Chapter 3 - The Friend Who Planned Everything
Evelyn stared at the photograph until the edges began to blur.
Vanessa was standing outside a bank, wearing a cream coat and sunglasses. Her hair was shorter than it was now, but Evelyn recognized her immediately.
The date was unmistakable.
Three days before Evelyn married Dominic.
“Where did you find this?” Evelyn asked.
Lily shook her head.
“It was under the cutting table. I swear it wasn't there yesterday.”
Evelyn turned the photograph over again.
She didn't meet Dominic by accident.
For years, she had believed Vanessa and Dominic had met through a mutual acquaintance at a charity fundraiser. Vanessa had been introduced as an event planner, and Dominic had been a wealthy businessman with an intimidating reputation.
Evelyn had never questioned it.
Why would she?
Vanessa had been her closest friend.
Dominic had been the man she loved.
The two most important people in her life had supposedly found each other through her.
Now she wondered whether she had been the last person to understand what was happening.
“Can you find out which bank this is?” she asked Lily.
“I can try.”
“Don't contact anyone connected to Dominic.”
Lily nodded.
Evelyn slipped the photograph into her handbag.
She was about to leave when her phone rang.
An unfamiliar number.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Daniel Price. I'm an attorney. I represent a former business partner of your husband's.”
Evelyn immediately became cautious.
“What does he want?”
“He wants to speak with you privately.”
“About what?”
“Your company. Specifically, the Mercer textile acquisition.”
Evelyn's fingers tightened around the phone.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Mrs. Mercer, your signature appears on several documents transferring intellectual property from your design company to a holding company controlled by Dominic Mercer.”
“That transfer was temporary.”
“According to the records, it wasn't.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Three years earlier, Dominic had asked her to sign paperwork relating to a business restructuring. He had explained that the documents would protect her designs from creditors if one of his companies encountered legal trouble.
She remembered sitting in his study, signing page after page while he kissed her forehead.
“You trust me, don't you?” he had asked.
She had said yes.
“I'd like to see those documents,” Evelyn said.
“Then I suggest we meet today.”
An hour later, she sat across from Daniel Price in a small law office overlooking Independence Mall.
He was in his early fifties, with silver hair and the careful manner of someone accustomed to delivering unpleasant news.
He placed a folder on the desk.
“Your husband transferred ownership of your original collection to Mercer Holdings three years ago.”
Evelyn stared at the papers.
“That can't be right.”
“Your signature is on every page.”
“I was told I was signing a temporary licensing agreement.”
“Unfortunately, the documents say otherwise.”
She turned another page.
There it was.
Her name.
Her signature.
Her company.
And a transfer value of one dollar.
“One dollar?” she whispered.
Daniel nodded.
“There is another problem. Some of the designs were later used as collateral for loans taken out by a company that has recently become insolvent.”
Evelyn looked up.
“What does that mean?”
“It means your intellectual property may have been used to secure millions of dollars in debt without your knowledge.”
She sat motionless.
Dominic hadn't simply asked her to close her studio.
He had taken the work she had spent years building and used it to support his business empire.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because my client believes you were deceived.”
“Who is your client?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Anthony Bell.”
Evelyn recognized the name.
Anthony Bell was one of Dominic's oldest business associates. A former ally who had disappeared from the Mercer circle six months earlier after a bitter disagreement.
“Is he trying to destroy my husband?”
“He is trying to protect himself. Whether that helps you is another question.”
Daniel slid another document across the desk.
“This is a payment authorization connected to the holding company.”
Evelyn read the name of the beneficiary.
Vanessa Hale.
The payment had been made monthly for almost three years.
Not as an employee.
Not as a consultant.
As a silent beneficiary.
The amounts were staggering.
Evelyn felt physically sick.
“She's been receiving money from my company?”
“From a company that owns your intellectual property, yes.”
“Does Dominic know?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Mrs. Mercer, I suspect he knows considerably more than you realize.”
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
Then she noticed something unusual.
A second signature appeared on the authorization.
Not Dominic's.
Not Vanessa's.
Her mother's.
Margaret Mercer.
Evelyn stood so quickly that her chair scraped backward.
“Why is my mother's signature on this?”
Daniel removed his glasses.
“That is precisely why I wanted to meet with you.”
He opened another folder.
Inside was a medical payment record from seven years earlier.
The surgery that Dominic had supposedly paid for had been funded through a private account belonging to Evelyn's design company.
The account had been opened before her marriage.
The money had come from a trust her grandmother left her.
Dominic hadn't paid for her mother's treatment.
Evelyn had.
Without knowing it.
“Who authorized the withdrawals?” she asked.
Daniel pointed to the bottom of the page.
Vanessa Hale.
Evelyn felt the room tilt.
Her best friend had accessed her company accounts.
Her husband had transferred her business.
And someone had used her mother's signature to make it look legitimate.
But the worst part was still waiting.
Daniel pulled out one final document.
It was a photograph of a handwritten letter dated three weeks before Evelyn's wedding.
The letter was addressed to Dominic.
The handwriting was unmistakably Vanessa's.
If you marry her, remember our agreement. I expect my share.
Evelyn read it twice.
Then she looked at Daniel.
“What agreement?”
He didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he turned the page.
There was a second letter.
This one was written by Dominic.
May you like
And the first sentence made Evelyn's blood run cold.
Once Evelyn signs the final papers, we can finally get rid of her.
