Chapter 10 - Let the Wedding Begin.
Daniel's request sounded insane until Eleanor remembered the letter from Jonathan.
If they cannot remove us quietly, they will make us destroy each other publicly.
Do not help them.
A wedding that everyone expected to collapse might be the only place the people behind the scheme would expose themselves.
Eleanor found Daniel that evening in the old carriage house at Vale House.
He had turned off his phone and dismissed the wedding staff.
His tuxedo hung untouched on a wooden door.
He sat on the floor beside a stack of storage boxes from his childhood.
"You came anyway," he said.
"You are my son."
"That has not stopped either of us from making a mess."
Eleanor sat on a trunk across from him.
"Brooke is Marcus's daughter."
"Apparently."
"Did you know?"
"No."
"Do you believe she was sent to you?"
Daniel looked at the floor.
"I don't know."
"That answer is becoming popular."
He almost smiled.
Then it disappeared.
"I loved her."
Eleanor did not correct the tense.
"Maybe you still do."
"That would make me an idiot."
"Love and intelligence have never signed a noncompete agreement."
Daniel rubbed his face.
"Dad used to say that."
"He stole it from me."
For a moment, grief entered the room without asking permission.
Daniel looked toward Jonathan's old fishing rods mounted on the wall.
"I should have told you about Greenway."
"Yes."
"You could pretend I don't deserve that answer."
"You asked the wrong mother."
"I was afraid the records would lead to Dad."
"So was I."
Daniel looked at her.
"You were?"
"For about six hours."
"And?"
"I decided facts were allowed to disappoint me."
He nodded slowly.
"Marcus told me Dad had been using Meridian to move foundation money into private accounts."
"Did he show you proof?"
"Invoices with Dad's approvals."
"Could they have been forged?"
"Yes."
"Could they be real?"
Daniel's voice dropped.
"Yes."
Eleanor let the answer exist.
Protecting Jonathan's memory could not matter more than protecting the living.
"Why let the wedding begin?"
Daniel stood and walked toward the window.
"Because Brooke thinks I still intend to give her the proxy."
"Do you?"
"No."
"Then she will know the second you refuse."
"Exactly."
He turned.
"I need her to believe she is minutes away from control."
"Why?"
"Because Marcus keeps his hands clean until the last possible moment."
"You think he'll show up."
"I think he has to."
Daniel opened a locked metal box on the workbench.
Inside were two tiny audio recorders and a folder of printed emails.
Eleanor stared at him.
"How long have you been doing this?"
"Three months."
"Without telling me."
"You were still in Maine when I started."
"You could have called."
"And said what?"
"Hi, Mom, I think Dad's CFO may be laundering money and framing me, but please don't worry?"
Eleanor crossed her arms.
"I would have appreciated the honesty."
Daniel gave her a look.
"You stopped answering your phone for weeks after Dad died."
The truth landed hard.
Eleanor looked away.
"I know."
"I needed you."
There was no anger in his voice now.
That made it worse.
"I know."
"And when you finally came back, you came back investigating everyone."
"Because someone was stealing from us."
"I know."
He sat again.
"But I didn't know if you came back for me."
Eleanor felt her throat close.
She moved from the trunk to the floor beside him.
"I am sorry."
It was the first apology she had given him since Jonathan died that did not contain an explanation.
Daniel nodded once.
"I know."
They sat quietly for several seconds.
Then Eleanor pointed to the recorders.
"Now tell me how stupid tomorrow is going to be."
Daniel's mouth twitched.
"Very."
His plan was simple enough to sound believable and dangerous enough to worry Lena.
The ceremony would proceed.
Brooke would believe Daniel intended to sign the proxy document immediately after the vows.
The board attorney would be present with the paperwork.
Daniel would delay the signature until Marcus revealed why it was necessary.
Meanwhile, Lena would position independent security around the estate and preserve every camera feed outside Vale's internal network.
No one from Brooke's department would control the recordings.
Sophie remained the missing piece.
Her video could prove the gala attack was staged, but Eleanor cared less about her own reputation now than the financial case.
"What if Brooke is being used too?" Eleanor asked.
Daniel looked at her.
"You think she is?"
"I think Marcus being her father explains loyalty."
