Chapter 9 - The Sister Adrian Had Never Met
Emma wanted to board the plane immediately.
Eleanor stopped her.
“That’s what he wants.”
“He has Lucy.”
“And if you do exactly what Michael says, he will have Lucy and me.”
Emma turned.
“She’s thirteen.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to ask me to be rational.”
“No.”
Eleanor’s voice remained gentle.
“I get to help you bring her home.”
Adrian stood beside Emma.
“We’ll get her.”
She looked at him.
“How?”
“We know what Harlan wants.”
“My mother.”
Eleanor corrected him.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
“He wants the recording.”
Emma frowned.
“He asked for you.”
“Because he thinks I know where it is.”
“You do.”
“Partly.”
Eleanor looked at the old files.
“Sarah and I recorded our conversation.”
“Yes.”
“But Sarah added something afterward.”
“What?”
“A confession from Dr. Harlan.”
Adrian stared.
“His father.”
“Yes.”
Eleanor continued.
“Dr. Harlan came to me two nights after Sarah’s visit.”
“Why?”
“He was afraid.”
“Of Arthur?”
“Of Richard.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
“He admitted the drugs were being manipulated?”
“Yes.”
“And Sarah?”
“She had left a recorder running.”
Emma almost laughed.
Of course she had.
Her mother had always prepared for the second conversation.
Eleanor continued.
“Harlan admitted that Richard Bellamy paid the clinic to keep me unstable.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“Leverage over Arthur.”
“And Sarah?”
Eleanor’s expression changed.
“Harlan also admitted someone requested access to Sarah’s hospital medication.”
Emma held her breath.
“Who?”
“He never said the name.”
“Then what good is the recording?”
“He described the person.”
Emma leaned closer.
“How?”
“A woman.”
Vanessa.
Emma thought it instantly.
But Eleanor shook her head.
“Not Vanessa.”
Adrian frowned.
“Who?”
“Older.”
“Mrs. Whitmore?”
“No.”
Eleanor looked at Emma.
“She had Vale family authorization.”
Emma stared.
“There was only one adult Vale woman.”
Eleanor nodded.
“Me.”
Adrian became still.
Emma felt the implication.
Someone had used Eleanor’s identity.
Her signature.
Her authorization.
“Forged?”
“Yes.”
Eleanor’s voice hardened.
“The person who arranged the overdose wanted it to look as if I had ordered it.”
Emma sat down.
Her mother’s death had been designed to point toward a woman declared dead.
Perfect.
No living suspect.
No investigation.
Adrian asked, “Who had access to my mother’s documents?”
Eleanor answered immediately.
“Arthur.”
“Richard.”
“Vanessa.”
“Dr. Harlan.”
“And the family legal office.”
Daniel Price.
Emma looked up.
“The lawyer.”
Adrian frowned.
“Price was helping Arthur.”
“Maybe later.”
Eleanor nodded.
“He wasn’t always.”
Another layer.
Marcus entered with an update.
“Lucy and Carol Carter were taken in a gray van.”
Emma’s heart pounded.
“Aunt Carol too?”
“Yes.”
“Alive?”
“Security camera shows both walking under threat.”
Relief.
Small but real.
“Vehicle?”
“Abandoned fifteen miles away.”
“Where are they now?”
“We don’t know.”
Adrian asked, “Michael’s known properties?”
“Searching.”
Eleanor whispered, “Ridgeway.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What?”
“The old house.”
Richard had mentioned it.
Arthur and Eleanor’s first home near the bridge.
Eleanor continued.
“Michael’s father treated me there before the private clinic existed.”
Emma felt sick.
“He’ll take them there?”
“If he wants me.”
Adrian ordered transport.
They returned to New York before dawn.
No one slept.
During the flight, Emma stared at Lucy’s photograph.
Adrian sat beside her.
“Tell me about her.”
Emma looked at him.
“What?”
“If we’re going to get her back, I want to know who I’m getting back.”
Emma swallowed.
“She hates peas.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“So did Arthur.”
“She loves astronomy.”
“That’s me.”
Emma looked at him.
“You?”
“My mother bought me a telescope when I was ten.”
Eleanor, seated across the cabin, smiled faintly.
Adrian continued.
“She reads?”
“Constantly.”
“What?”
“Mysteries.”
He nodded toward the chaos around them.
“Unfortunate hobby.”
Emma laughed.
It surprised both of them.
For a few seconds, fear loosened.
Then Emma said, “She thinks rich people are boring.”
Adrian leaned back.
“Smart kid.”
“She thinks your company makes printers.”
Adrian blinked.
“We don’t make printers.”
“I know.”
“Why did you tell her that?”
“She asked what Vale Holdings did when she saw your name online.”
“And printers was the safest lie?”
“It was the first thing I thought of.”
He smiled.
A real one this time.
Emma realized she had never seen it.
It changed him.
Then it disappeared.
“Does she know you work for me?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Emma looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because when we meet, I’d prefer not to begin with ‘I let my fiancée fire your sister.’”
Emma stared.
Then despite herself, she laughed again.
Adrian looked out the window.
“I should have known.”
“Known what?”
“Vanessa.”
