Chapter 6 - CLARA’S HUSBAND
Thomas Sloane looked ordinary.
Vivienne hated that.
She wanted him to look like betrayal.
Instead, when she saw him through the glass wall of the prosecutor’s interview suite, he looked like the same man who had carried Clara’s coat at dinners, complained about airport delays, and once spent forty minutes helping Vivienne choose a birthday gift for Clara because he said he was “hopeless at jewelry.”
Thirty-six.
Dark hair.
Expensive suit.
Hands shaking.
Clara sat in another room.
Not beside him.
That mattered.
Vivienne had asked Clara whether she wanted her there.
Clara said:
“Only if you don’t speak for me.”
Vivienne promised.
Mateo waited down the hall with Declan.
That combination would have seemed impossible twelve hours earlier.
Now both men were technically witnesses, potential targets, and mutual irritants under police supervision.
Progress came in strange forms.
Thomas’s attorney began.
“My client is prepared to provide evidence regarding current offenses and historical financial misconduct. He is not requesting immunity at this time.”
Detective Holt nodded.
“Then he understands statements can be used.”
“Yes.”
Thomas looked through glass at Clara.
She did not look back.
He started with North Shore Systems.
His father, Harold Sloane, had asked him to acquire the smart-home vendor eighteen months earlier.
Official reason:
Access to high-end security contracts.
Actual reason:
Mercer network wanted insight into Mateo Duca’s household.
“Did you know that when you bought it?” Holt asked.
Thomas swallowed.
“Not at first.”
“When did you know?”
“Before the Duca installation.”
Vivienne’s stomach turned.
“So you knowingly put surveillance access in our home.”
“Yes.”
The word carried no excuse.
Good.
“What did you access?”
“System metadata. Room activation. microphones built into voice-control panels.”
Mateo had disabled most voice assistant functions because he hated them.
Apparently hardware remained.
“Did you listen?”
Thomas looked down.
“Yes.”
Clara closed eyes.
Vivienne said nothing.
“Which rooms?”
“Kitchen. living room. study. primary bedroom control panel.”
Mateo’s face had gone white in the hall.
Bedroom.
Vivienne wanted to break something.
Thomas continued:
“I told myself it was only threat monitoring.”
Holt’s voice sharpened.
“Who authorized?”
“Edmund.”
“Did Mateo?”
“No.”
“Vivienne?”
“No.”
“Then it wasn’t threat monitoring. It was surveillance.”
Thomas nodded.
“Yes.”
“Who received clips?”
“Me. Edmund. sometimes Victor.”
“Your father?”
“Summary.”
“So Harold knew.”
“Yes.”
Clara finally looked at him.
“You listened to me.”
Thomas’s face broke.
“Clara.”
“You listened to me in Vivienne’s apartment?”
“No.”
“The Duca penthouse.”
“When you visited, yes.”
Clara stared.
“And when I called you after?”
Thomas looked down.
“Yes.”
“You already knew what I was telling you.”
“Sometimes.”
She laughed once.
Vivienne’s heart hurt.
The violation was not only Vivienne and Mateo.
It had entered Clara’s marriage too.
“You let me think I was confiding in my husband.”
“I was your husband.”
“No.”
Clara’s voice stayed quiet.
“In those moments you were an employee gathering confirmation.”
Thomas flinched.
Good.
“Why?” she asked.
“My father.”
Clara closed eyes.
“Try again.”
Thomas looked at her.
“Career. fear. family. habit.”
Better.
“Did he threaten you?”
“Yes.”
“With what?”
“My mother’s medical debt initially. Later with evidence I had already committed crimes.”
There.
The trap grows after first compromise.
“Did you choose to keep going?”
“Yes.”
Clara nodded.
No absolution.
Holt returned to cloned Vivienne account.
Thomas admitted creating it.
Edmund wanted Mateo to believe Vivienne might be talking to Mercer family behind his back.
The messages included real private arguments to make them credible.
“Did you think Mateo would hurt Vivienne?” Holt asked.
Thomas looked at him through glass.
“No.”
“Then what did you expect?”
“He’d pull away.”
Exactly.
“Why useful?”
“Because Edmund said a suspicious husband and lonely wife are easier to separate during an event.”
Vivienne looked at Mateo.
He stared at floor.
His choice had completed their design.
He did not need Edmund to force distance.
Only doubt.
“Did you know about extraction contract?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Did you warn anyone?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“I was going to.”
Clara laughed bitterly.
“No.”
He looked.
“Don’t give yourself future courage as if it already happened.”
Vivienne almost reached for her.
Did not.
Thomas nodded.
“You’re right.”
“Did you know they planned to drug Vivienne?”
“I knew Northstar wanted a sedative delivery.”
“Did you know via glass?”
“No.”
“Did you know she could be hurt?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Clara looked away.
That was the moment something in their marriage visibly ended.
Not legally.
Not yet.
But some structure collapsed.
Holt asked about gala.
Thomas had helped manipulate seating.
He placed Mara beside Mateo.
Added Declan to guest list through a donor substitution.
Edmund knew Declan would approach Vivienne because they had intercepted two messages? Declan hadn't messaged Vivienne. Better they knew rivalry and his style. Thomas said no one knew kiss would occur.
“Edmund did not predict the kiss specifically.”
Vivienne exhaled.
Good.
