Chapter 4 - The First Wife
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Morgan stared at Evelyn.
"Expect me to die?"
The older woman lowered herself into a chair.
"I didn't say he planned everything alone."
Morgan gripped the table.
"Then who helped him?"
Evelyn removed her green beret.
Her silver hair was pinned into a loose bun.
"First, you need to understand what happened to Rachel."
She reached into her handbag and pulled out a photograph.
A smiling woman stood beside a little girl in front of a pumpkin patch.
The woman looked about thirty-five.
The child was missing one front tooth.
"That's my daughter," Evelyn said.
"Rachel."
Morgan studied the photograph.
"She looks happy."
"She was, once."
Evelyn touched the child's face.
"And this is Sophie."
"Her daughter?"
"My granddaughter."
Morgan carefully returned the photograph.
"What happened?"
Evelyn took a long breath.
"Rachel was married to a man named Christopher Mercer."
"He was a real estate consultant. Charming. Well dressed. Always talking about investments."
Morgan felt an unpleasant sense of recognition.
"Julian was the same when I met him."
Evelyn nodded.
"Christopher convinced Rachel to refinance the house her father left her."
"She refused at first."
"Then he started buying her gifts."
Morgan's hands tightened around her mug.
"Jewelry?"
"Among other things."
"Did he give her a necklace?"
"Yes."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"Rachel developed unexplained symptoms after she started wearing it."
"She stopped sleeping. She complained of headaches, skin irritation, weakness."
"The doctors were trying to determine what was wrong."
"And then?"
"Christopher began telling everyone she was unstable."
Morgan looked at Denise.
Denise's expression darkened.
"He told her employer she couldn't manage stress," Evelyn continued.
"He told her friends she was abusing medication."
"He even told me Rachel had become paranoid."
Morgan swallowed.
"Was she?"
"No."
Evelyn's voice cracked.
"She was frightened."
"She called me the night before she died."
"What did she say?"
Evelyn looked down at her hands.
"She said she'd found documents with her signature on them."
"Documents she'd never signed."
Morgan leaned forward.
"What kind of documents?"
"Property transfers. Insurance papers. Financial authorizations."
A terrible thought began taking shape.
"Did Christopher inherit her house?"
Evelyn nodded.
"Most of it ended up outside the estate before anyone understood what happened."
"How?"
"Someone had forged her signature on a transfer."
Denise spoke for the first time.
"Did the police investigate?"
"Yes."
"But the documents appeared valid, the medical evidence was inconclusive, and Christopher had an attorney who kept everyone arguing about Rachel's mental health."
Evelyn wiped her eyes.
"He disappeared six weeks after the funeral."
Morgan stared at her.
"Where did he go?"
"We didn't know."
"And Sophie?"
"She's with me."
Evelyn looked toward the window.
"She's eight now."
Morgan slowly stood.
"Why did you warn me?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Three weeks ago, I saw a photograph of your husband."
"Where?"
"At the repair shop."
"Julian?"
"Yes."
Morgan frowned.
"But Elaine told me the necklace came in three months ago."
"It did."
Evelyn nodded.
"I went back recently to ask Elaine about the investigation."
"She showed me footage of the man who had brought in the strange pendant."
"At first, I only noticed the necklace."
"Then I noticed something else."
Morgan waited.
"The watch."
"What watch?"
Evelyn pulled another photograph from her bag.
This one showed Rachel and Christopher standing at a charity event.
Christopher wore a distinctive silver watch with a dark green face.
Morgan recognized it instantly.
Julian owned the same watch.
He called it a family heirloom.
Morgan took the photograph closer to the light.
The man beside Rachel was blond.
He had a different jawline.
Different eyebrows.
Different smile.
"That's not Julian."
"No."
Evelyn nodded.
"But the watch belonged to Christopher."
"He wore it every day."
Morgan felt the room grow cold.
"Julian told me his father gave it to him."
Evelyn said nothing.
Denise asked the question Morgan couldn't.
"Do you think they're connected?"
"I know they are."
"How?"
Evelyn opened her handbag again.
She removed a copy of an old photograph.
Three men stood together outside a marina.
One was Christopher Mercer.
One was Julian Bennett.
And between them stood a tall man with close-cropped hair.
Morgan recognized him too.
His name was Adrian Vale.
Julian's business partner.
The man who'd supposedly died in a boating accident eighteen months earlier.
Morgan stared at the photograph.
"Where did you get this?"
"Rachel found it before she died."
Evelyn's hands shook.
"She told me Christopher and Adrian were planning something with a third man."
Morgan looked at Julian's smiling face in the photograph.
"When was this taken?"
"Four years ago."
Morgan's breath caught.
Four years.
Two years before Julian's business troubles began.
Before the import deals.
Before the unexplained debt.
Before he'd started begging her to sell Grandma Clara's cottage.
Morgan looked up.
"Why didn't you tell the police?"
"I did."
"What happened?"
"They said the photograph proved the men knew each other."
"Nothing more."
Denise frowned.
"But Adrian is dead."
Evelyn shook her head.
"That's what everyone thinks."
Morgan's phone vibrated.
A new message.
From Julian.
I found your grandmother's documents. We need to talk.
Attached was a photograph.
Morgan opened it.
Her grandmother's original property deed lay on their dining room table.
Beside it sat a pen.
And a familiar navy-blue velvet box.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
Come home, Morgan. Or I'll make sure that cottage never belongs to you again.
