Chapter 5 - WHAT NORA SAW
Adrian walked toward them.
Marcus raised both hands.
“Don't.”
Adrian stopped.
“Where is my wife?”
Claire stepped beside him.
“I'm here.”
Nora looked at her sister.
“I tried to protect you.”
Claire's voice shook.
“By helping them?”
Nora cried harder.
“I didn't know what they would do.”
Marcus looked at Adrian.
“I never wanted this to reach Claire.”
Adrian laughed once.
It contained no humor.
“You've been terrorizing my wife for months.”
“No.”
“Then explain the photographs.”
“I sent none of them.”
“The bracelet?”
“No.”
“The gun?”
Marcus shook his head.
“The messages?”
“No.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Then why are you here?”
Marcus looked toward Nora.
“She knows who did it.”
Nora closed her eyes.
“I do.”
Claire grabbed her sister's arm.
“Who?”
Nora whispered one name.
“Margaret.”
Adrian's mother.
The world seemed to stop.
“No.”
Nora nodded.
“I'm sorry.”
Adrian stared at her.
“My mother?”
“She was there the night your father died.”
Adrian's voice became dangerously quiet.
“That's impossible.”
“I saw her.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“Your mother wasn't alone.”
“Who was with her?”
Nora looked at Claire.
“Your father.”
Claire's face went pale.
Adrian frowned.
“My father was dead.”
“No,” Nora said.
“Not yet.”
She explained.
Six years earlier, Claire had received a call from Adrian's father asking her to come to the hospital.
Nora had driven her.
When they arrived, they saw Margaret arguing with him in a private corridor.
Adrian's father was alive.
He was frightened.
He told Claire that someone inside the company had been moving money.
He also said Margaret knew.
Claire had taken the notebook.
Then Margaret appeared.
“She told us to leave,” Nora said.
“Why?”
“She said if we told Adrian, people would die.”
Adrian's face hardened.
“Then what happened?”
Nora looked down.
“We left.”
“That's it?”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“On the way home, we saw your father's car.”
Adrian stared at her.
“It was parked outside the hospital.”
Nora nodded.
“He wasn't supposed to drive that night.”
Claire remembered.
“My father called him.”
Nora looked at her.
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Nora shook her head.
“I never found out.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“Because your father wasn't working alone.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Who else?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Elena's father.”
Adrian's mind raced.
His father's investigation had crossed three families.
Cole.
Voss.
Claire's family.
But there was another question.
“Why did my mother terrorize Claire?”
Nora answered.
“Because she believed Claire had the notebook.”
Adrian looked at Claire.
“She didn't.”
“No,” Nora said.
“She didn't have it anymore.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“Where did it go?”
Nora looked toward Marcus.
Marcus pulled an old key from his pocket.
“I gave it to your father.”
Adrian stared.
“You had it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your father gave it to me before he died.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because your father made me promise.”
“What promise?”
“That I would protect you from the truth until I knew who was behind it.”
Adrian's voice cracked for the first time.
“You had six years.”
“I know.”
“And you watched my wife suffer?”
Marcus looked devastated.
“I thought the threats were coming from your mother.”
“They weren't.”
“No.”
Marcus shook his head.
“They were coming from someone using her name.”
Claire stepped forward.
“Who?”
Marcus looked at Adrian.
“The person who has been inside your house for months.”
Adrian went still.
Marcus continued.
“The person who knew your schedule.”
“The person who knew about the baby.”
“The person who knew where your father's watch was.”
He reached into his coat.
Then placed a security access card on the hood of the SUV.
Adrian recognized it.
It belonged to Evelyn.
Their house manager.
Claire whispered, “Evelyn?”
Marcus nodded.
“She wasn't working for your mother.”
“Then who?”
Marcus looked toward the dark road.
“Your father's killer.”
Adrian stared.
“You said my father died in an accident.”
“I said that's what everyone believed.”
He opened the folder.
Inside was an old photograph.
Adrian's father stood beside a younger Evelyn.
But Evelyn wasn't a house manager.
She was wearing a security badge.
Adrian's eyes widened.
“She worked for my father.”
Marcus nodded.
“And she has been waiting six years to finish what she started.”
Claire touched her stomach.
Then her phone rang.
Evelyn's name appeared on the screen.
Claire answered.
No one spoke.
Then Evelyn whispered:
May you like
“Claire, don't trust Adrian.”
The call ended.
