Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT MOM DIED
“My mother didn't die in an accident.”
It wasn't a question.
My father looked down.
“No.”
I felt my stomach twist.
“What happened?”
“She discovered the fraud.”
“And?”
“She was followed.”
“By whom?”
“Blackridge.”
I waited.
Dad finally told me the truth.
My mother had been driving home from a meeting when another vehicle followed her.
She called Dad.
She told him she had found proof.
Then the call ended.
Her car was found twenty miles away.
Burned.
They never recovered enough remains to make a positive identification.
But Dad believed she was dead.
Until five years later.
A letter arrived.
No return address.
Inside was one sentence:
I'm alive. Don't look for me.
I stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I didn't know if it was really her.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“You were fourteen.”
“You should have told me later.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That whoever took her would come for you.”
I sat down.
Everything I knew about my childhood had just collapsed.
Then Dad pulled out another document.
“This arrived six months ago.”
I read it.
It was a recent photograph.
My mother.
Older.
Alive.
Standing beside a courthouse.
I stared at her face.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“Who sent this?”
“I don't know.”
I turned the photograph over.
There was a message.
THE DAUGHTER IS THE KEY.
I looked at Dad.
“What does that mean?”
Before he could answer, the front door opened.
We both froze.
Footsteps entered the house.
Then Vincent's voice came from the hallway.
“Elise?”
I stood.
He appeared in the doorway.
His face looked exhausted.
He had a cut above his eyebrow.
“What happened to you?”
He looked at my father.
Then at the binder.
And his face changed.
“You found it.”
I raised the photograph.
“You knew my mother was alive.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
I felt betrayed all over again.
“How long?”
“Three years.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because she told me not to.”
I stared.
“My mother spoke to you?”
He nodded.
“She contacted me before our wedding.”
“Why?”
Vincent looked at me.
“She wanted me to protect you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“By stealing my father's money?”
“No.”
“Then explain the $4.5 million.”
Vincent looked terrified.
“I didn't steal it.”
“Where did it go?”
May you like
He whispered:
“Your father gave it to me because I was trying to buy your mother's freedom.”
