Chapter 5
Michael sat handcuffed against the police vehicle.
Dr. Hale was placed in another car.
Firefighters fought the cabin blaze while paramedics examined Emma.
She was weak, but awake.
I refused to release her hand.
Detective Kim approached Michael.
“Start talking.”
“I want an attorney.”
“Your sister was almost burned alive,” Eli said.
Michael flinched at the word sister.
“You knew,” I said. “You knew Rachel had a son.”
Michael looked at Eli.
“I knew she had a baby before she met Daniel.”
“You were my father,” Eli said.
Michael lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Did Mom give me away?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
“She wanted you,” Michael continued. “Our mother forced us apart.”
“Our mother?” I asked.
Michael looked at me.
“Evelyn knew Rachel had given birth to my son. She paid Rachel’s parents to place Eli for adoption.”
My mother had controlled every part of our family.
Even after her death, her secrets were still destroying us.
“Why would she do that?” I asked.
“Because I was twenty and Rachel was seventeen. Mother thought the scandal would hurt the company.”
Eli’s face hardened.
“You let her take me.”
“I was weak.”
“You stayed weak for fourteen years.”
Michael had no answer.
I asked the question that mattered most.
“How did Rachel end up marrying me?”
“She came back to Seattle four years later. She was looking for Eli.”
“She never told me.”
“She planned to.”
“Then why didn’t she?”
“Because Victoria found out.”
Michael glanced toward the trees.
Victoria had disappeared despite the search teams surrounding the area.
“Victoria knew Rachel in high school,” he continued. “They were cousins.”
I stared at him.
“Victoria told me she had never met Rachel.”
“She lied.”
Every memory of my marriage began to change.
Victoria knew what foods Rachel had cooked.
She knew which songs calmed Emma.
She said those things came naturally.
Now I realized she had studied my dead wife.
“Why would Victoria kill her cousin?”
“Money. Jealousy. Maybe both.”
“Tell me the truth.”
Michael leaned his head against the vehicle.
“Rachel discovered Evelyn had created a second version of the trust.”
Laura’s name entered my mind.
My sister managed every family document.
“What second version?”
“One that recognized Eli as Evelyn’s first grandchild.”
Eli moved closer.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you own part of Mercer Medical.”
My mother’s trust divided voting shares among her grandchildren.
Emma was the only grandchild we knew about.
But if Eli had been legally recognized before Evelyn died, Emma’s twenty-one percent would have been divided with him.
“Why wasn’t he listed?” I asked.
“Laura removed his name.”
The betrayal hit from another direction.
My own sister had helped erase a child from our family.
“Did Laura know about the plan to kill Emma?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop lying.”
“I knew Victoria wanted Emma declared incompetent before her birthday. She said the trust could be controlled through a guardianship.”
“But Emma was healthy.”
“That is why Dr. Hale drugged her. He created a medical history.”
“And when that failed?”
Michael looked toward the ambulance.
“Victoria changed the plan.”
“She decided to kill her.”
“I didn’t agree to that.”
“You drove the SUV through her funeral.”
“I was trying to get Eli before he told anyone.”
“You helped Victoria escape.”
“She said you had kidnapped Emma.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Michael’s voice cracked.
“I loved her.”
“Victoria?”
He nodded.
The affair had been real.
Emma must have overheard them.
“How long?”
“Three years.”
I stepped back as though he had struck me.
Three years of family dinners.
Three years of holidays.
Three years of Michael smiling at me while sleeping with my wife.
“You came into my home,” I said.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you are afraid.”
“I never wanted Emma dead.”
“You carried her out of a burning cabin.”
“I was trying to save her.”
“Then why did you put her in the van?”
“Victoria said the police would arrest all of us. I panicked.”
Eli laughed bitterly.
“You always panic when someone needs you.”
Michael looked destroyed by the boy’s words.
I felt no sympathy.
Detective Kim received a call.
She walked several feet away, listened, then returned.
“Laura Bennett just reported her car stolen.”
“Where is she?” I asked.
“At Mercer Medical headquarters.”
“What kind of car?”
“A dark green sedan.”
One had been found near the edge of the forest.
The driver was gone.
Victoria had escaped in Laura’s car.
“Laura is helping her,” I said.
