The recipient account belonged to a consultant working for Cain Development.
Vanessa’s brother’s company.
I knew the name. Everyone in the house did. Julian Cain had attended two dinners at the estate and spent most of both evenings joking about how Marcus treated real estate deals like military campaigns.
Now his company had used Cole Meridian’s confidential price ceiling to win a riverfront property.
Vanessa said she had only been trying to help her family stay competitive.
Marcus stared at her.
“With stolen documents?”
She insisted no one was supposed to be hurt.
Then she looked at me.
That was when I understood the part she still had not said.
“Why my phone?” I asked.
Vanessa said nothing.
“Why not yours?”
Her face hardened.
Marcus answered before she did.
“Because if the leak was traced, it would be traced to staff.”
I felt nauseated.
Vanessa snapped that he was being dramatic. She said the phone would have been found eventually and that I would have been questioned, nothing more.
Nothing more.
I thought of the job I expected to lose before breakfast. The health insurance I depended on for Lily. The apartment I could afford only because the estate paid above market. The background check that would follow me to the next household if Cole Meridian marked me as someone involved in corporate theft.
To Vanessa, all of that was nothing more.
Marcus took off the engagement ring he wore on a chain beneath his shirt and placed it on the desk.
Vanessa stopped talking.
“I want you off the property,” he said.
Her expression cracked.
“Marcus.”
“Priya will arrange access to your personal belongings. You will not enter the study, staff areas, or any Cole Meridian office.”
“You’re ending our engagement over a phone?”
“No.” He looked at the screen. “I’m ending it because you were willing to destroy someone who works in my home to hide what you did.”
Vanessa looked at me with naked hatred.