"It does not explain the hose."
"No."
"Or the lies."
"No."
"Or why she dated me."
Eleanor did not answer.
Daniel stood.
"I'm going through with the ceremony until the moment I have to say I do."
"That is cruel."
"So is marrying someone for access to a trust."
"We still don't know that she did."
"You are defending her now?"
"No."
Eleanor stood too.
"I am refusing to become certain before the evidence does."
Daniel stared at her.
Then he laughed quietly.
"Lena has been working on you."
"Unfortunately."
At midnight, a courier delivered a small white box to Vale House.
No sender.
Inside was the brass hose nozzle.
The Greenway tag was still attached.
GWS-417.
Beneath it lay a folded note.
Eleanor opened it.
You wanted proof.
Ask who ordered 417.
No signature.
Lena photographed everything before touching the nozzle.
The manufacturer code traced the item to a purchase order issued six weeks earlier.
The buyer name was visible in the vendor portal.
Daniel Vale.
Eleanor stared at the screen.
Daniel looked equally stunned.
"I did not order that."
Lena checked the digital approval log.
"Your credentials did."
"Again."
"Again," Eleanor said.
A second record showed the request originated from an IP address inside Vale House.
Not corporate headquarters.
The mansion itself.
On the date of the order, Daniel had been in New York.
Brooke had been at Vale House planning the anniversary gala.
So had Marcus.
And so had at least forty staff members.
"Can we identify the device?" Daniel asked.
Lena shook her head.
"The network logs were purged last week."
Daniel swore.
Eleanor examined the physical nozzle.
A tiny scratch ran along the brass near the grip.
She remembered seeing something on it during the party.
Not a scratch.
Black marker.
A number.
She rotated it under the lamp.
Faint ink remained in the groove.
227.
Riverside Unit 227.
The nozzle had been marked to point her to the storage unit.
Brooke had told Thomas to make sure Eleanor saw the tag.
The entire trail had been curated.
"They wanted me in that storage unit," Eleanor said.
"Then they wanted me at the bottling plant."
Daniel frowned.
"Why?"
"To make me find Dad's photograph with Marcus."
"To convince you Marcus was guilty?"
"He may be guilty."
"But why help you prove it?"
Eleanor looked at the nozzle.
"Maybe because Marcus isn't the end of the trail."
Lena's phone buzzed.
She read a message and immediately went still.
"Sophie surfaced."
"Where?"
"County hospital."
Daniel stood.
"Is she hurt?"
"Minor car accident."
Lena looked at Eleanor.
"She asked for you by name."
They reached the hospital after one in the morning.
Sophie sat upright in a curtained emergency room bay with a bandage on her forehead and her brother beside her.
She looked exhausted but alert.
"I didn't run from you," she told Eleanor.
"I know."
"Mr. Bell said if I gave you the video, my brother would lose his job at the Pasadena hotel."
Her brother shook his head.
"I told her a job isn't worth this."
Sophie handed Eleanor a phone.
"I made three copies."
The video began twenty seconds before Brooke picked up the hose.
It showed Brooke speaking with Thomas Bell near the landscaping station.
The audio was faint but clear enough.
"Make sure she sees the tag," Brooke said.
Thomas replied, "Marcus said not to improvise."
Brooke laughed.
"Marcus isn't the one getting married."
Then she took the hose.
The recording continued through the spray, Eleanor's walk forward, and the slap.
It also captured something no viral clip had shown.
During the blackout, Brooke bent down, removed the brass nozzle, and handed it to Thomas.
Then she whispered five words.
"Put it where she follows."
Daniel watched the clip twice.
His face hardened.
"She set the trail."
"Yes," Eleanor said.
Sophie touched the screen.
"There's more."
The video continued after emergency lights returned.
Thomas stepped behind a hedge and made a call.
Sophie's microphone barely caught him.
"She took it."
A pause.
"No, Brooke doesn't know the last part."
Another pause.
Then Thomas said the sentence that changed everything.
"Tell Mrs. Rourke it's working."
Daniel looked at Eleanor.
"Mrs. Rourke?"
Marcus's wife had died twelve years earlier.
May you like
At least that was what everyone believed.
THE WOMAN IN BLUE
