Chapter 9 - THE PRICE OF LOVING LOUDLY
I did not let him lose everything without a fight.
That annoyed Adrian.
“You don’t have to fix this.”
“I’m aware.”
“You’re smiling.”
“Because you’ve said that sentence to me approximately forty times.”
We were sitting in Theo’s greenhouse in Brooklyn at midnight.
Lily had brought sandwiches.
Mrs. Bell brought records.
Theo brought six legal boxes from his father’s warehouse.
Adrian brought three attorneys.
Apparently romance in the Whitmore universe required counsel.
The board vote was scheduled for nine the next morning.
Richard expected Adrian to surrender.
Instead we looked for the one thing powerful people feared more than scandal.
Documentation.
At two fifteen, Lily found it.
Not in a medical file.
In a ledger.
“Adrian.”
He crossed the room.
She pointed to repeated payments from a Whitmore family trust.
One recipient appeared twelve times.
Dr. Martin Hale.
The physician who declared Eleanor mentally unfit weeks before her death.
Another recipient.
Harbor Investigations.
Private surveillance.
Another.
A law office used to prepare emergency custody documents.
Adrian turned pale.
“He was going to take us from her.”
Mrs. Bell nodded.
“That was why she planned to leave Thursday instead of Friday.”
“But she died Thursday.”
“Yes.”
Theo looked up from another box.
“Wait.”
He held an envelope.
“Thursday.”
Inside was a parking receipt.
A motel.
Twenty miles north of the mansion.
Time stamped 8:42 p.m.
Anna Bennett’s name was handwritten across the top.
I frowned.
“The accident happened at 10:10.”
Mrs. Bell looked at me.
“Anna told police she was at home.”
My pulse quickened.
“Why lie?”
Nobody answered.
Then Theo found the photograph.
A Polaroid.
My mother standing beside Eleanor outside a roadside motel.
Alive.
The timestamp read 9:03 p.m.
Eleanor did not die fleeing the manor alone.
My mother was with her less than seventy minutes before the crash.
There was writing on the back.
He found us.
I felt cold.
“Who?”
Adrian already knew.
“My father.”
The phone rang.
Mine.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Claire Bennett?”
Richard.
Everyone went quiet.
“What do you want?”
“To end this.”
Adrian reached for the phone.
I shook my head.
Richard continued.
“Come to the Whitmore offices. Alone.”
“No.”
“Then Adrian loses control of the company tomorrow.”
“That seems like his decision.”
Silence.
He had expected fear.
I gave him none.
Then Richard changed tactics.
“Your mother took my money.”
“To protect her family.”
“She took more than you know.”
My pulse stumbled.
“How much?”
“Come ask.”
The line disconnected.
Adrian said immediately, “You’re not going.”
I looked at him.
He closed his eyes.
“Sorry.”
Then, with visible effort:
“I don’t want you to go.”
“Better.”
“It feels worse.”
“I know.”
I went.
Not alone.
One of Adrian’s attorneys waited downstairs.
Theo waited across the street.
Adrian stayed at the greenhouse because I asked him to.
That was the hardest thing he did all night.
Richard’s office occupied the top floor of Whitmore Tower.
The city glowed beneath us.
He stood beside the window.
“You look like her.”
“My mother?”
“Eleanor.”
That surprised me.
“Not physically.”
He poured a drink.
“In the way you enter rooms as if powerful men are simply other people.”
I said nothing.
He almost smiled.
“She did that before I taught her not to.”
The sentence revealed more than he intended.
Richard turned.
“Five million dollars.”
I stared.
“For what?”
“You leave New York. You make no public statements. You return every original document.”
I laughed.
He frowned.
“You find this amusing?”
“I was wondering how many generations of Bennett women you planned to try buying.”
His face hardened.
“Your mother took the offer.”
“My mother protected a baby.”
I stepped closer.
“What are you protecting?”
That landed.
Richard looked toward the city.
For the first time, he seemed old.
“I loved Eleanor.”
I felt anger rise.
“No.”
His gaze snapped to mine.
“You don’t get to rename possession after the person is dead.”
“She was ill.”
“She was afraid.”
“She humiliated me.”
There it was.
Not grief.
Humiliation.
“She planned to take my children.”
“She planned to protect them.”
“They were my children too.”
“And that gave you the right to drug her?”
Silence.
Richard went completely still.
I kept my breathing steady.
My phone was recording inside my coat pocket.
His eyes narrowed.
“You know nothing about marriage.”
“I know love is supposed to leave the other person more free than when it found them.”
His face twisted.
“Naive.”
“Maybe.”
I moved toward the door.
“But I’d rather be naive than spend thirty years calling fear devotion.”
His voice stopped me.
“I followed them.”
I froze.
My hand remained on the door.
“What?”
Richard stared at the floor.
“That night.”
My heartbeat thundered.
“I followed Eleanor and Anna.”
“Why?”
“To bring my wife home.”
“What happened?”
“She refused.”
“Then?”
His jaw tightened.
“She drove away.”
“You followed.”
“Yes.”
“How close?”
Silence.
“Richard.”
“Too close.”
My blood chilled.
“She was angry.”
He swallowed.
“I was angry.”
“What happened?”
“She lost control on the curve.”
“Did you hit her car?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
Maybe truthfully.
Maybe not.
“I never touched it.”
“Did you stop?”
That question destroyed him.
Richard’s eyes moved away.
I understood.
“You didn’t.”
“She was already—”
“You didn’t stop.”
“I panicked.”
“You left your wife in a wreck.”
“I called emergency services anonymously.”
“After how long?”
He said nothing.
“After how long?”
“Eleven minutes.”
My eyes filled.
Eleven minutes.
Maybe meaningless.
Maybe everything.
Richard whispered, “I thought she was dead.”
“And my mother?”
His expression changed.
“She wasn’t in the car.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Anna got out at the motel.”
My mind raced.
Then why had my mother written He found us?
Richard walked toward his desk.
“Anna saw me follow Eleanor.”
“And?”
“She threatened to tell police.”
“That’s why you paid her.”
“Yes.”
My mother had not known whether Richard caused the crash.
Only that he chased Eleanor and abandoned her afterward.
Richard looked at me.
“Adrian can still keep the company.”
I almost pitied him.
Even now.
After confession.
After thirty years.
He still thought the company was the thing Adrian valued most.
I opened the door.
“No.”
Richard’s face changed.
I looked back.
“That’s the part you never understood about your son.”
May you like
I touched the phone in my pocket.
“He already chose.”
