Chapter 2
I followed the stretcher to the door, but a police officer stopped me.
“Sir, we need your statement.”
“My wife is alive.”
“I know. Paramedics have her.”
“My baby is alive.”
His voice softened.
“Then help us keep them alive by telling us what happened.”
I looked at Evelyn.
She stood by the coffin like a queen whose crown had cracked.
Nathan’s phone buzzed nonstop in his hand.
He would not answer.
That told me something.
I gave the officer the basics.
I had been overseas.
Claire called me last night.
She was safe then.
She mentioned my father’s safe.
This morning my mother told me she was dead.
No hospital.
No doctor.
No death certificate.
No explanation.
The officer looked toward the coffin.
“Who arranged this?”
Evelyn lifted her chin.
“I did. My daughter-in-law deserved dignity.”
I laughed.
It sounded wrong in the room.
“Dignity? You put her in a coffin while she was breathing.”
Nathan snapped, “You don’t know what happened.”
I turned on him.
“Then tell me.”
He looked away.
I held up the brass key.
Evelyn’s eyes followed it.
There it was.
Fear.
I walked toward the hallway.
Two officers moved with me.
Evelyn shouted, “Daniel, stop.”
I did not.
My father’s office had been locked since his death.
Evelyn said it hurt too much to open.
Now I knew that was another lie.
The safe was behind a painting of the old mill.
My hands shook as I inserted the key.
The lock clicked.
Inside were files.
A flash drive.
A sealed letter addressed to me.
And a smaller envelope with Claire’s name.
I opened my father’s letter first.
Son,
If you are reading this, then Claire found what I could not expose before cancer took me.
Trust her.
Do not trust your mother.
Do not trust Nathan.
My breath stopped.
Behind me, Evelyn whispered, “No.”
I kept reading.
Nathan is not your brother by blood. He is your mother’s son with Victor Hale. I raised him because I loved you both. But Evelyn and Victor used the company to launder money for years. Nathan helped them after he learned the truth.
The room tilted.
Victor Hale.
My father’s former partner.
Dead, supposedly, in a boating accident.
The letter continued.
If they fear exposure, they will do anything. Protect Claire. Protect your child.
I turned slowly.
Evelyn was crying now.
May you like
Not with grief.
With rage.
