Chapter 3 - THE SECRET THEIR FATHER TOOK TO HIS GRAVE
Thomas Monroe had been dead for eight years.
Ava remembered him as a quiet, hardworking attorney who rarely raised his voice. He specialized in zoning disputes and commercial property cases. He attended church every Sunday, coached Claire’s school debate team, and insisted that both his daughters learn how to change a tire before they were allowed to drive.
He had died in a boating accident off Cape Cod.
His body was recovered two days later.
At least, that was what the family had been told.
Claire sat across from Ava in Damon’s protected house, staring at the photograph.
“I’ve never seen Dad with Richard before,” Claire said.
“Neither have I.”
Damon examined the image beneath a table lamp.
The warehouse in the background was partially damaged but still standing. A sign above the loading dock read Harrow Textile Storage.
Gabriel had died when that same warehouse burned twelve years earlier.
Thomas supposedly met Richard for the first time only six years ago, when Richard began dating Ava.
The photograph proved otherwise.
“Where did your mother get this?” Damon asked.
“Richard handed her the envelope before he left the wedding,” Claire replied. “He told her that if Ava went with you, everything would come out.”
Damon’s expression hardened. “And your mother intended to hide it.”
Claire began to defend Margaret, then stopped.
They all knew it was true.
Margaret Monroe had protected appearances throughout Ava’s marriage. When Ava arrived at family dinners wearing long sleeves in summer, Margaret praised Richard for being patient with her moods. When Ava whispered that she was frightened, Margaret told her that all marriages required compromise.
Damon photographed both sides of the image and sent them to his investigator, Nolan Reyes.
“Where is Richard now?” Ava asked.
“One of my teams followed him after he left the club,” Damon said. “He returned to your house for nineteen minutes, then drove away.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“To where?”
“A private airfield outside Providence.”
Ava sat forward. “He’s leaving?”
“His plane never departed. He abandoned the car and disappeared.”
Richard was running.
That should have comforted Ava.
Instead, it terrified her.
Richard never acted without preparation. Even his cruelty followed routines. If he had vanished, he had planned the disappearance long before the wedding.
Damon’s phone rang.
Nolan spoke rapidly on the other end. Damon listened, then turned on a television mounted above the fireplace.
A local news report showed flashing police lights outside Ava and Richard’s suburban home.
The reporter announced that emergency crews had responded to a fire in the basement. One firefighter suffered minor injuries. The rest of the house remained standing, but the basement had been destroyed.
Ava stared at the screen.
“The safe,” she whispered.
Richard had burned the evidence.
Or tried to.
Damon sent a legal representative to meet the fire investigators. Because Ava co-owned the property, she had the right to receive information.
At two in the morning, Nolan arrived with preliminary photographs.
The basement fire had started inside a concealed storage room behind the shelves. The metal safe survived, but its contents were damaged by heat and water.
Investigators recovered partial contracts, photographs, and a small cassette recorder.
They also found blood.
Not old blood from Ava’s injuries.
Fresh blood.
A trail led from the hidden room to the garage.
Police had not yet identified the source.
Nolan placed another document on the table.
“This was found under the safe,” he said.
It was a certified copy of Thomas Monroe’s death certificate.
Across the bottom, someone had written in blue ink:
Body identification authorized by Margaret Monroe.
Claire’s face drained of color.
“Mom identified Dad?”
“She told us the Coast Guard did,” Ava said.
Nolan unfolded a second sheet.
It was a private laboratory report dated six weeks after Thomas’s supposed death. The report compared tissue from the recovered body with a hair sample labeled Thomas Monroe.
The result excluded him as the body.
Claire stood so quickly that her chair fell backward.
“That means the dead man wasn’t Dad.”
Ava’s thoughts raced.
“Did Mom know?”
The death certificate suggested she had participated in identifying the body. The laboratory report proved someone later discovered the identification was false.
Damon studied the photograph again.
“Your father may have survived the boating accident.”
“Why would he let us believe he was dead?” Claire demanded.
“Because someone wanted him dead,” Damon replied. “Or because he needed to disappear.”
Ava remembered Richard’s obsession with controlling her movements, her calls, and her money. She remembered the questions he asked during the first year of their marriage.
Did your father ever keep documents outside the house?
Did he own property under another name?
Did he ever talk about Damon Pierce?
At the time, she assumed Richard was curious about her family.
Now she understood.
He had not married her because she was vulnerable.
He had married her because she was Thomas Monroe’s daughter.
Ava’s phone vibrated.
The message came from an unknown number.
Your father is alive.
A second message followed.
Richard knows where he is.
May you like
Then a third.
Ask your mother why she sold him for five million dollars.
