Chapter 10 - VIVIEN’S LAST LIE
Vivien Cole requested to speak with Nathaniel from jail.
He refused.
She asked again.
He refused again.
On the third request, her attorney included one sentence.
SHE HAS INFORMATION ABOUT LILY DELGADO’S FATHER.
Nathaniel read it twice.
Then called Rosa.
She was in the estate kitchen helping Lily cut strawberries with a plastic child-safe knife.
“Vivien says she knows something about your ex-husband.”
Rosa went still.
“What?”
“She won’t say unless I meet her.”
“No.”
Nathaniel watched her.
“You don’t want to know?”
“My ex is named Mateo Alvarez.”
“He disappeared almost three years ago.”
“He stole from me.”
“He hit me.”
“If Vivien knows him, I don’t want anything he has to offer.”
Nathaniel hesitated.
“What if he is involved?”
Rosa’s face changed.
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
She looked at Lily.
Then lowered her voice.
“Mateo worked construction.”
“He never knew people like Peter Voss.”
“People know people.”
Nathaniel said.
“We should verify.”
Rosa hated the idea.
But she agreed.
Nathaniel met Vivien the next morning.
The detention-center interview room was deliberately unpleasant.
Concrete walls.
Bolted table.
Fluorescent light.
Vivien wore beige jail clothing.
No makeup.
No diamond.
She looked younger and harder.
“You came.”
Nathaniel sat.
“You mentioned Mateo Alvarez.”
Vivien smiled.
“No hello?”
“No.”
“You used to have better manners.”
“You used to pretend not to be a murderer.”
Her smile disappeared.
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
“You tried.”
“I pushed Margaret.”
“I admitted that.”
“Because you thought Voss might kill you first.”
Vivien leaned forward.
“You think Rosa is different?”
Nathaniel’s expression did not change.
“Different from what?”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
Vivien laughed.
“That was fast.”
“This isn’t about Rosa.”
“Everything is about Rosa now.”
Nathaniel stood.
Vivien’s eyes sharpened.
“Sit down.”
He stared.
“If you leave, you’ll never know why Mateo disappeared.”
Nathaniel sat again.
Vivien smiled.
“There.”
“Still curious.”
“What do you know?”
“Peter knew Mateo.”
Nathaniel felt his pulse change.
“How?”
“Mateo worked security jobs on the side.”
“Private events.”
“Warehouses.”
“Driving.”
“Peter hired him twice.”
“For what?”
“Nothing important at first.”
Vivien watched him closely.
“Then Peter discovered Mateo had a connection to someone inside your house.”
“Rosa.”
“Yes.”
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
“When?”
“About a year ago.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Rosa had already separated from him.”
“Peter didn’t care.”
“What did he ask Mateo to do?”
“Find out what Rosa heard.”
Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed.
“Heard about what?”
“Margaret.”
Vivien sat back.
“Your mother had been suspicious of me for months.”
“She asked Rosa strange questions.”
“Who visited when you were away.”
“Whether I used your study.”
“Whether packages arrived.”
Nathaniel remembered Margaret’s instincts.
“So Voss wanted Rosa watched.”
“Yes.”
“Mateo agreed.”
Nathaniel’s disgust deepened.
“But Rosa hadn’t seen him in years.”
“He found her.”
Vivien said.
“She didn’t know.”
“What does that mean?”
“He watched Lily’s preschool.”
“Followed Rosa on days off.”
“Peter paid him.”
Nathaniel’s hand clenched beneath the table.
“Where is Mateo now?”
Vivien’s eyes flickered.
“That’s the interesting part.”
“Tell me.”
“He tried to blackmail Peter.”
“With what?”
“Evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“A recording.”
Nathaniel leaned forward.
“Of?”
“Peter and me.”
“When?”
“The night we planned the brake failure.”
Nathaniel stopped breathing.
Vivien’s face changed slightly.
Perhaps she realized she had said too much.
“You planned it.”
Nathaniel whispered.
Vivien looked away.
“You just admitted it.”
“He planned it.”
“You said we.”
Vivien’s face hardened.
“Fine.”
“Yes.”
“I knew.”
“I didn’t touch the car.”
