Chapter 16 - Vanessa’s Last Night in the HouseVanessa never reached the airport.
She never tried.
The ticket was a distraction.
At 10:26 p.m., while David, Rachel, Margaret, Mark, and Officer Brooks believed Vanessa was heading toward an international terminal, the security system at the Mercer house sent David an alert.
Basement door opened.
David stared at the notification.
“No.”
Rachel leaned over.
“What?”
“Vanessa’s at the house.”
Brooks immediately called dispatch.
David was already moving.
“Stay here,” Brooks ordered.
“That’s my mother’s house.”
“And we don’t know whether Vanessa is alone.”
Margaret grabbed David’s arm.
“Listen to her.”
David looked at his mother.
The fear in her face stopped him.
Police reached the property first.
Vanessa was inside.
Alone.
She had entered using the old mudroom key.
Officers found her in Thomas’s study.
Drawers open.
Books pulled from shelves.
Papers scattered everywhere.
She was searching.
For the ledger.
When David arrived, Vanessa was sitting on the front steps with an officer nearby.
No handcuffs yet.
The situation remained legally complicated because she still had residency rights, though the earlier investigation now carried far more evidence.
She looked up at David.
“You found it.”
He stopped.
“The ledger?”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“Of course.”
“How did you know?”
“Because Mark stopped answering me.”
David stared at her.
“Was any of it real?”
She looked almost amused.
“What?”
“Us.”
The question sounded pathetic once spoken.
But he needed the answer.
Vanessa looked toward the yard.
“For a while.”
David’s chest tightened.
“How long is a while?”
“Years.”
“Then why?”
She looked at him.
“You think people wake up one morning and become terrible?”
“I watched you walk away from my mother while she screamed.”
Vanessa’s expression flickered.
“I know.”
“Why?”
“She threatened everything.”
“What everything?”
“My life.”
“She had evidence you were stealing.”
“She had evidence I was having an affair.”
“That too.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You have no idea what it’s like living with someone who watches you all the time.”
David stared.
“My seventy-year-old mother?”
“She was always there.”
“You invited her to live with us.”
“You wanted her here.”
“You said you did too.”
“I tried.”
Vanessa’s voice rose.
“I tried to be good to her. I cooked. I drove her places. I cleaned after her. I listened to the same stories every day.”
“So you tortured her.”
“I lost control.”
“You threatened the freezer weeks before.”
Vanessa froze.
David saw it.
“The recorder caught more than you thought.”
That was a bluff.
The missing recorder remained with Andrew.
But Vanessa didn’t know what had been recovered.
Her face changed.
“What did she record?”
David said nothing.
Vanessa stood.
The officer moved closer.
She remained where she was.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“She wasn’t supposed to be in there for long.”
“That doesn’t help you.”
“I wanted the recorder.”
“You could have taken it.”
“She wouldn’t give it to me.”
“So you pushed her into a freezer.”
“I wanted to scare her.”
David stepped closer.
“She was begging.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“She had been threatening me all afternoon.”
“She was exposing you.”
“Yes!”
The word exploded out of her.
For the first time, Vanessa’s carefully controlled face cracked.
“She was going to tell you about Mark. About the money. About Andrew. Everything.”
“So you decided to silence her.”
“I decided to make her tell me where the recorder was.”
“And if she didn’t?”
Vanessa stopped.
David’s voice lowered.
“How long would you have left her?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s the problem.”
Vanessa looked away.
David felt nothing resembling love anymore.
Only grief.
Not for the marriage.
For the years he had misunderstood.
“Did you ever plan to kill her?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“I swear.”
David believed that she believed it.
Vanessa did not consider what she had done attempted murder.
She considered it pressure.
Punishment.
A temporary lesson.
That somehow made it more disturbing.
She truly believed terror was acceptable if she intended to stop eventually.
“Why the food?”
Vanessa laughed.
“Because she kept taking it upstairs.”
“Because you were restricting her meals.”
“I was trying to create routine.”
“You told her I was embarrassed by her.”
Vanessa said nothing.
“You moved her belongings.”
Silence.
“You changed appointments.”
Silence.
“You were making her think she was losing her mind.”
Vanessa finally looked at him.
“I needed people to believe it.”
There.
No excuse.
No denial.
Just truth.
David felt physically cold.
A patrol car turned into the driveway.
Officer Brooks stepped out.
She walked toward them holding her phone.
“Vanessa Mercer.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
Brooks continued.
“We just spoke with Andrew Blake.”
Vanessa became completely still.
“He turned over recordings, documents, and communications.”
David watched the realization hit.
Andrew had betrayed her.
Brooks stepped closer.
“You need to come with me.”
Vanessa looked at David.
Not apologetic.
Not afraid.
Furious.
“You did this.”
David almost laughed.
“No.”
He looked toward the house.
“You did.”
Vanessa was handcuffed.
As Brooks guided her toward the car, Vanessa twisted back.
“Ask Margaret about Thomas!”
David frowned.
Vanessa laughed.
“You think she’s innocent?”
“Stop.”
“She’s been lying to you longer than I ever did!”
Margaret had arrived with Rachel and stood near the driveway.
Vanessa saw her.
“Tell him!”
Margaret’s face went pale.
David looked between them.
“Tell me what?”
Vanessa smiled despite the handcuffs.
“Tell him why Thomas really created that trust.”
May you like
Margaret closed her eyes.
And David realized Vanessa still had one secret left.
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