Chapter 5 - VIVIENNE’S VERSION
Vivienne arrived without the red dress.
Gray suit.
Hair tied simply.
Attorney beside her.
No engagement ring.
She placed it on the conference table before Nicholas asked.
He looked at it.
“Permanent?”
“I don't know.”
“Fine.”
Alexandra began.
The blue folder sat sealed between them.
Vivienne admitted entering Isabella’s breakfast room.
Why?
She had been searching for a letter written by her father.
“How did you know it was there?”
“My father told me.”
Malcolm Hart was seventy-one.
Recovering from a stroke.
Still mentally competent but physically weak.
Two weeks earlier he told Vivienne that Isabella Caruso had kept “Santos papers” which could be used to accuse him of stealing from charity.
“Did he steal?”
Vivienne’s face tightened.
“I didn't know.”
“That's not what I asked.”
“I still don't know the full amount.”
Good answer.
Malcolm said Daniel Santos misunderstood several complex intercompany loans.
He wanted the papers before Vivienne married Nicholas because he feared the Carusos might use them to humiliate the Hart family during merger negotiations.
Nicholas stared.
“Our marriage was not a merger.”
Vivienne gave him a sad look.
“To you.”
That landed.
Hart family expected the engagement to strengthen joint control of two medical-real-estate ventures.
Nicholas knew business benefits existed.
He had underestimated how much her father depended on them.
Vivienne hired no burglar.
She used access Nicholas had given her to the estate.
Found the room.
Could not find folder at first.
Then yesterday she returned.
Lucy was already inside.
Why?
Cookie jar.
She had pulled the blue folder partly from the lower drawer while exploring? A three-year-old can tug. It had fallen.
Mr. Buttons sat on it.
Vivienne panicked.
She demanded Lucy hand over the folder.
Lucy held it.
Vivienne grabbed her wrist.
Harder than intended.
No excuse.
Vivienne cried while admitting it.
“I saw the folder and I saw my father’s name through the paper and I stopped seeing her as a child for about five seconds.”
Maria went completely still.
Vivienne looked at her.
“I am sorry.”
Maria’s answer:
“You hurt my daughter because you were scared of paper.”
“Yes.”
No minimizing.
Then the suitcase.
Vivienne ordered Maria’s belongings packed.
Why?
Because she wanted them out before Nicholas returned and before Maria could ask why the folder mattered.
She assumed Nicholas would accept it to avoid wedding scandal.
That assumption now embarrassed her.
Nicholas asked:
“Did you go into Maria’s apartment?”
“Yes.”
Maria inhaled.
“Did you take Daniel’s drive?”
“No.”
“What were you looking for?”
Vivienne looked at her attorney.
Then answered:
“Anything with my father’s name.”
“You searched my home.”
“Yes.”
“Did you find the toolbox?”
“Yes.”
“Did you open it?”
“Yes.”
“Was the drive there?”
Vivienne paused.
“It was already empty.”
Could be lie.
Security footage from staff corridor showed Vivienne entered Maria’s apartment on the date Maria remembered.
She stayed nine minutes.
No camera inside.
No proof.
Then blue folder.
Alexandra opened it with all parties present after copies were made.
Daniel’s preliminary audit.
$10.7 million in suspicious disbursements.
Vendors linked to Hart-affiliated companies.
Also—
$3.2 million in Caruso-related emergency withdrawals approved by Anthony Caruso years earlier.
Most repaid.
Some records incomplete.
Malcolm’s exposure potentially severe.
But not simple theft of all $10.7 million.
Then a handwritten note by Isabella:
MALCOLM IS HIDING BEHIND ANTHONY’S OLD MISTAKE.
DO NOT LET NICHOLAS TURN THIS INTO REVENGE.
AUDIT FIRST.
Nicholas almost laughed.
His dead mother still giving orders.
Vivienne cried when she read it.
“She didn't think Dad was innocent.”
“No.”
“But she didn't think you should destroy him either.”
“No.”
Nicholas looked at Vivienne.
“What did you think I would do?”
Her eyes met his.
“The same thing everyone thinks you’ll do.”
Violence.
Pressure.
Power.
Nicholas looked away.
That answer mattered.
Then Vivienne said:
“There’s something else.”
Her father had received an anonymous email one month earlier.
SANTOS EVIDENCE STILL EXISTS.
KEEP MARIA OUT OF THE MARRIAGE HOUSE.
Nicholas’s expression changed.
Who sent?
Unknown.
That email triggered Malcolm’s panic.
Vivienne’s search.
Maria’s threatened firing.
The grab.
Someone had deliberately aimed Hart fear toward Maria.
Why?
Perhaps to flush out Daniel’s missing flash drive.
Vivienne handed over the email.
No demand.
No blackmail amount.
Just instruction.
Metadata routed through encrypted mail.
Then Nicholas asked:
“Did your father know Maria worked here before the email?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“I knew her name. I did not connect it to Daniel until Dad told me.”
So someone else had connected them.
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Who knew Daniel’s audit, Maria’s employer, and Vivienne’s marriage plans?
The circle was not large.
