Chapter 2 - THE DEAD WOMAN
Nobody laughed.
Nobody moved.
Nora Mercer—if that was really her name—looked past Ethan toward Richard Hale.
“You told him?”
Richard pushed through the guests.
“Security.”
“Dad.”
“Now.”
Marcus Voss, Richard’s longtime head of security, came down the stairs with two men.
Nora stepped backward.
Ethan moved between them.
“I said wait.”
Richard grabbed his son’s shoulder.
“You don’t understand what you’re dealing with.”
“Then explain it.”
“Not here.”
Nora gave a bitter little laugh.
“You always did like closed doors, Richard.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
Claire looked from one face to another.
“Richard, do you know her?”
“No.”
Nora stared at him.
“You’re going to lie while he’s standing right there?”
“I knew a woman named Nora Mercer thirty years ago.”
“You knew me this morning.”
Richard’s composure cracked.
“Enough.”
Marcus reached for Nora.
She jerked away.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Ma’am—”
“I said don’t touch me!”
Ethan stepped forward.
“Marcus. Back off.”
For the first time in twelve years of working for the Hale family, Marcus ignored him.
His hand closed around Nora’s arm.
She winced.
Ethan shoved him.
Hard.
Gasps rippled through the wedding guests.
“Get your hands off her.”
Richard came face-to-face with his son.
“She is sick, Ethan.”
Nora’s eyes flashed.
“That’s what you told the judge.”
Ethan looked at his father.
“What judge?”
Richard said nothing.
Nora reached inside her coat.
Marcus immediately grabbed her wrist.
Ethan saw panic in her eyes.
“It’s paper!” she shouted. “It’s just paper!”
“Let her go!”
Marcus released her.
Nora pulled out an old envelope, bent and stained from being carried too long.
She pushed it into Ethan’s hands.
“Read it without him in the room.”
Richard snatched for it.
Ethan pulled it back.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Richard stared at the envelope as though it contained a bomb.
“Ethan, listen to me. I spent twenty-five years protecting you from this woman.”
Nora’s expression collapsed.
“Protecting him?”
“Yes.”
“Is that what you call it?”
Richard turned to Marcus.
“Remove her.”
This time four security men moved.
Nora didn’t fight.
She just looked at Ethan.
“St. Vincent’s Hospital.”
Ethan’s heartbeat hammered.
“What?”
“January 14, 2002.”
Richard shouted, “Take her!”
Marcus pulled Nora toward the sidewalk.
She twisted once.
“Ask him who was driving!”
Ethan went cold.
Richard grabbed him.
“Do not listen to her.”
Nora was pushed toward a black SUV.
“Ask him why my signature is on papers I never signed!”
The rear door opened.
“Nora!”
She looked back.
For the first time, Ethan called her by name.
She stopped fighting.
Richard whispered beside him.
“She destroyed our family once. Don’t let her do it again.”
Nora’s eyes locked with Ethan’s.
Then she shouted across the crowd.
“ASK YOUR FATHER WHY HE SIGNED MY DEATH CERTIFICATE.”
Marcus shoved her inside.
The door slammed.
May you like
And the SUV drove away.
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