Chapter 4 - Unraveling the WebBack at the mansion, Adrian didn't give up. If Clara couldn't be found through conventional means, he would use every corporate resource at his disposal to track her down—not to force her back, but to ensure she was safe and to offer restitution for what he had put her through.
Before he could call his private investigators, however, his intercom buzzed.
"Mr. Hayes?" the head housekeeper’s voice crackled through the speaker. "There’s a gentleman here to see you. He says it’s regarding Vanessa Cole."
Adrian frowned. "Send him in."
A minute later, a tall, impeccably dressed man in a charcoal suit walked into the study. He carried a heavy leather briefcase and introduced himself as Marcus Vance, a private investigator specializing in corporate background checks and asset recovery.
"Mr. Hayes, I apologize for dropping by unannounced," Vance said, taking a seat opposite Adrian’s massive mahogany desk. "My firm was recently hired by a third party to investigate Vanessa Cole’s financial activities. In the course of our investigation, we uncovered some... irregularities that directly intersect with your household."
Adrian leaned forward, narrowing his eyes. "What kind of irregularities?"
Vance opened his briefcase and laid out a series of bank statements, corporate registry printouts, and wire transfer receipts.
"Vanessa Cole is not an independent designer, Mr. Hayes," Vance explained smoothly. "Her real name is Vanessa Sterling. Six years ago, she was involved in a high-profile asset-draining scheme targeting affluent executives in Chicago. She worms her way into their domestic lives, builds dependence, manipulates family dynamics to isolate the target from loyal long-term staff, and then systematically empties joint accounts or pressures the target into signing ill-advised investment contracts."
Adrian stared at the documents. The wire transfers showed thousands of dollars moving from accounts connected to his own subsidiaries into shell companies controlled by Vanessa and an alias associated with her former associates.
"She was targeting my company?" Adrian breathed, the blood draining from his face.
"Not just your company—your entire estate," Vance corrected. "She calculated that if she could get you to fire Clara—your most trusted household manager who kept meticulous records of every penny spent—she would have had total control over your household accounts within three months. Pushing the stroller wasn't a clumsy accident, Mr. Hayes. It was a calculated panic move when she realized Clara was onto her audit of the pantry supply budgets."
Adrian slammed his fist onto the desk so hard the coffee mug rattled. The sheer, terrifying magnitude of his own blindness hit him like a physical blow. He had nearly sacrificed his daughter’s life and driven away the purest, most loyal soul he had ever known, all while entertaining a professional con artist.
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"Can you put her away?" Adrian asked, his voice trembling with cold rage.
"With these financial records and the video footage your daughter provided me this morning," Vance smiled faintly, "Vanessa Sterling won't just be out of your life—she’ll be facing federal wire fraud and child endangerment charges by sundown."