“You couldn’t.”
“I proposed to her.”
“That doesn’t make you responsible for every secret she kept.”
“It makes me stupid.”
Emma shook her head.
“It makes you human.”
He looked at her.
For a moment the cabin disappeared.
Then Eleanor spoke.
“Arthur said that once.”
Both turned.
Eleanor smiled sadly.
“When Adrian was fifteen.”
“What did I do?” Adrian asked.
“You drove my car into the greenhouse.”
Emma looked at him.
Adrian’s face changed.
“I told Dad the brakes failed.”
“They did not.”
Emma laughed.
Eleanor did too.
For three seconds, they were almost a family.
Then Marcus’s phone rang.
The moment vanished.
“We found Richard.”
Adrian stood.
“Where?”
“Private airfield in Westchester.”
“With Vanessa?”
“No.”
“Michael?”
“No.”
“Then what is he doing?”
Marcus looked at the screen.
“He’s trying to leave the country.”
Adrian’s face went cold.
“Stop him.”
They intercepted Richard before his plane took off.
He was brought to a private hangar.
Adrian entered first.
Emma followed.
Richard looked exhausted.
“Your mother is alive.”
Adrian ignored him.
“Where is Lucy?”
Richard’s face changed.
“Who?”
Emma crossed the room.
“Don’t.”
He looked at her.
“Harlan took her.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“Damn it.”
“You knew he was still alive.”
“Yes.”
“You helped him get into security.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Richard hesitated.
Adrian slammed a hand against the table.
“Who?”
Richard looked at him.
“Vanessa.”
Emma stopped.
Adrian said nothing.
Richard continued.
“She found Michael three years ago.”
“Why?”
“She wanted answers.”
“About what?”
“Arthur’s death.”
Emma frowned.
“If she helped cover it up, why investigate it?”
Richard gave a bitter smile.
“Because Vanessa has spent seven years believing I killed him.”
Vanessa thought Richard had killed Arthur.
Richard thought Vanessa was protecting Eleanor.
Everyone had protected different lies.
Emma asked, “Did you?”
“No.”
“Who stabbed Arthur before the garage?”
Richard looked at Eleanor.
Her face went pale.
“I did not.”
Richard shook his head.
“I know.”
Adrian’s voice hardened.
“Then who?”
Richard finally answered.
“Daniel Price.”
The dead lawyer.
Emma stared.
“Why?”
“Arthur discovered Price was the person using Adrian’s credentials.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“Price stole the money?”
“Part of it.”
“For whom?”
Richard looked directly at him.
“Michael Harlan.”
Emma felt the story snap together.
Harlan’s private trials.
Shell companies.
Illegal payments.
Daniel Price laundering money.
Sarah discovered the hospital connection.
Arthur discovered Price.
Price stabbed him.
Then Arthur fled to Emma’s garage.
Richard and Vanessa arrived with Eleanor.
Everyone collided at once.
Adrian asked, “How did my father end up in the river?”
Richard looked toward the hangar door.
“Price followed us.”
Emma’s heart pounded.
“He was at Ridgeway?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Richard’s face went gray.
“He rammed the car.”
Vanessa lost control.
The vehicle struck the bridge barrier.
Arthur had escaped the back seat.
Price confronted him.
Richard continued.
“I saw them fighting.”
“What happened?”
“Arthur took Price over the barrier with him.”
Emma stared.
Both went into the river.
Arthur’s body had been found.
Price’s never had.
“But Daniel Price supposedly died six months later,” Adrian said.
Richard nodded.
“That story was created to explain his disappearance.”
Emma whispered, “He died the same night.”
“Yes.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Then why cover it up?”
“Because Eleanor was in the car.”
Richard looked at him.
“Because Vanessa had driven.”
“Because I had helped a legally dead woman escape a psychiatric institution.”
“And because Arthur’s death exposed every secret we had spent years hiding.”
Emma shook her head.
“You let me believe you murdered him.”
Richard looked at her.
“It kept you away.”
“It destroyed my life.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Emma stepped closer.
“You don’t get to say that.”
Richard lowered his head.
“I know.”
She almost hit him.
Instead she asked, “Where is Michael taking Lucy?”
Richard looked at Eleanor.
“The Ridgeway house.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Adrian turned to Marcus.
“Move.”
Richard shouted, “Wait.”
Adrian stopped.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Harlan won’t trade Lucy for Eleanor.”
“You just said—”
“He’ll kill Eleanor the moment he has the recording.”
Emma’s chest tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Eleanor can identify his father’s crimes.”
Adrian stared.
Richard continued.
“And if Michael thinks Lucy is Arthur’s legal heir, she’s dangerous too.”
Emma’s blood turned cold.
“Why?”
Richard looked at her.
“Because Arthur didn’t leave Lucy twenty-five percent.”
Emma frowned.
“You said—”
“I lied.”
Vanessa’s father closed his eyes.
“The final amendment left her fifty-one percent of Arthur Vale’s voting shares.”
Adrian went completely still.
Emma could not breathe.
Richard’s voice dropped.
“Lucy Carter doesn’t just belong to this family.”
May you like
He looked at Adrian.
“She owns it.”
