Chapter 6
I drove to my company headquarters with Olivia beside me.
For nearly ten years, Carter Construction had been my pride.
I'd started with one pickup truck, a borrowed ladder, and two employees.
Now we worked on commercial renovations across Georgia.
We had contracts worth millions.
And forty-two families depended on the business.
The thought that someone inside my company might be helping Vanessa made me physically sick.
David met us in the conference room.
He looked exhausted.
"Nick, we've isolated the account used for the attempted transfer."
I sat down.
"Whose was it?"
David hesitated.
"Melissa Grant."
I stared at him.
"Melissa?"
My office administrator.
She'd worked for me for five years.
She handled schedules, invoices, employee records, and vendor communications.
She'd attended my birthday parties.
She'd met my mother.
I'd trusted her completely.
"Are you sure?"
David nodded.
"The request came through credentials assigned to her."
Olivia leaned forward.
"That doesn't necessarily mean she submitted it. We need to establish whether the credentials were compromised."
I nodded.
"Where is she?"
"In her office."
I stood.
Olivia stopped me.
"Nick, don't confront her alone."
I took a breath.
She was right.
We arranged a meeting with Melissa and a company representative.
Melissa entered looking confused.
"Is something wrong?"
I stared at her.
"Did you authorize a transfer from our reserve account?"
Her face went pale.
"What?"
"Five hundred thousand dollars."
She sat down abruptly.
"No."
David showed her the transaction record.
Melissa covered her mouth.
"That's impossible."
Olivia asked whether she'd shared her credentials.
Melissa shook her head.
"Never."
Then she hesitated.
"Except..."
My stomach tightened.
"Except what?"
She looked at me.
"Vanessa asked me to help her print wedding documents last month."
I closed my eyes.
"Go on."
Melissa explained that Vanessa had visited the office while I was at a construction site.
She said she needed to access a shared printer and asked Melissa to sign into the computer.
Melissa did.
Then Vanessa asked for privacy while she prepared a surprise for me.
"I stepped out for about twenty minutes," Melissa whispered.
I stared at her.
"Did she use your computer?"
Melissa began crying.
"I think so."
Olivia asked whether any security software had flagged unusual activity.
David checked.
The logs showed that new authentication information had been registered during Vanessa's visit.
The attempted transfer had used that new method.
Melissa looked devastated.
"I'm so sorry, Nick."
I was angry.
But I could see she hadn't understood what was happening.
I took a slow breath.
"We need to determine exactly what she did."
Melissa nodded.
"I'll cooperate with everything."
Olivia arranged for the relevant devices and logs to be preserved and examined.
Then she contacted the investigators handling the financial fraud report.
The evidence was growing.
Vanessa wasn't merely using my personal relationship to steal from me.
She was using my employees.
My business systems.
My reputation.
Everything I'd spent years building.
That afternoon, I returned to my mother's house.
She was in the garden, trimming roses.
When she saw me, she smiled.
"Nick! Have you eaten?"
I almost laughed.
Even after everything, her first question was whether I was hungry.
"Not yet."
"Then come inside."
I followed her into the kitchen.
She warmed leftover chicken and rice.
I sat at the table, feeling like a boy again.
For several minutes, we ate in comfortable silence.
Then Mom looked at me.
"Something's troubling you."
I nodded.
"The investigation is getting bigger."
She put down her fork.
"Are you in danger?"
I hesitated.
"I don't think so. But Vanessa may have taken more money than we realized."
Martha looked sad.
"That girl had everything she needed."
I stared at her.
"Apparently not."
My mother reached across the table.
"Nick, don't let this make you bitter."
I looked away.
"How can I not?"
She sighed.
"When your father died, I was angry for a long time."
I turned toward her.
"You never told me that."
She smiled sadly.
"I was angry at the world. At the doctors. At God. At everyone who still had a husband."
I swallowed.
She continued.
"But one day I realized my anger was taking away the time I still had with you."
I stared at her.
"So I chose to keep living."
Her words settled inside me.
I had spent the past week thinking about what Vanessa had stolen.
Money.
Trust.
The future I'd imagined.
But sitting across from my mother, I remembered what she hadn't taken.
My family.
My work.
My ability to rebuild.
My chance to choose differently.
"Mom," I whispered, "I'm scared."
She reached for my hand.
"I know, baby."
"What if the business doesn't survive?"
"Then you'll build something else."
I shook my head.
"You make it sound easy."
She smiled.
"It won't be."
Then she squeezed my hand.
"But you've done hard things before."
I looked at her.
She had worked two jobs to raise me.
She had buried my father and kept going.
She had endured humiliation in front of two hundred people and still worried about me.
If anyone understood strength, it was Martha Carter.
That evening, I received a call from an unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
"Hello?"
A woman spoke quietly.
"Is this Nicholas Carter?"
"Yes."
"My name is Denise Monroe."
I frowned.
"Are you related to Vanessa?"
"She's my younger sister."
I sat up.
Vanessa had told me she was an only child.
"Your sister?"
"Yes."
I stared at the phone.
"Vanessa said she didn't have siblings."
Denise laughed bitterly.
"That doesn't surprise me."
I took a slow breath.
"What do you want?"
"I saw what happened at the engagement party."
I remained silent.
Then Denise said, "I want to help you."
I glanced toward the kitchen.
"Why?"
Her voice trembled.
"Because my sister has been doing this for years."
I felt cold.
"Doing what?"
"Finding wealthy men. Making them believe she's in love. Then taking everything she can."
I swallowed.
"Why are you telling me now?"
Denise was quiet.
Then she whispered, "Because Patricia helped her destroy my marriage too."
I stared at the wall.
"What?"
"My mother and Vanessa convinced my husband to invest our savings in a company they controlled."
My stomach tightened.
"How much?"
"Almost everything."
I closed my eyes.
Denise continued.
"When I confronted them, they told everyone I was unstable."
I remembered Brianna's warning.
Patricia had been trying to portray my mother as aggressive.
The pattern was repeating.
Denise took a trembling breath.
"I have documents, Nick."
"What documents?"
"Old company records. Messages. Bank statements."
I gripped the phone.
"Will you give them to my attorney?"
"Yes."
Then she hesitated.
"But you need to understand something."
"What?"
"Vanessa is dangerous when she loses control."
I stared ahead.
Denise continued.
"She won't just walk away from you."
My pulse quickened.
"Why?"
Her voice became almost a whisper.
"Because you embarrassed her in front of two hundred people."
I thought about Vanessa's furious face in the ballroom.
"She wants revenge?"
"Yes."
May you like
Then Denise said the words that made me stand.
"And Nick, I think she's going after your mother next."
