Chapter 20 - The Last Person I Expected to Help
Vanessa Monroe appeared at my office on a Thursday afternoon.
For several seconds, I thought my receptionist had misunderstood the name.
"Vanessa Monroe?" I repeated.
"Yes, Mrs. Hale. She says it's important."
I stared at the telephone.
The woman who had once stood before six hundred people and falsely claimed to be carrying my husband's child wanted to see me.
Under different circumstances, I would have declined immediately.
But my instincts told me her unexpected arrival might be connected to the investigation.
"Ask security to verify the appointment area," I said. "And let Evelyn know."
Ten minutes later, Vanessa entered the conference room.
She looked different.
Her expensive designer clothes were gone.
She wore ordinary black trousers and a simple beige cardigan.
Her hair was pulled back without elaborate styling.
And in her arms was a small boy.
Her son.
The child whose existence she had once used as a weapon against my marriage.
Vanessa stopped a few feet from the table.
"Claire."
I remained seated.
"Why are you here?"
She looked down.
"I know I don't deserve your time."
"That doesn't answer my question."
She swallowed.
"I heard about Grace."
My expression hardened.
"Leave my daughter out of this."
"I'm not here to hurt her."
I watched her carefully.
The baby in her arms stirred, and she gently adjusted his blanket.
His name, she explained, was Noah.
He had been born after the scandal at the St. Regis.
Vanessa was raising him under the conditions of her probation while working part-time and attending court-required financial counseling.
She had lost most of her former social connections.
For once, she wasn't pretending that those losses made her a victim.
"I did terrible things," she said. "I lied about Grayson. I used my pregnancy to manipulate people. And I helped Carter Hayes commit fraud."
I said nothing.
She took a breath.
"But there's something I didn't understand until recently."
"What?"
"Carter wasn't the person who originally approached me."
My attention sharpened.
"Who was?"
"A man named Leonard Shaw."
I sat up.
Vanessa noticed.
"You know him."
"We're investigating financial transactions involving his companies."
She nodded.
"Then you need to hear what I know."
She reached into her handbag and removed a small envelope.
Inside was a copy of a voicemail recording and a set of messages she had retained from her dealings with Carter.
"I gave most of my evidence to the prosecutors," she explained. "But these were recovered from an old backup during a recent review with my attorney."
Evelyn, seated beside me, asked whether Vanessa had already provided the material to investigators.
"Not yet. My lawyer is arranging it."
We listened to the recording.
Carter's voice came through the speakers.
He was speaking to Vanessa shortly before the gala.
"Shaw says Caldwell has enough leverage to keep Hale distracted. Our job is to make the market believe Grayson's personal life is falling apart. Everything else is being handled."
Vanessa paused the recording.
"I didn't understand what he meant by leverage."
My fingers tightened around my coffee cup.
"Did Carter ever mention adoption?"
She nodded slowly.
"Once. He said the Hales were desperate for a family, and Caldwell knew exactly how to use that."
I felt nauseated.
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
"I thought he was talking about your infertility struggles. I didn't know there was a child involved in anything illegal."
"You knew enough to attack our marriage," I replied.
"Yes."
She didn't argue.
"I did."
For the first time, I believed her remorse might be genuine.
Not because she had become someone perfect.
But because she no longer seemed interested in escaping responsibility.
She had come to provide information even though doing so could bring renewed attention to her crimes.
"Why risk getting involved again?" I asked.
Vanessa looked down at Noah.
"Because having him changed the way I see what I did."
Her voice trembled.
"I used my unborn child as a prop. I let greedy people decide what his existence was worth. Now I look at him, and I can't imagine somebody taking him away because they thought another family had more money."
Silence filled the room.
I remembered Amelia's face when she held Grace for the first time.
I remembered the yellow blanket.
And I remembered how close I had come to believing money could solve every problem.
"Your testimony could be important," Evelyn said. "But it needs to go through the appropriate investigators, and your attorney should advise you."
Vanessa nodded.
"That's why I brought it."
As she stood to leave, I stopped her.
"Vanessa."
She turned.
"I won't pretend what you did was harmless."
"I know."
"But giving evidence now is the right thing."
She looked close to tears.
"Thank you."
I didn't embrace her.
Some wounds heal without becoming friendships.
After she left, Evelyn called the investigator coordinating the financial inquiry.
The voicemail would need verification, but it appeared to connect Caldwell's organization to Carter's earlier attempt to ruin Grayson.
That evening, Grayson listened to the recording.
He looked stunned.
"So the gala wasn't an isolated attack."
"No," I said.
"It may have been one part of a much larger plan."
He sank into his chair.
"How many people were working against us?"
I didn't answer.
Instead, I replayed the final sentence of Carter's recording.
Everything else is being handled.
Then I noticed something Evelyn hadn't mentioned.
Near the end of the audio, another voice was audible in the background.
A woman.
Faint, but unmistakable.
She said, "Make sure the shelter is cleared before the records are reviewed."
I replayed the sentence.
Grayson stood immediately.
"The South Loop shelter."
I reached for my phone.
But before I could call anyone, breaking news appeared on the television.
FIRE REPORTED AT FAMILY HOUSING FACILITY IN SOUTH LOOP.
May you like
My heart stopped.
Because Amelia had told me that morning she was volunteering there.
