Chapter 17 - The Price of FearPolice found no evidence the car following Tasha belonged to Richard.
The license plate was obscured.
The driver never approached her.
That made the incident frightening but legally uncertain.
Daniel hired security for Tasha.
She refused at first.
Then accepted after realizing pride wasn't worth Caleb's safety.
Richard denied involvement.
His attorney called the accusation defamatory.
Meanwhile, the forensic team continued.
They discovered Richard had transferred funds through a network of limited liability companies into real-estate accounts in Florida and Nevada.
Some money had purchased property.
Some had disappeared.
The company froze what it could through emergency civil filings.
No single moment solved the case.
Instead, evidence accumulated.
Bank record by bank record.
Email by email.
Signature by signature.
Daniel began sleeping four hours a night.
One evening Eleanor found him in the office.
"You look like your father."
"That's not a compliment."
"It wasn't meant as one."
She sat.
"Go home."
"I am home."
"No. You're hiding in work."
Daniel looked up.
"There's a difference?"
"Your wife lied because she thought work was the only place you knew how to live."
He stiffened.
"Don't use her crimes to criticize me."
"I'm using your marriage to criticize you."
Daniel leaned back.
Eleanor continued.
"Vanessa is responsible for what she did."
"Good."
"And you are responsible for becoming a husband who could live beside someone for months without realizing she had lost your baby."
The words hit hard.
Daniel stood.
"That's unfair."
"Yes."
Eleanor's eyes filled.
"Grief is unfair."
He turned toward the window.
"I didn't know."
"That is exactly what I'm saying."
For months Daniel had asked how Vanessa could deceive him.
He had never asked how two people could become distant enough for such deception to survive.
He remembered business dinners.
Flights.
Calls he took during breakfast.
The night Vanessa said she was afraid of losing the pregnancy and Daniel answered an email before answering her.
None of that made her choices his fault.
But responsibility was not a pie.
Her guilt did not eliminate his failures.
Later he found Vanessa sitting alone near the dark pool.
Security kept reporters outside the gates.
She wore jeans and an oversized sweater.
Without the fake belly, she looked like someone from another time.
Daniel sat several feet away.
"I talked to my mother."
Vanessa almost smiled.
"I'm sorry."
"She said I was absent."
Vanessa looked at him.
"You were."
"I know."
Silence.
Daniel stared at the water.
"Why didn't you call me when you miscarried?"
She answered honestly.
"I did."
He turned.
"What?"
"I called."
"I never got a call."
"I hung up before it connected."
She looked down.
"Three times."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Vanessa continued.
"I wanted you to know without me having to say it."
"That's impossible."
"I know."
"Why?"
"Because saying it made it real."
She began crying.
Daniel did not touch her.
But he stayed.
For ten minutes neither spoke.
Finally Vanessa said, "I'm going to cooperate with investigators."
Daniel looked at her.
"Claire says it may help."
"Legally?"
"Maybe."
"And if it doesn't?"
She watched the pool.
"Then it doesn't."
Daniel heard something new in her voice.
Acceptance.
She had spent months trying to control consequences.
Now she was finally allowing them to exist.
Before Daniel stood, Vanessa said, "There's something I need you to promise."
"What?"
"Don't forgive me because you feel sorry for me."
He looked at her.
"I won't."
She nodded.
May you like
"Good."
For the first time since the party, they agreed completely.
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