Chapter 5 - THE UNCLE WHO KILLED HIS OWN MOTHER
“You killed Grandma?”
My voice sounded distant.
Samuel shook his head.
“No.”
My mother cried harder.
“Tell her.”
“Margaret—”
“Tell her!”
Samuel’s face changed.
Something hard surfaced.
Something ugly.
“Rose was going to give everything away.”
I stared.
“The trust?”
“Yes.”
“To who?”
“Victims.”
Vincent looked toward me.
Of course.
Rose had wanted to dismantle Angelo Bell’s legacy.
Samuel continued.
“She believed the money was poisoned.”
“Was she wrong?” I asked.
His expression twisted.
“That money belonged to our family.”
“So you killed her.”
“I didn’t mean for her to die.”
Every murderer’s favorite sentence.
“What did you do?”
“I tampered with the car.”
My stomach turned.
“Brakes?”
“Yes.”
My mother looked at me.
“I found out years later.”
“You knew.”
“Not when it happened.”
“But later.”
“Yes.”
“And you still let him near me.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I thought he’d changed.”
I laughed.
The sound was ugly.
Apparently bad judgment ran in the family.
Vincent stepped closer to Samuel.
Marco immediately moved too.
Daniel smiled.
“Beautiful.”
I glared.
“You’re not innocent.”
“Never claimed to be.”
“Then why bring us here?”
“Because Samuel has been searching for the vault for thirty years.”
“And you?”
“To beat him.”
Daniel looked at the gold.
“The Bell fortune should belong to Bell blood.”
I held up the locket.
“You mean me.”
His smile disappeared.
“No.”
Interesting.
He didn’t want me to have it either.
“Then who?”
Daniel looked toward Vincent.
“Her husband.”
I laughed.
“What husband?”
Daniel’s eyes glittered.
“The one your mothers planned.”
Silence.
Vincent stared.
“My mother planned what?”
My mother closed her eyes.
Mrs. Marino stepped from the shadows behind one of Vincent’s security men.
I nearly screamed.
“Why is everyone secretly here?”
Vincent looked equally annoyed.
“Mother.”
She raised one hand.
“Later.”
Daniel continued.
“Angelo Bell created a merger clause.”
I stared.
“A what?”
“If the female Hartwell heir married the male Marino heir, the Bell and Marino trusts merged.”
Vincent went still.
My mother looked ashamed.
I understood.
The gala.
The arranged dates.
The obsession.
“Mom.”
She couldn’t look at me.
“You were trying to marry me to Vincent.”
“No.”
Mrs. Marino sighed.
“Yes.”
My head snapped toward her.
She shrugged.
“We were considering it.”
Vincent looked horrified.
“You knew?”
“Some.”
“That phrase should be outlawed.”
I almost laughed.
Daniel continued.
“The merger activates if Evelyn Hartwell and Vincent Marino marry voluntarily.”
I stared.
“Voluntarily?”
“Yes.”
“So all this money needs romance?”
“Angelo had a sense of theater.”
Vincent looked disgusted.
“Psychopath.”
“Agreed.”
Daniel’s gun remained steady.
“Once merged, the fortune becomes nearly impossible for outside Bell descendants to claim.”
“So you want to stop it.”
“Yes.”
Samuel suddenly moved.
Too fast.
He grabbed my mother and pulled her toward the vault door.
Daniel fired.
Vincent shoved me down.
Gunshot.
My mother screamed.
Marco tackled Samuel.
Chaos exploded.
Then silence.
Samuel lay on the floor.
Alive.
Bullet through his leg.
My mother was unharmed.
Daniel had disappeared through a rear passage.
Vincent pulled me upright.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
He checked anyway.
Hands on my shoulders.
Face.
Arms.
Then he realized what he was doing.
We both froze.
His hands dropped.
“Sorry.”
I swallowed.
“It’s fine.”
Our mothers stared at us.
I glared at both of them.
“Do not.”
Mrs. Marino looked innocent.
“I said nothing.”
Vincent turned toward the rear passage.
“Daniel is gone.”
Marco returned with a document.
“Boss.”
He handed it over.
Found beside the vault.
A marriage contract.
Names already typed.
VINCENT MARINO.
EVELYN HARTWELL.
My stomach dropped.
At the bottom was a deadline.
Forty-eight hours.
I stared.
“What happens in forty-eight hours?”
Vincent read the clause.
His expression changed.
“If we aren’t married…”
I waited.
“The entire trust transfers.”
“To who?”
May you like
He looked at me.
“Daniel Bell.”
