Chapter 4 - The Calls That Never Reached Him
Margaret called Ethan at midnight Singapore time.
Vanessa entered the sitting room before he answered.
“Why are you bothering him?”
“My hip hurts. I need to tell him Rosa is gone.”
“He is negotiating the deal that pays for this entire house.”
“I only need five minutes.”
Vanessa snatched the phone and ended the call.
Seconds later, Ethan called back.
Vanessa answered.
“Your mother dialed by mistake.”
In the background, Margaret said, “Ethan?”
Vanessa walked into the hallway and closed the door.
“She’s becoming forgetful,” she told him. “Nothing serious.”
“Put her on.”
“She’s embarrassed and went to bed.”
Ethan hesitated.
“Is she taking her medication?”
“I’m handling everything.”
Vanessa then changed the subject to the company.
“Are they buying your shares?”
“We’re still negotiating.”
“So you have no agreement.”
“Not yet.”
After the call, Vanessa returned Margaret’s phone.
She had changed Ethan’s contact settings.
Future calls went through a forwarding service connected to Vanessa’s device.
Margaret could leave messages.
Vanessa could delete them before Ethan received them.
The isolation became systematic.
Vanessa told the driver Margaret no longer needed appointments.
She canceled physical therapy.
She moved food to high shelves Margaret could not reach safely.
When Margaret complained, Vanessa called her ungrateful.
Then a financial report announced Carter Transit had begun preparing emergency restructuring documents.
Vanessa misunderstood the filing.
She believed Ethan’s deal had failed.
That night, she opened a bottle of champagne and called a real-estate broker named Caleb Morris.
“How quickly can you sell a house with a disputed mortgage?” she asked.
Caleb was not only her broker.
They had been secretly seeing each other for four months.
Vanessa told him Ethan was returning without money.
She planned to sell the mansion before creditors could take it, move the proceeds into a private account and leave Ethan afterward.
Caleb asked whose name appeared on the deed.
“Ethan’s, obviously.”
She had never checked.
The deed was stored in the family attorney’s office.
Vanessa needed a copy.
She began searching Ethan’s study.
Margaret saw her entering the locked room with tools.
“What are you doing?”
Vanessa turned.
The kindness disappeared completely.
May you like
“Learning what this family forgot to tell me.”
👉 Vanessa believed she was searching Ethan’s study for a deed, but the envelope she found connected Margaret directly to the mansion and made the older woman her greatest obstacle.
