Chapter 7 - The Voice Inside the Bear.
No one spoke while the recording continued.
Lily's tiny voice came through the laptop speakers.
"But Daddy doesn't scare me."
Vanessa answered immediately.
"That is not what I asked."
A chair scraped across the floor in the recording.
Then Vanessa's tone softened into something more dangerous than shouting.
"If you want your father to stay safe, you have to help me."
Adrian closed his eyes.
Carla raised one hand, silently warning him not to interrupt.
The recording continued.
"Say, Daddy gets angry when he drinks wine."
Lily refused.
Vanessa repeated the sentence.
Lily began crying.
Vanessa told her that children who lied about stepmothers could be sent away.
Then she told Lily that Margaret would lose her job if Lily did not cooperate.
Adrian's hands curled into fists beneath the table.
Carla noticed.
"Stay with me, Mr. Mercer."
He forced his fingers open.
The audio shifted after several minutes.
A door opened.
A man's voice entered the room.
"She's still resisting?"
Adrian looked at Carla.
He did not recognize the voice.
Vanessa answered on the recording.
"She's six."
"She'll say whatever an adult repeats often enough."
"We don't need perfect."
"We need doubt."
Adrian stood.
"Who is that?"
Vanessa shouted from the drawing room.
"I have no idea!"
Carla paused the audio.
"Do you recognize him?"
Adrian shook his head.
Margaret looked uncertain.
"I might."
Everyone turned toward her.
"I heard a man in the east wing twice last month."
"Mrs. Mercer told me he was an insurance representative."
Adrian looked at Vanessa through the doorway.
"Name."
Vanessa smiled coldly.
"You don't command me anymore."
Carla stepped between them.
"Then I'll ask."
"Who was visiting the east wing?"
Vanessa folded her arms.
"Business associates come to this house all the time."
The recording resumed.
The man's voice said something about Monday.
Vanessa answered that Samuel Ross could not block the filing once the emergency petition was accepted.
The man then mentioned a board vote.
Adrian's anger shifted into confusion.
"What board vote?"
Carla looked at him.
"You tell me."
Adrian suddenly remembered a proposed acquisition scheduled for review the following Tuesday.
His cousin Grant had been campaigning to delay it.
Adrian supported it.
Grant opposed it.
The recording crackled.
The unknown man spoke again.
"Once Adrian is removed as trustee, we only need the proxy long enough to stop the deal."
Adrian felt the room tilt.
Vanessa had not merely been trying to gain money.
Someone was using his daughter to reach his company.
Carla paused the audio again.
"Who benefits if you lose control of those shares?"
Adrian answered immediately.
"My cousin Grant."
Margaret's face changed.
"Mr. Grant was here."
Adrian looked at her.
"When?"
"Last Wednesday."
"Vanessa told me not to put it in the household log."
Vanessa laughed from the other room.
"This is becoming ridiculous."
Adrian walked toward her.
Carla blocked him with one arm.
"Don't give her what she wants."
The phrase struck him.
He looked back at the laptop.
"What she wants."
Then he understood something else.
The screaming tonight had begun almost exactly when his car entered the driveway.
Vanessa would have known he was approaching.
Adrian looked at Carla.
"She knew I was coming through the door."
Carla's expression sharpened.
"You think the argument was staged?"
"I think she wanted me angry."
The technician scrolled farther through the audio.
A recording from that afternoon appeared.
Vanessa's voice whispered to the same unidentified man.
"Tonight he gives us the last piece."
The man asked what she meant.
May you like
Vanessa's answer filled the library.
"All I need is one good video of Adrian losing control."
