Daniel wasn't merely trying to defeat me in divorce court.
He was trying to establish control of the company before the prospective buyer discovered that he did not have the authority he claimed.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Vanessa didn't answer immediately.
Then she said, “Because I helped him.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“I know about the affair.”
“Not that.”
“What, then?”
“I helped him prepare the story about you.”
My stomach turned.
Vanessa began speaking quickly.
The communications department had drafted statements describing me as emotionally unstable, financially dependent, and increasingly absent from our children's lives.
Daniel intended to release them if our divorce became public.
Vanessa had written several of those statements herself.
She had also helped him assemble photographs showing me leaving our house with suitcases.
Those photographs were real.
What they omitted was that I had left temporarily after Daniel told me our marriage was over and demanded that I sleep elsewhere.
I had returned repeatedly to care for the boys.
The photographs showed none of that.
“Why would you do this?” I asked.
“I believed him.”
“You were sleeping with my husband.”
“I know.”
“You sat at my dining room table. You asked me about my children. You helped Noah choose his birthday cake.”
Her breathing became uneven.
“I know, Rachel.”
“Then tell me why you're calling.”
She hesitated.
“Because he asked me to draft something else.”
