A woman moved through the hallway wearing a visitor badge and a long camel coat. Her dark hair was tucked beneath a knit hat, and large sunglasses covered half her face. Women'sempowerment coaching
Even through the blurry camera image, I recognized her.
Vanessa.
Ryan’s consultant.
Ryan’s lover.
The woman who had encouraged him to ignore me.
I felt sick.
“She sent the message?” Nathan asked.
“We believe so,” Bennett said. “She entered using a false name and left through the east stairwell three minutes before lockdown.”
Daniel’s face hardened. “So Ryan sent her.”
“Maybe,” Bennett said. “Or she came for her own reasons.”
“What reasons could she possibly have?” I asked.
Detective Bennett looked at me carefully.
“Vanessa Grant is not who Ryan thinks she is.”
Silence fell.
Even Ethan seemed to go still.
“What does that mean?” I whispered.
Bennett set the tablet on the rolling table beside my bed and opened another file.
“Vanessa Grant is a legal name she began using four years ago. Before that, she was Vanessa Hale.”
Nathan frowned. “Should that mean something?”
“It does to Ryan’s father.”
The air shifted.
Ryan’s father, Charles Parker, was a name Ryan rarely said without bitterness. He was a wealthy real estate developer, cold and polished, who had divorced Ryan’s mother when Ryan was twelve and rebuilt his life with younger wives and tax lawyers. Mother-in-lawgifts
“What does she have to do with Charles?” I asked.
Bennett’s face was grim.
“Vanessa’s mother worked for Charles Parker twenty-seven years ago. She claimed they had an affair. She also claimed Charles destroyed her career when she became pregnant.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed. “Pregnant with Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
I stared at her.
“So Vanessa is Ryan’s…”
“Half-sister,” Daniel said quietly.
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
“We’re still verifying DNA,” Bennett said. “But Vanessa appears to believe it.”
The room tilted around me.
Ryan had been sleeping with the woman who might be his half-sister. Women'sempowerment coaching
No.
My mind rejected it.
Then accepted it.
Then recoiled from it.
“Does Ryan know?” I asked.
“We don’t think so.”
Nathan dragged both hands through his hair. “This is insane.”
But Bennett had not finished.
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