“No,” she said quietly. “I was repeating what he had told me months earlier. When he answered that you were safe, he meant safe from the people behind Northstar.”
I stood.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. But ask yourself why he never sold your shares, even when investors pressured him. Why he kept the company in both names. Why he refused to let you return to forensic accounting after Noah was born.”
“That was control, not protection.”
“It may have been both.”
The distinction made me angrier, not calmer.
Vanessa pushed the jewelry box toward me.
“The safe-deposit box was empty except for a photograph and a list of payments. Marcus wanted the list. Daniel refused to give it to him.”
“The photograph I took shows Daniel leaving with you and Marcus.”
“Because Marcus followed us there. Daniel was trying to convince him the box contained nothing useful.”
