Chapter 10 - Laura Bennett
Laura Bennett looked nothing like the dead woman in the police file.
She was fifty years old, thin, pale, and walked with a cane.
A scar ran from beneath her left ear toward her collar.
When she saw Bianca, she stopped.
Neither woman spoke.
Bianca’s eyes filled instantly.
Laura whispered, “You have my eyes.”
Bianca broke.
Every wall she had built collapsed at once.
She crossed the lobby and stopped inches from Laura.
“Are you my mother?”
Laura nodded.
Bianca covered her mouth.
Then Laura pulled her into her arms.
Bianca began sobbing.
Not elegant tears.
Not the controlled crying she had probably learned in front of cameras.
She shook like a child.
Laura held her.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why did you leave me?”
“I didn’t.”
Bianca pulled back.
“You disappeared.”
“I was forced to.”
Reyes had returned and was recording everything.
“What happened?” she asked.
Laura sat slowly.
“Charles knew Rebecca had discovered the forged ownership documents.”
“Did he know you were pregnant?” Reyes asked.
“Yes.”
“Was Bianca his child?”
Laura looked at Bianca.
Then nodded.
Bianca closed her eyes.
“So he is my father.”
“Biologically, yes.”
The word sounded like a punishment.
Laura continued.
“I tried to leave while I was pregnant. Charles found me.”
“What did he do?” Elena asked.
Laura’s hand moved unconsciously toward the scar on her neck.
“He threatened Rebecca.”
Bianca stared at the scar.
Laura noticed.
“That came later.”
She took a breath.
“After you were born, Rebecca hid you. She told Charles you had died.”
Bianca looked shocked.
“Why?”
“Because he wanted control of you.”
“For what?”
“Your existence complicated ownership.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“How?”
Laura looked at him.
“Rebecca transferred part of her shares into a trust for Bianca days after her birth.”
Adrian understood immediately.
“That prevented Charles from taking full control.”
“Yes.”
Bianca whispered, “So I was money to him.”
Laura reached for her hand.
“You were never money to me.”
Bianca cried again.
“What happened to you?”
“I met Margaret.”
Elena leaned forward.
“My mother.”
Laura nodded.
“She helped hotel staff whenever management cheated us. She was fearless.”
Elena smiled through sudden tears.
That sounded exactly like her mother.
“Rebecca trusted her,” Laura continued. “We gave Margaret the box because nobody connected her to us.”
“But Catherine knew,” Elena said.
Laura nodded.
“We thought Catherine was helping.”
Bianca whispered, “She betrayed you.”
“Yes.”
“What did she do?”
“She told Charles where I was staying.”
The room fell silent.
Bianca shook her head.
“No.”
Laura continued.
“He sent Victor Hale.”
Elena glanced toward Reyes.
“The driver.”
“He wasn’t a driver then.”
Laura’s face tightened.
“He took me outside the city. There was an argument. I tried to escape.”
She touched the scar.
“I barely survived.”
“Who was the dead woman?” Reyes asked.
Laura looked haunted.
“I don’t know.”
Reyes frowned.
“The body had your necklace.”
“Victor took it from me.”
Bianca whispered, “To make people think you were dead.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
Laura looked at her daughter.
“I tried.”
Tears appeared.
“But Catherine contacted me.”
Bianca’s expression hardened.
“What did she say?”
“That Charles had you.”
Laura’s voice broke.
“She told me if I returned, you would disappear too.”
Bianca stood abruptly.
“So Catherine took me from Rebecca?”
“No.”
“Then how did Charles get me?”
Laura hesitated.
That frightened everyone.
“Rebecca died.”
“The crash,” Bianca said.
“Yes.”
“Did Charles kill her?”
Laura shook her head.
“I can’t prove that.”
“But you believe it.”
Laura looked toward Reyes.
“I know Catherine was following Rebecca’s car that night.”
Bianca went still.
Reyes leaned closer.
“How do you know?”
“Because Rebecca called me.”
Silence.
“From the car?” Reyes asked.
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Laura looked directly at Bianca.
“She said, ‘Catherine won’t stop following me.’”
Bianca stared at the floor.
Laura continued.
“Then I heard Rebecca scream.”
Nobody breathed.
“And the call ended.”
Reyes asked the question carefully.
“Did you hear impact?”
Laura nodded.
Bianca turned away.
Adrian asked, “Why did Catherine send us the flash drive now?”
Laura’s expression changed.
“Because she’s running.”
“From what?” Elena asked.
Laura looked at her.
“Not from the police.”
A chill ran through Elena.
“Then from who?”
Laura whispered:
“Daniel Mercer.”
Marissa had called him Daniel.
Charles’s security chief.
Reyes frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel isn’t Charles’s employee anymore.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“Who is he working for?”
Laura looked at Bianca.
“Catherine.”
Bianca’s face drained.
Laura continued.
“She’s been moving money through him for years.”
Then Adrian’s security chief entered holding a phone.
“You need to see this.”
He played a newly recovered section of hallway footage.
Catherine hadn’t left the penthouse carrying one wooden box.
She had left carrying two.
Elena frowned.
“There was only one missing.”
The security chief nodded.
“Which means she brought the second box in.”
Reyes’s expression sharpened.
“What was inside?”
“We found it in a bedroom closet.”
“Open it.”
The box clicked.
Inside sat a handgun.
And beneath it—
A bloodstained white glove.
Bianca stared at it.
Reyes looked toward the serial number on the weapon.
Then at a message arriving on her phone.
Her eyes narrowed.
“What?”
May you like
She looked at Bianca.
“The gun is registered to you.”
