Chapter 3: The Signature on the Missing Page
Richard reached the villa in less than three minutes.
He found Vanessa standing in the middle of the bedroom, barefoot, her hair tangled around her shoulders. Two suitcases lay open on the carpet. Clothes had been pulled from drawers and scattered across the bed.
The small wall safe stood open.
Its door hung crookedly.
Vanessa pointed at it.
“Look at this! Someone broke in!””
Richard stepped inside.
“Did you call security?””
“They're coming.””
“Did anything else disappear?””
Vanessa wiped her cheeks.
“My jewelry. Some cash. My passport.””
Richard looked at the safe.
“Anything else?””
She hesitated.
Then she whispered, “The envelope.””
He closed the bedroom door.
“Tell me about it.””
Vanessa shook her head.
“Not now.””
“Now.””
“Richard, someone has been in our room. Can you please stop interrogating me?””
He took the brass key from his pocket and placed it on the dresser.
“Eleanor gave me this.””
Vanessa went completely still.
For several seconds, the only sound was the air conditioner humming above them.
Then she whispered, “You shouldn't have taken it.””
Richard felt his heart begin to pound.
“You know what it opens.””
Vanessa looked away.
“It's an old safe-deposit box. Your wife has been keeping things from you for years.””
“What things?””
“Things that have nothing to do with us.””
“Then why are you afraid of a key?””
She grabbed her phone.
“I'm calling the police.””
Richard stepped between her and the door.
“Not until you tell me what was in the envelope.””
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“It was private.””
“Was it about me?””
She didn't answer.
He thought of the hotel invoice, the company name, and the seventy-two thousand dollars.
“Was it about the money?””
Vanessa's expression changed.
It was tiny, almost invisible.
But Richard saw it.
He reached for the folder Eleanor had given him. He had carried it upstairs without realizing it, gripping it so tightly that the edges had bent.
He opened it on the bed.
“Cole Strategic Partners,” he said.
“What was this company?””
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
“An investment company.””
“Whose investment?””
“Ours.””
“I never invested in it.””
“You transferred the money.””
“Because you told me it was a temporary investment.””
“It was!””
“Then why did it dissolve three weeks later?””
Vanessa walked toward him.
“Richard, please. You're tired. You're upset. Eleanor has been manipulating you since the day you met her.””
He stared at her.
“She said your mother died eleven years ago.””
Vanessa's face went blank.
Then she laughed.
A short, brittle sound.
“My mother did die.””
“Not in 2019.””
Vanessa's eyes flashed.
“How would Eleanor know anything about my mother?””
“Because she knows everything about that night.””
He held up the hotel invoice.
“Why was this room paid for by a company using her maiden name?””
Vanessa stared at the paper.
Then she reached for it.
Richard pulled it away.
“Don't.””
Her hand fell to her side.
“Richard, you need to understand something. Eleanor has always been obsessed with controlling you. She knew about the affair before you did. She wanted to make sure you could never leave her without losing everything.””
He shook his head.
“That's not an answer.””
“It's the truth!””
“Then explain the signature.””
Vanessa looked at the bottom of the invoice.
For the first time since he'd met her, she seemed unable to find the right words.
Richard felt something inside him begin to break.
“You told me we met by chance.””
“We did.””
“Then why was the room paid for by a company connected to my wife?””
Vanessa's eyes filled again.
“Because I was trying to protect you.””
“From what?””
Before she could respond, someone knocked on the door.
Three firm knocks.
Vanessa jumped.
Richard opened it.
Malik stood in the hallway with two resort security officers.
“Mr. Richard,” Malik said, “I'm sorry to disturb you. We received a report about the missing property.””
One of the officers, a broad-shouldered man wearing a navy uniform, glanced into the room.
“Ma'am, we need to ask you a few questions.””
Vanessa immediately changed.
Her shoulders slumped. Her voice softened. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Thank goodness you're here,” she said.
“Someone has stolen my belongings. I think my husband's ex-wife may be involved.””
Richard stared at her.
“You just told me you didn't know how Eleanor found us.””
Vanessa looked at the officer.
“See? He's confused. She's been threatening us.””
The officer raised a hand.
“Let's take this one step at a time.””
Malik remained near the doorway.
“Sir,” he said quietly, “there's something else.””
Richard turned.
“What?””
Malik glanced at Vanessa.
