Chapter 6 - THE THING CHLOE COULDN'T BURN
The house was still smoking when we arrived.
Firefighters had already contained the flames.
The marble foyer was blackened.
The wedding portrait was gone.
The office had collapsed.
But Chloe stood across the street wrapped in a gray blanket.
Alive.
Watching the ruins.
When she saw me, she walked toward me.
For the first time since Leo's funeral, she looked genuinely frightened.
“You shouldn't have come.”
I stared at her.
“You burned my son's house.”
“I didn't.”
“Then why was Martin inside?”
Her eyes filled with something I couldn't identify.
“Because he was looking for something.”
“What?”
She shook her head.
“You wouldn't believe me.”
“Try.”
Chloe looked toward the burned house.
“Leo.”
My heart tightened.
“What about him?”
“He knew.”
I almost laughed.
“Everyone keeps telling me my son knew things. No one tells me what.”
Chloe stepped closer.
“He knew what my mother did.”
The world seemed to stop.
“Your mother?”
“Evelyn.”
“You knew she was alive?”
Chloe looked down.
“No.”
That answer surprised me.
“My mother disappeared when I was sixteen.”
“Samuel says she testified against developers.”
“She did.”
“Did my family hurt her?”
Chloe swallowed.
“No.”
I stared at her.
“Then why did you hate us?”
“Because I believed they did.”
Her voice broke.
“My grandmother raised me. She told me your family destroyed my mother.”
I said nothing.
“She showed me documents. She showed me photographs. She told me your father-in-law threatened my mother.”
“And you believed her.”
“I was sixteen.”
There was no defense in her voice.
Only regret.
“Leo found out the truth,” she continued.
“When?”
“After we were married.”
“Why didn't he leave you?”
“Because he loved me.”
The answer hurt.
Even now.
“Did you love him?”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Then why did you throw me out?”
She looked at me.
“Because Martin told me Leo had left instructions.”
“What instructions?”
“That if he died, I had to make you leave the house immediately.”
I stared.
“Leo told you to do that?”
“No.”
She reached into her coat.
She removed a small envelope.
The edges were burned.
“I found this after the fire.”
She handed it to me.
My name was written on the front.
My fingers trembled.
Inside was a photograph.
Leo and me at the lodge.
The same photograph from the floor.
On the back:
Mom, don't trust anyone who tells you I wanted you gone.
I looked at Chloe.
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of Martin?”
She nodded.
“And of the people behind him.”
I looked toward Samuel.
He was speaking with firefighters.
“Who is behind Martin?”
Chloe whispered one name.
“Holloway.”
My blood ran cold.
“Your mother?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“My mother wasn't the only person in that organization.”
She looked toward the burned house.
“There was a man who worked with her.”
“Who?”
“Your father-in-law.”
I couldn't speak.
Chloe continued.
“He wasn't the villain everyone thought he was.”
That was the second reversal.
My entire understanding of the family shifted again.
“He infiltrated the group,” she said. “He helped expose them.”
“Then why did Evelyn accuse him?”
“She didn't.”
I looked at her.
“She accused the man who controlled the group.”
“Who?”
Chloe's face went pale.
“Martin.”
I stared at the smoking house.
Martin had not been working for my family.
He had been working against them.
But that still didn't explain everything.
“Why did Leo's father die?”
Chloe looked away.
“I don't know.”
Samuel approached.
“We found something.”
He held up a charred metal box.
My heart jumped.
“What is it?”
“Recovered from the foundation.”
The box had survived the fire.
Samuel opened it.
Inside was a child's drawing.
Crayon mountains.
A blue house.
Three figures.
And beneath them:
MOM, DAD, LEO.
I recognized the handwriting.
My husband's.
But there was something else.
A small brass key.
Number 17.
I looked at Samuel.
“The key was supposed to be in Leo's lodge.”
“Then someone copied it.”
Chloe suddenly grabbed my arm.
“Mrs. Bennett.”
“What?”
“You need to leave Colorado.”
“Why?”
“Because Martin wasn't trying to burn the house.”
She pointed at the box.
“He was trying to destroy what was inside it.”
Samuel looked at the drawing.
“What did you find?”
Chloe's face hardened.
“Records.”
“What records?”
“The original land agreements.”
Samuel's eyes narrowed.
“Where?”
Chloe looked at me.
“In the mountain lodge.”
I felt the room go cold.
“We searched it.”
“You searched the house.”
She shook her head.
“Leo never hid things where people looked.”
“Where, then?”
Chloe pointed at the old photograph in my hand.
“Your son told me once that your father-in-law had one place where nobody would ever search.”
“The east wall.”
Her eyes widened.
“You know?”
I nodded.
Chloe whispered, “Then we have to get there before Martin.”
Samuel reached for his weapon.
Too late.
A black SUV appeared at the end of the road.
Martin stepped out.
He wasn't carrying a weapon.
He simply stood there.
Then he looked directly at Chloe.
“You were supposed to understand by now.”
Chloe froze.
Martin raised his hand.
He was holding something.
A small child's silver bracelet.
May you like
And on it was engraved one name.
LEO.
