Chapter 15 - The Lawyer’s Call
Real fear finally entered Vanessa’s eyes. The golden goose was slipping from her grasp, and she scrambled for the only leverage she thought she had left.
“Then you’ll regret it,” she hissed, her face contorting into an ugly sneer. “I have signed contracts in both our names. The venue, the custom designers, the honeymoon villa—nearly nine hundred thousand dollars in non-refundable deposits. Cancel this wedding now, and your precious family pays every single cent. The media will eat you alive.”
That was my final confirmation. She had taken the bait perfectly.
Vanessa had insisted Daniel authorize her to manage the wedding expenses through a special, joint account. He believed the account contained his own hard-earned money. It did not. My attorneys had funded it with a heavily monitored, traceable reserve exactly for this scenario, after Rosa had reported her pressuring vendors to inflate their invoices.
I looked at her, completely unfazed by her threat.
“Which contracts are you referring to, Vanessa?” I asked smoothly.
“All of them!” she yelled. “You're on the hook for millions!”
“And what about the consulting commissions?”
Her eyes narrowed, a flash of genuine uncertainty crossing her features. “What are you talking about?”
I pulled my cell phone from my dry inner pocket and called our general counsel, Martin Hale. I put the phone on speaker and set it next to the recorder.
“Martin, we have confirmation,” I told him, not taking my eyes off Vanessa.
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“Understood, Eleanor,” Martin’s crisp, professional voice filled the room. “The fraudulent payment requests have been officially frozen by the bank. The financial-crimes investigators are standing by outside your gates.”
Daniel stepped forward, shaking his head in confusion. “Fraudulent? Mom, what is going on?”
