Chapter 5
She looked directly at me.
“He was planning an exit strategy.”
Evelyn inserted the flash drive into her laptop.
File after file appeared.
Emails.
Spreadsheets.
Audio recordings.
One folder was labeled simply: CLEAN BREAK.
Evelyn opened it.
My stomach turned.
There were documents showing Daniel’s plan.
Sell several assets.
Move money offshore.
Trigger an internal audit.
Then claim that I had secretly controlled the fraudulent accounts.
Vanessa would be accused of assisting me.
Daniel would portray himself as the betrayed husband and CEO who had been deceived by two women.
“He was going to destroy both of us,” Vanessa whispered.
Then we heard Daniel’s voice from one of the recordings.
“If the numbers ever surface, Claire takes the fall.”
Another man asked, “And Vanessa?”
Daniel laughed.
“She’ll take whatever deal she’s offered once she realizes prison is the alternative.”
My skin went cold.
Evelyn stopped the recording.
“This is enough to bring in federal investigators.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Not yet.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“There’s more.”
She opened another folder.
Inside was a photograph.
Daniel standing beside a man I recognized.
Victor Bellamy.
Owner of Bellamy Jewelers.
I frowned.
“What does a jeweler have to do with this?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Bellamy Jewelers isn’t just where Daniel buys gifts.”
She explained that Victor Bellamy had been converting money into high-value diamonds.
Diamonds were easier to move than cash.
Harder to trace.
Daniel had been buying stones through company intermediaries and hiding them in private accounts.
The jewelry store was part of the laundering network.
The diamonds he had bought that morning had never been intended for Vanessa.
I stared at her.
“What?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I never asked him for jewelry.”
“Then why was he there?”
She looked grim.
“He was moving assets.”
That morning, Daniel had not been shopping romantically.
He had been preparing to disappear.
The timing had been coincidence.
Or so I thought.
Then Vanessa said, “There’s something else.”
She pulled out her phone.
“I texted him last night.”
She showed me the message.
Claire knows more than you think.
I looked at her sharply.
“You warned him?”
“No. I baited him.”
She played the reply.
Daniel: How much?
Vanessa: Enough that you should move whatever you can.
Daniel: Tomorrow morning.
Bellamy Jewelers.
9:24.
I looked at her.
“You sent him there.”
“I needed proof he would move the diamonds.”