Chapter 6
I wanted to tear the gate open.
I wanted to drag Vivian Vale inside and force every word out of her.
Instead, Ruth stepped beside me and pressed mute.
“Breathe.”
“I can’t.”
“You have to.”
On the screen, Vivian waited in the cold with her hands clasped so tightly her knuckles were white.
Ruth turned the sound back on.
“Mrs. Vale,” she said, “this is Ruth Donnelly, Mr. Mercer’s attorney. If you have information about Laura Mercer’s death, you should speak with law enforcement.”
Vivian laughed weakly.
“Law enforcement? Richard owned half of them.”
Marcus moved closer.
“Not all of them.”
Vivian’s eyes flicked toward the camera.
“Who is that?”
“Someone who listens,” Marcus said.
Vivian swallowed.
“I will talk. But not here. Not while Richard can see me.”
“Where?” Ruth asked.
Vivian hesitated.
“The old chapel at Briar Hill. Thirty minutes.”
Ruth muted again.
“No.”
“Yes,” I said.
“It could be a trap.”
“I know.”
Marcus nodded slowly.
“We can control the location. I’ll call people I trust.”
Ruth looked at me.
“Sophie stays here with Caleb and Maren. Security doubles.”
“I know.”
Before I left, I went upstairs.
Sophie was sitting on my bed with Laura’s quilt around her shoulders.
She looked too small inside all that fabric.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, bug?”
“Are you going to find out what happened to Mommy?”
The question stole my voice.
I sat beside her.
“I’m trying.”
“Will it hurt?”
“Yes,” I said honestly. “But lies hurt longer.”
She leaned against me.
“Mommy used to say brave doesn’t mean not crying.”
I closed my eyes.
“She was right.”
Sophie touched my hand.
“Then you can cry too.”
That nearly broke me.
I kissed her hair and left before I couldn’t.
The old chapel at Briar Hill sat beyond the edge of town, abandoned after a fire years earlier.
Marcus placed two men outside.
Ruth waited in the car with a live call open to the prosecutor.
I entered with Marcus.
Vivian stood near the cracked altar.
Her coat was wrapped tightly around her.
She looked nothing like the elegant woman who had defended Natalie.
She looked hunted.
“You came,” she whispered.
“You said Laura was murdered.”
Vivian flinched at the word.
“Murdered sounds so brutal.”
“It is brutal.”
She looked down.
“I didn’t know Richard would go that far.”
I stepped toward her.
“Start at Elise.”
Vivian’s face folded with shame.
“Elise worked as a junior assistant at our estate. She found records of money being stolen from a children’s medical charity. Richard used the charity to move funds into private accounts.”
“And Elise found proof.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
Vivian pressed a hand to her mouth.
“She tried to leave with copies. Richard called Grayline. He said they were only going to scare her.”
Marcus’s voice was quiet.
“Did they kill her?”
Vivian began crying.
“I never saw the body.”
“That is not an answer,” I snapped.
She shook harder.
“I heard Richard say the river would keep secrets if stones were heavy enough.”
My stomach turned.
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“And Laura?”
“Laura kept digging. She came to me once, begging me to tell the truth. She was pregnant with Sophie then.”
I could barely breathe.
“What did you do?”
Vivian covered her face.
“I told Richard.”
The chapel went silent.
My voice came out low.
“You gave him my wife.”
“I was afraid.”
“She was pregnant.”
“I know.”
“She came to you for help.”
“I know!”
Her cry echoed off the burned walls.
For a moment, I saw not a monster, but something worse.
A coward with blood on her hands.
“Natalie knew,” I said.
Vivian nodded.
“Natalie heard arguments. She saw Laura at the estate. She hated her because Richard became obsessed with controlling the situation.”
“Why did Natalie come after me?”
Vivian wiped her face.
“Because Richard sent her.”
My whole body went cold.
“What?”
“Your company was close to acquiring a Vale subsidiary. Richard wanted leverage. Natalie suggested marriage. She said if she became Sophie’s stepmother, she could search your home for anything Laura left behind.”
The truth hit like a physical blow.
Natalie had never loved me.
She had hunted my daughter’s grief.
The wedding.
The smiles.
The plans for Sophie’s room.
All of it had been a search.
I turned away, fighting nausea.
Marcus asked, “Do you have proof?”
Vivian opened her purse and removed a small recorder.
“I recorded Richard after Laura died. I was afraid he would turn on me one day.”
She handed it to Marcus.
Then headlights swept across the chapel windows.
Vivian froze.
“No.”
A car door slammed outside.
Marcus pulled me behind a broken pillar.
Ruth’s voice crackled through his earpiece.
“Two vehicles. Armed security.”
Richard Vale’s voice rang from outside.
“Vivian. Come out.”
Vivian sobbed.
“He found me.”
I looked at the woman who had helped destroy my wife.
Then I thought of Sophie.
Of Laura.
Of Elise.
Of every secret buried under Vale money.
I stepped into the aisle.
Marcus hissed, “Ethan.”
But I kept moving.
Richard entered the chapel with two men behind him.
His eyes found me.
Then Vivian.
Then the recorder in Marcus’s hand.
His face turned to stone.
“Give that to me.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
May you like
Richard smiled without warmth.
“Then you’ll join your wife.”
