Sam pointedly ignored her comments. “I’m not here to do anything but talk business.” She removed the letter from her jacket pocket. “Specifically, this. I found it in front of Bianca’s door this morning.”
Vivianne looked up from her wineglass. “What is that?”
Sam handed it over. Vivianne snatched it like it was her next bottle of wine. “I may not be a detective, Mrs. Black, but I think I know who that’s from. I think we both know.”
As Vivianne read over the letter, her face turned as pale as the ghost of her youngest daughter’s supposed innocence. “Has Bianca seen this?”
Sam shook her head. “I wanted to talk to you about it first.”
“Bianca absolutely cannot see this. Do you understand?”
“It’s from Ellen, isn’t it? The woman you had thrown out of the gala?” Sam helped herself to a chair adjacent to Vivianne’s chaise lounge. “Quite publicly, I must remind you.”
Vivianne sat up to place the wineglass on her coffee table. “Like I said, Bianca must not know about this.”
“Who is Ellen? And why haven’t you told any of us about her? Because you’ve known this whole time that she’s the one threatening your family. All the break-in attempts, the photos, the letters… they’re from her. A woman who not only knew you in college, but knows an awful lot about your youngest daughter.”
Vivianne placed the letter next to the wineglass. “Yes,” she conceded. “It’s Ellen. Ellen Perry. She is the one who has been making our lives miserable these past few months. Although this is unprecedented.” Vivianne gestured to the letter. “As far as I know, she’s never contacted one of my daughters directly.”
“She approached Bianca in a club a few weeks ago, then tracked her down at the gala to gain sympathy from her. Now, Bianca may or may not have figured things out, but I want to know the truth. Now.”
Vivianne’s sigh shook the entire room. “Ellen Perry is… my ex.”
It took a few moments for the woman’s words to sink into Sam’s mind.
“Your… what?”
“You heard me,” Vivianne said through gritted teeth. “My ex. Ex-girlfriend. Ex-lover. From college.”
“You’re kidding.”
Sam had already figured out that Vivianne and Ellen had some kind of history. She’d thought perhaps Ellen knew something about her, some secret from her past she wanted to hide.
But this? You’re telling me that this entire time, Vivianne Black has been a flaming hypocrite? Sam shouldn’t have been so surprised. At the same time, it was the last thing she’d expected.
“I am not ‘kidding,’ Ms. Reddy. Ellen and I had quite the passionate relationship for most of our undergrad years. We kept it secret, of course. It was the early 80s, and we went to a prestigious school where, back then, girls still attended for the sake of a ‘missus’ degree. My parents sent me there with the mission to find a decent husband. So did Ellen’s, although she took her degree quite seriously. I always admired that in her. But I digress.”
“So why is this woman stalking you now? Has she been doing this since college?”
“No. This only started a few months ago. It was quite a shock to me, I assure you. I hadn’t heard from Ellen in forty years. Not since—” Vivianne clamped her mouth shut.
“Not since what, Mrs. Black? I know this must be difficult for you to explain to me, but I need to know. I’m the one in charge of your family’s security.”
“Yes, and you’ve done such a great job. I really appreciate how you secured Bianca’s safety the other night.”
Sam crossed her arms. “That’s a conversation you’re going to have to have with your daughter. Right now, I’m trying to do my job. And I can’t protect Bianca unless you tell me the whole story. I need to know what my team and I are up against.”
“You really know how to hit a mother where it hurts,” Vivianne muttered. “Fine. I broke up with her because it was time for me to grow up. In the last few months of college, my parents introduced me to Phillip. We were a good match, all things considered. We got along well as friends. We both liked the same activities, and he was quite the gentleman. I felt safe around him. Believe it or not, I was the one who initiated the… more intimate side of our courtship. All behind Ellen’s back, I’m somewhat ashamed to say.”
“You cheated on her?”
“How can it be cheating when it was never a real relationship to begin with? I always understood that, but Ellen didn’t. She was in deep with the lesbian lifestyle. And when I became pregnant with Scarlett…”
Sam let out a sharp sigh. She knew where this story was going.
“Well, I wasn’t about to have some doctor do away with my child! Not when I was already planning on breaking up with Ellen after graduating and getting engaged to Phillip. Scarlett simply propelled things along. Once the engagement was official, I informed her it was over and returned home. That’s all there is to it. I swear I haven’t heard from her since.”
“Are you sure about that?”