“Or Victoria stole the vehicle,” Kim replied.
“You haven’t met my sister.”
Emma squeezed my fingers.
“Daddy.”
I knelt beside the stretcher.
“What is it, baby?”
She looked toward Michael.
“Uncle Michael was at our house.”
“When?”
“The night I got sick.”
Michael closed his eyes.
“What did you hear?” I asked.
Emma’s voice was weak.
“He told Victoria they had to wait until my birthday.”
“For what?”
“To get rid of you.”
The paramedic told us Emma needed to leave.
I kissed her forehead.
“I’m coming with you.”
Detective Kim stopped me.
“We need to move you and Eli to a secure location.”
“I will not leave Emma.”
“The hospital will be guarded.”
“The last hospital was guarded.”
Kim lowered her voice.
“Victoria will expect you to stay beside Emma. That makes the hospital the most dangerous place for her.”
I hated the logic.
But I understood it.
“Where will you take us?”
“A protected residence.”
“No one in your department can know the address.”
“I will arrange it personally.”
Emma was transported under armed escort.
Michael and Hale were taken into custody.
Before Michael entered the police car, he called my name.
“Daniel.”
I turned.
“There is a safe in Laura’s office,” he said. “Rachel left something inside it.”
“What?”
“A recording.”
“Of what?”
“Her argument with Victoria the day she died.”
“Why didn’t you give it to the police?”
“Because my voice is on it too.”
The car door closed.
Detective Kim and I drove toward Mercer Medical headquarters.
Eli stayed with the social worker under police protection.
The building occupied twelve floors in downtown Seattle.
Employees crowded the lobby because the story was already on every news site.
Some stared at me with sympathy.
Others looked suspicious.
Victoria’s video had worked.
Laura met us outside her office.
She wore a cream suit and carried herself with the same cold confidence our mother once had.
“Daniel, this has gone far enough.”
“My daughter was nearly buried alive.”
“And you brought police into our company.”
I stepped close.
“Open the safe.”
Her face did not change.
“What safe?”
“The one behind Mother’s portrait.”
Detective Kim displayed a warrant on her phone.
Laura looked at it.
Then she looked at me.
“You have no idea what you are about to destroy.”
“My family is already destroyed.”
She entered the office and removed the portrait from the wall.
Behind it was a digital safe.
Laura placed her thumb on the scanner.
The door opened.
Inside were trust documents, cash, two passports, and a small red flash drive.
Kim placed everything into evidence bags.
Laura stared at the drive.
“You should let the past stay buried.”
“That sentence almost killed Emma.”
At the police station, a technician copied the recording.
We gathered in an interview room.
Laura refused to speak without her attorney.
Kim pressed play.
Rachel’s voice filled the room.
She sounded angry.
“You stole my son, Victoria.”
Then Victoria answered.
“I saved him from you.”
“You gave him to strangers.”
“You were going to ruin all of us.”
“I’m telling Daniel everything.”
“You think he will forgive you for sleeping with his brother?”
Michael’s voice interrupted.
“Stop, both of you.”
Rachel shouted, “You don’t get to tell me what to do. You disappeared when your mother threatened you.”
Michael said, “I was trying to protect Eli.”
“No. You were protecting yourself.”
There was a crash.
Victoria spoke again.
“If you tell Daniel, you lose Emma too.”
Rachel’s voice became quieter.
“You would hurt a child?”
“I would do anything to keep what belongs to me.”
The recording ended.
I stared at Laura.
“You had this for six years.”
She said nothing.
“You knew Victoria threatened Rachel.”
Laura finally looked at me.
“I knew they argued.”
“You hid evidence.”
“To protect the company.”
“Rachel died.”
“And there was no proof Victoria caused the crash.”
The door opened.
An officer handed Kim a note.
She read it twice.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Victoria called emergency services.”
“From where?”
“She says she wants to surrender.”
Laura laughed once.
“She never surrenders.”
Kim continued reading.
“She has one condition.”
“What?”
“She will only meet Daniel.”
“Where?”
“At the Mercer family cemetery.”
My stomach tightened.
The same cemetery where we had nearly buried Emma.
“Why there?”
May you like
Kim placed the note on the table.
“Because she says Rachel is waiting for you.”