“The woman who came to reception earlier left an envelope with the manager. She said it should only be opened if there was a security incident.””
Vanessa's face drained of color.
“No,” she whispered.
Richard stared at her.
“What is it?””
Malik reached into his jacket and produced a white envelope.
There was no name on the front.
Only a date.
November 17, 2019.
Richard took it.
The envelope was already unsealed.
Inside was a single printed photograph and a folded document.
The photograph showed Richard entering the Whitmore Hotel on the night he had first met Vanessa.
But he wasn't alone.
A woman stood beside him, her face turned away from the camera.
Richard recognized the coat.
It was Eleanor's.
He unfolded the document.
It was a copy of a legal agreement, signed six weeks before his first meeting with Vanessa.
His name appeared at the bottom.
So did Eleanor's.
The agreement concerned a family trust established by Richard's father, who had died ten years earlier. Richard had always understood that the trust belonged to him and that he could access it whenever he wished.
But the document said otherwise.
The money was protected by conditions he had never read carefully.
One of those conditions concerned fraud.
Another concerned any attempt to transfer trust assets through a third party.
And the final clause contained a name.
Vanessa Cole.
Richard looked up slowly.
“What is this?””
Vanessa's lips trembled.
“Give it to me.””
He stepped back.
“What did you sign?””
“Richard, please.””
“What did you sign?””
She covered her face with both hands.
The security officer stepped forward.
“Ma'am, we need you to remain calm.””
Vanessa lowered her hands.
Then she looked directly at Richard.
“I didn't know who you were when we met.””
He stared at her.
“What?””
“I didn't know you were Richard Hayes. Not at first.””
“Then how did you know my name?””
She swallowed.
“Because I was told to find you.””
The room seemed to shrink around him.
“Who told you?””
Vanessa shook her head.
“You won't believe me.””
“Try me.””
She glanced at the document in his hand.
Then she whispered, “Your wife.””
Richard couldn't move.
Vanessa stepped closer, her voice breaking.
“Eleanor hired me to get close to you. She wanted me to find out whether you were planning to move the money out of the trust.””
Richard stared at her, unable to breathe.
“Why would she do that?””
“Because she thought you were stealing from her.””
“That's insane.””
“Richard, I swear, I didn't understand how far it would go. I thought it was a business arrangement. I was supposed to gather information and report back.””
He looked at the woman he had left his wife for.
The woman who had told him he deserved happiness.
The woman who had cried in his arms and promised she would never lie to him.
“You told me you loved me.””
Vanessa's chin trembled.
“I do.””
“You were paid to meet me.””
“At first.””
“And the money?””
She closed her eyes.
“I was supposed to make sure you couldn't access the trust without Eleanor knowing.””
Richard felt the walls closing in.
“Did you steal the seventy-two thousand dollars?””
Vanessa didn't answer.
He stepped closer.
“Did you?””
She whispered, “It wasn't supposed to be stolen.””
The security officer exchanged a look with his colleague.
Richard barely noticed.
He was staring at the legal agreement, at the signature that looked exactly like his own, and at the name printed beneath it.
Vanessa Cole.
Then he saw something else.
A second signature appeared on the last page.
One he hadn't noticed before.
Eleanor Hayes.
But beside her signature was a date that made no sense.
The agreement had supposedly been signed six weeks before Richard met Vanessa.
Yet Eleanor's signature was dated three days after that first meeting.
Richard looked at the document again.
Then at Vanessa.
“You said Eleanor hired you.””
Vanessa nodded through her tears.
“Yes.””
“Before we met?””
“Yes.””
“Then why did she sign this after we met?””
Vanessa opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Richard's phone vibrated.
An email had arrived from an address he didn't recognize.
The subject line read:
*THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT — DO NOT TRUST EITHER WOMAN.*
He opened the attachment.
The first page displayed the same legal agreement.
But this version contained a handwritten note at the bottom.
A note Richard had never seen before.
If Richard discovers the arrangement, tell him the truth about his father.
Beneath the sentence was another name.
Not Eleanor's.
Not Vanessa's.
Richard read it once.
Then again.
And suddenly, the room wasn't spinning because his wife had followed him to the Caribbean.
It was spinning because the person who had started all of this had been dead for ten years.
May you like
His father.
And according to the document, his father had known Vanessa long before Richard ever met her.