Her choice remained hers.
“He predicted Declan would provoke.”
“Yes.”
“When the kiss happened?”
Thomas looked sick.
“Victor texted: BETTER THAN PLANNED.”
There.
Then Northstar proceeded.
The dart under champagne stem was intended to prick Vivienne as she took glass.
A low-dose sedative.
Not necessarily lethal.
Still assault.
Fire alarm would create movement.
A fake medical responder would guide her out.
The ballroom lock stopped it.
Mateo looked at Declan.
Declan raised eyebrow.
“Your jealousy saved her.”
Mateo’s face hardened.
Vivienne said:
“No.”
Both looked.
“Your suspicion saved me. Different problem.”
Declan almost smiled.
Mateo accepted.
Thomas continued.
The sniper at Pier Nine was contingency.
Not to kill Vivienne initially.
“To do what?” Holt asked.
“Frighten them away from vault.”
Concrete shot near feet.
But the shot had been close enough to kill.
Thomas admitted contractor may have exceeded.
“Who?”
“Colin Voss.”
Current Northstar operative.
Police were searching.
“Who wrote THE KISS WORKED?”
“Voss texted photo to Edmund. Edmund told him leave message.”
So taunt.
Opportunistic.
Not prophecy.
Good.
“What about Isabel Mercer?”
Thomas did not know she was alive until five weeks ago.
Victor found her during Pier Nine monitoring.
Edmund wanted her held until old vault destroyed.
“Did he order her killed?”
“No.”
Vivienne stared.
“Why not?”
Thomas looked at her.
“Because Edmund said killing his sister once had nearly broken him.”
The room went silent.
Vivienne’s blood chilled.
“Once.”
Thomas closed eyes.
“He meant the staged death.”
“Did Edmund know she survived the boat?”
“Yes.”
Everything stopped.
Isabel thought she had fooled him.
She had not.
“Since when?”
“Within months.”
“Then why let her live?”
“Because she stayed gone.”
The cruelty of that landed.
Edmund permitted his sister life only if she remained dead to her daughter.
“And when she returned?”
“He said Victor should solve.”
“Meaning?”
“I didn’t ask.”
Holt’s face hardened.
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
Thomas turned toward Clara.
“I’m sorry.”
She stood.
“No.”
He stopped.
“Not because you shouldn’t be.”
Her voice shook.
“Because I’m not doing this part here.”
She looked at Holt.
“Am I required further?”
“No.”
Clara left.
Vivienne followed after asking.
In hallway, Clara leaned against wall.
“I told him everything.”
Vivienne said:
“You trusted your husband.”
“I should have known.”
“Why?”
“His father.”
“People are not inherited verdicts.”
Clara looked at her.
“Would you say that about Mateo?”
Vivienne stopped.
Good question.
“No.”
“Then don’t make me stupid because I loved Thomas.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re trying to rescue me.”
Vivienne closed eyes.
“Yes.”
“Don’t.”
“Okay.”
They stood.
After a minute, Clara said:
“I don’t know if I’m leaving him.”
“You don’t have to decide today.”
“Everyone says that when they want a woman to leave.”
Vivienne almost laughed.
“I genuinely don’t know what you should do.”
Clara nodded.
“Better.”
Then:
“What about you?”
Vivienne looked toward Mateo.
He was speaking quietly with Mara.
“What about me?”
“You kissed Declan because Mateo made you feel invisible.”
“Yes.”
“Then found out he was investigating you.”
“Yes.”
“Are you leaving?”
“I don’t know.”
Clara smiled sadly.
“Better.”
By evening, police arrested Harold Sloane on conspiracy and corruption charges supported by Thomas’s evidence.
Victor remained in custody.
Colin Voss was found at a motel near Indiana border.
No dramatic shootout.
He surrendered after police surrounded.
Edmund Mercer remained free.
His lawyers argued Thomas was a compromised liar trying to save himself.
They had a point.
A cooperating criminal is still a criminal.
Evidence needed more.
Then Mara found it.
Not in Thomas’s recordings.
In Elias’s Box 411 financial files.
A payment from Edmund’s personal trust dated the morning after Pier Nine fire.
$500,000.
Recipient:
NORTHSTAR RECOVERY.
Memo:
ASH DISPOSAL.
Mara looked at Vivienne.
“Could be cleanup.”
“Could be.”
Then another file.
An invoice from Northstar dated two days before fire.
SERVICE:
IGNITION REMEDIATION / PIER NINE.
The phrase made no sense as legitimate work.
Attached internal email from Victor to Edmund:
E.M. WANTS THE LEDGERS GONE BEFORE ANTONIO SEES THEM.
ELIAS REFUSES TO LEAVE THE BUILDING.
PROCEED?
Reply:
YES.
Vivienne stopped breathing.
One word.
Edmund’s account.
Mara said quietly:
“We verify metadata. We prove authorship.”
Facts first.
But Vivienne knew.
Her uncle had not merely exploited her father’s death.
He had authorized the condition that caused it.
Mateo arrived behind her.
She handed him tablet.
His face went cold.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
He looked at her.
Ten years ago, answer would have been men.
Tonight:
“Whatever you choose to do with your father’s evidence.”
Vivienne held his gaze.
“Police.”
Mateo nodded.
May you like
“Police.”
For the first time, revenge did not have to prove love.
