Chapter 5
David survived the gunshot.
The bullet passed through his shoulder without striking an artery.
Doctors said he was fortunate.
I wasn’t ready to call any part of that night fortunate.
Lily refused to leave my side at the hospital.
She sat beneath a blanket in the family waiting room while Rachel brought her hot chocolate.
Every time a door opened, Lily looked up.
She was waiting for Ethan.
So was I.
Police searched roads, woods, and abandoned buildings around the quarry.
They found no sign of him.
At seven in the morning, a nurse told us David was awake.
I entered his room alone.
He looked smaller in the hospital bed.
His left arm was secured against his chest.
“I’m glad Lily is safe,” he said.
“She is safe because she saved herself.”
His eyes lowered.
“I know.”
“Why were you at the quarry?”
“Maria let me go.”
“Why?”
“She wanted me to follow you.”
I sat beside the bed.
“Start from the beginning.”
David closed his eyes.
“Three months ago, Ethan came to me. He said he had a legitimate construction project and needed temporary financing. He asked me to approve several vendor payments.”
“You approved them without checking.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s my brother.”
“That answer has destroyed our family.”
“I know.”
“No, David. I don’t think you do.”
He looked at me.
“I discovered the vendor companies were fake after the second transfer. I confronted Ethan. He said Dad ordered him to move the money.”
“Robert?”
“Yes. Dad claimed he had proof that your father stole millions from him. He said the transfers were repayment.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
I stood and walked to the window.
“You stole eight hundred thousand dollars because you wanted to believe your father?”
“I thought I could force Ethan to return it.”
“But you didn’t tell me.”
“He threatened to expose the apartment.”
“Claire’s apartment.”
David nodded.
“Were you sleeping with her?”
“No.”
I watched his face.
“Tell me the truth.”
“I never had an affair with Claire. She contacted me after she learned Ethan was using the same shell companies Robert created years ago. She needed a safe place because Maria was watching her.”
“You used company money to rent it.”
“I used money from my consulting account. Ethan later changed the records to make it appear connected to Rivergate.”
“Why didn’t Claire come to me?”
“She didn’t trust you.”
That hurt more than I expected.
“Why?”
“She believed Maria controlled you.”
“And did she?”
David hesitated.
“In ways you didn’t see.”
He told me Claire had spent fifteen years collecting evidence.
My father and Robert had started the false-invoice scheme together.
But after several years, my father wanted out.
Robert refused.
Maria handled the hidden accounts and began taking money for herself.
When my father discovered it, Maria blamed Claire.
Claire copied the records before she was fired.
“She bought the cabin to keep the evidence hidden,” David said. “Your father met her there before he died.”
“Why did he record Maria and Robert’s names?”
“Because he planned to confess.”
My phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
Ask David who gave Robert the gun.
I showed him.
His face changed.
“Maria.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw her at the quarry before you arrived.”
“What?”
“She drove me there. She told me Ethan had Lily.”
“Why didn’t she come inside?”
“She said Robert would kill Lily if he saw her.”
“Yet she wanted you to follow me.”
David stared at the ceiling.
“She knew the police would track the box.”
A terrible possibility formed.
“Maria wanted Robert arrested.”
“Yes.”
“And the evidence destroyed.”
David looked at me.
“Yes.”
The false box had burned before police reached it, but the original remained in state custody.
Unless Maria knew how to reach it.
I called Officer Ramirez.
He told me the original box had been transferred to the state evidence facility at five that morning.
“Who authorized that?” I asked.
“An investigator named Paul Chen.”
“Maria’s brother.”
Officer Ramirez went silent.
“I’ll call you back.”
Twenty minutes later, we learned there was no state investigator named Paul Chen.
A man using false credentials had taken the box.
The evidence was gone.
Maria disappeared from headquarters.
Her house was empty.
Her bank accounts had been closed.
She had planned her escape before dinner.
But she made one mistake.
She left Claire alive.
Claire woke that afternoon.
Two detectives interviewed her at the hospital while I listened.
She confirmed most of David’s story.
Then she revealed something he didn’t know.
“Grace’s father didn’t die because he planned to confess,” Claire said.
“Why was he killed?” the detective asked.
“Because he changed his will.”
I felt the air leave my lungs.
“What did he change?”
“He removed Maria as trustee of the Bellamy family foundation. He intended to give control to Grace.”
“I already control the foundation.”
“No. You control the public foundation.”
She looked directly at me.
“There’s another trust.”
“How much?”
“Your father estimated it at sixty million dollars.”
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“It contains offshore assets accumulated through the false invoices. He planned to return the money to the people and companies harmed by the scheme.”
“Where is it?”
“The person holding the authorization key controls it.”
“Maria?”
Claire shook her head.
“Your father divided the key into three parts. I had one. Robert had one. And he gave the last part to someone he believed Maria would never suspect.”
“Who?”
“Your mother.”
My mother, Evelyn Bellamy, had died when I was sixteen.
At least, that was what I had always believed.
Claire saw the confusion on my face.
“She isn’t dead, Grace.”
I stood so suddenly that my chair struck the wall.
“My mother died in a boating accident.”
“Her body was never found.”
“She was declared dead.”
“She disappeared because Robert threatened you and Rachel. Your father helped her create a new identity.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe my mother has been alive for twenty-four years?”
Claire’s eyes filled with regret.
“I saw her five years ago at the cabin.”
The room became silent.
“She met your father the night before his death,” Claire continued. “He gave her his part of the key.”
“Why didn’t she come to us after he died?”
“Because Maria made it look like Robert killed him. Robert believed Maria did it. Neither of them trusted the other.”
“And my mother?”
“She believed whoever killed him would come for you next.”
I wanted to reject every word.
Then Claire asked whether my mother had left me anything unusual before the boating trip.
A memory returned.
A music box.
Painted blue, with small silver birds.
My mother had placed it in my hands on the final morning I saw her.
“Keep this for me,” she had said. “Never let anyone take it.”
The music box had remained in storage for years.
Three weeks earlier, David moved several boxes from storage to Helen’s house while our basement was repaired.
The music box was among them.
I called Officer Ramirez.
“We need to search Helen and Robert’s house.”
A team returned to the property that evening.
The storage boxes were in the attic.
The music box was missing.
Only three people knew those boxes were there.
David.
Helen.
And Lily.
When I asked Lily whether she had seen it, she nodded.
“Grandma Helen took it.”
“When?”
“Last Sunday. She said it belonged to her now.”
Helen was being held on kidnapping charges.
I visited her at the county detention center.
She looked exhausted without her makeup and expensive clothes.
“Where is the music box?” I asked.
She smiled.
“So now you need my help.”
“This is not a game.”
“It became a game when you threw that plate.”
“You helped kidnap Lily.”
“I was protecting Ethan.”
“You tied up a child.”
“I told him not to hurt her.”
“That doesn’t make you innocent.”
Helen leaned closer to the glass.
“If you want the music box, get me out.”
“No.”
“Then you’ll never find it.”
“Ethan has it.”
Her smile vanished for half a second.
That was enough.
I stood.
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t say that!”
“You didn’t have to.”
As I reached the door, Helen called after me.
“Grace, Ethan knows about your mother.”
I turned.
“He knows where she lives.”
That night, a package arrived at the hospital.
Inside was one silver bird broken from the music box.
A note was wrapped around it.
May you like
Your mother abandoned you once.
Come to Asheville, and you can watch her do it again.
