Vanessa has a secret

"I've been called off acquisitions for a while." Brand avoided the question, "Something about the company adjusting. I have a few other assignments but they're not really to my talents. The men upstairs understand that, so I don't have anything too demanding going on right now, not like," He gestured broadly at Vanessa's overwhelmed desk.

Vanessa grabbed the envelope. If Brand wasn't going to get to the point, then she would have to look for herself so she could get back to work. Her eyes scanned the first lines... then widened.

She turned to the next sheet. And the next.

She felt hot. She felt constricted. She felt sweaty... all that, and yet somehow cold inside.

Oh... God.

Vanessa knew exactly what this was.

How? How had he known where to look?

But, it didn't matter. Not right now. This man, he could smell blood. He hounded it out. No, the 'How' was unimportant... the 'Why'...

Vanessa had been instrumental in setting up a scholarship fund, some years ago. When she was still married. Although she had a good amount of money, it was nowhere near enough, so she got investors, charitable parties, and her husband to invest. It was to help girls born into poverty in rural areas, like where she had been born. There were so many scholarships for urban poverty... and some for rural, but after her success Vanessa felt a need to give back. She attended banquets, played up her success, made a show of her family, called in favors, met with the biggest names that she could muster.

It worked, she got enough to set up something meaningful. A legacy, of sorts. She had been so proud.

Her husband had stolen from it. Stolen so much. Stolen from her donors. And it was her name, along with her husband's, on everything. He had gambled, and bought outrageous things.

It was unbelievable. It was disgusting.

She was going to go to jail, along with him if she didn't fix it. Her donors would take everything from them both if they found out. Her attempt to help those girls, gone, the ones that were counting on the money, the first crop of beneficiaries, would have their hopes dashed. Their daughter would be left without a parent to care for her.

Using all her savvy, Vanessa did what she had to. She divorced her husband immediately, bluffing that she would expose them both if he didn't do it quickly and cleanly. Then... she embezzled money. A lot of it. She worked tirelessly, she sabotaged a major project to cover her tracks, making it look like an investment and merger gone bad. It was one of the few blemishes in her career, and it was a major one. It was a serious blow to TAC at the time. Even her mentor was disappointed in her, couldn't protect her entirely, but she diverted blame where she could. Pretty effectively. On the other end people were hurt, Vanessa was sure, but for her...

It was over, her scholarship was saved (though she had to pour a lot of her own, personal money in over the next few years to make the numbers work), she still had her job. Her daughter had a broken home, but that was her husband's fault, and at least she could provide for the girl herself rather than being at the mercy of that scumbag she married. Who slinked off and married some other poor soul.

She did what she had to do.

Blood roared in Vanessa's ears. She realized that Brand had been talking for some seconds. Some kind of awful self-congratulatory bullshit. She hardly cared. The only thing that mattered was...

"... thought to myself, 'what other kind of acquisitions -'"

"What the hell do you want, Brand?" Vanessa tried to recover, tried to make her tone strong.

Brand's eyes looked predatory as he stopped his little story and turned his attention fully to Vanessa. She didn't think she did a very good job.