“But you knew.”
“Yes.”
Nathaniel’s voice went cold.
“And Mateo recorded you.”
“He was driving Peter that night.”
“He left his phone on.”
“Peter realized later.”
“What happened to Mateo?”
Vivien did not answer.
Nathaniel’s stomach dropped.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I know Peter found him.”
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
Rosa had believed Mateo simply stayed away.
Nathaniel suddenly feared something darker.
“Did Peter kill him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“For once, tell me the truth.”
“I am.”
Nathaniel stood.
Vivien called after him.
“Nathaniel.”
He stopped.
She looked almost vulnerable.
“Do you really believe Rosa wants nothing from you?”
He turned slowly.
Vivien continued.
“She lives in your house.”
“She has a little girl you adore.”
“She knows you’re lonely.”
Nathaniel’s expression became ice.
“You still don’t understand her.”
“I understand women like her.”
“No.”
Nathaniel said.
“You understand women like you.”
He walked out.
Police searched for Mateo.
They found him that afternoon.
Alive.
He had been living under a false name in New Jersey.
Not because Voss had hidden him.
Because Mateo had been hiding from Voss.
He agreed to speak only after prosecutors offered limited immunity for his involvement in surveillance.
Rosa refused to see him.
Nathaniel did.
Mateo was thirty-one.
Thin.
Nervous.
He looked nothing like the monster Nathaniel had imagined.
That almost made him more dangerous.
“Where is the recording?”
Nathaniel asked.
Mateo looked at him.
“Rosa okay?”
“You lost the right to ask me that.”
Mateo flinched.
“Fair.”
“The recording.”
“In a storage locker.”
“Where?”
“Newark.”
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
Mateo laughed bitterly.
“I was working for criminals.”
“I had gambling debt.”
“I’d hit my wife.”
“I figured police weren’t lining up to give me a medal.”
Nathaniel hated him.
But he needed him.
“Why keep the recording?”
“Insurance.”
“Voss tried to kill me.”
“He sent Meadows.”
“I got away.”
Nathaniel’s eyes sharpened.
“Meadows?”
“Yes.”
That connected another piece.
“Did Voss tell Meadows to attack Rosa and Lily?”
Mateo looked confused.
“What attack?”
Nathaniel studied him.
Perhaps he genuinely didn’t know.
Mateo gave police the locker code.
Inside they found a phone wrapped in plastic.
The audio was damaged.
But recoverable.
Two voices.
Peter Voss.
Vivien Cole.
Discussing Nathaniel’s driving schedule.
Discussing a brake line.
Discussing how an accident would be tragic but believable.
Then Vivien said something that destroyed any remaining claim of coercion.
“If he dies before the wedding, we get nothing.”
Voss replied, “Then it’s only a warning.”
Vivien laughed.
“Make sure the next one happens after I’m his wife.”
Nathaniel listened once.
Only once.
Then handed the phone to prosecutors.
The conspiracy case was now overwhelming.
But when Rosa heard Mateo had been found, she became quiet.
Nathaniel found her on the back porch that evening.
“You don’t have to see him.”
“I know.”
“He asked about Lily.”
“He doesn’t get to.”
“No.”
Rosa wiped her eyes angrily.
“I thought I was done being afraid of him.”
Nathaniel stood beside her.
“You are.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I’m afraid because part of me still remembers who I wanted him to be.”
Nathaniel understood too well.
He sat beside her.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then Rosa laughed weakly.
“We really know how to choose people.”
Nathaniel smiled.
“Apparently.”
She looked at him.
“Maybe we should both stay single forever.”
“Probably safest.”
“Statistically?”
“Absolutely.”
They laughed.
Then stopped.
Their shoulders almost touched.
Rosa looked toward the dark lawn.
“You know this changes nothing.”
“What?”
“This.”
She gestured between them without looking.
Nathaniel’s heartbeat shifted.
“I wasn’t aware there was a this.”
“Good.”
“There isn’t.”
“Excellent.”
“Perfect.”
Silence.
Then Nathaniel smiled.
Rosa did too.
May you like
For the first time, the future felt dangerous for a reason that had nothing to do with Vivien.
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