
He did not ask me to come home.
He sat across from me and placed a folder on the table.
“Thomas was working with Adrian,” he said. “I have evidence of unauthorized payments and messages between them. I don't yet know how much either man did.”
“Did you know Thomas had been involved with my mother's account?”
“No.”
“Did you know my mother was investigating Adrian?”
“No.”
“Did you ever ask why the scholarship fund disappeared?”
His eyes dropped to the folder.
“No.”
I waited.
He swallowed.
“I should have.”
“Yes.”
There was no point softening the answer.
He opened the folder and showed Evelyn a series of internal reports. Some were useful; others needed independent verification. The evidence suggested that Adrian had used the foundation to move money and had arranged surveillance through Thomas.
It did not yet prove that Vincent had participated.
“Why are you helping me?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“Because someone used your name. Because your mother tried to protect people, and someone punished her for asking questions. And because I owe you more than I can repair with an apology.”
I studied him.
“That almost sounds honest.”
“It is.”
“Then tell me the truth about Sophia.”
He looked down.
“I encouraged her to believe I was unhappy enough to leave you. I made promises I had no right to make. I gave her the bracelet because I wanted to feel admired without having to face what I had become at home.”
“Did you love her?”
“No.”
“Did you love me?”
His answer came too quickly.
“Yes.”
I shook my head.
“You loved being loved by me. That isn't the same thing.”
He flinched, but he didn't argue.
For the first time, I saw him listen without preparing a defense.
Evelyn interrupted before the conversation became personal.
“There's another matter. Adrian has invited several members of the charitable foundation's board to a private dinner tomorrow. He intends to announce a new leadership structure.”
“Why does that concern us?” I asked.
“Because the board has received a letter accusing Claire of misappropriating funds.”
Vincent's expression changed.
“He's trying to make her the scapegoat.”
“Possibly,” Evelyn said. “But we need evidence before we act.”
I looked at the letter in the folder. It described me as the foundation's active director, even though I had never knowingly accepted that role.
“What does Adrian want from the dinner?”
“To control the story before the records become public,” Vincent said.
I closed the folder.
“Then we should let him talk.”
Vincent stared at me.
“No.”
“I'm not asking your permission.”
“You're pregnant. Thomas has already threatened you. Adrian is dangerous.”
“And I'm the person he's trying to frame. I have every right to participate in defending myself.”
“I won't let him put you at risk.”
I leaned forward.
“You don't get to use protection as an excuse to take my choices away again.”
He went silent.
Evelyn proposed a safer alternative: I would not attend the dinner in person. Instead, my attorney would deliver a formal notice that the accusations were disputed and that the original records were being independently examined.
I agreed.
Vincent looked as if he wanted to object, but he held his tongue.
When the meeting ended, he remained seated.
“Claire, can I ask you one thing?”
“You can ask.”
“Is there any part of you that still believes we could have been happy?”
The question hurt because the answer was complicated.
“Yes,” I said. “There was.”
He looked up, hope appearing in his eyes.
I continued.
“But I can't build a future with the man you might become. I have to decide what I can live with now.”
His hope faded.
I stood and left with Evelyn.
That evening, Adrian's dinner invitation arrived at Vincent's office with a handwritten note.
Family business should remain within the family.
May you like
Beneath the note was a second sentence.
Tell Claire that some secrets are worth more when they stay buried.
