Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The video lasted eleven seconds.
A woman sat in a dimly lit room, her dark hair falling across one side of her face. She looked older than the woman in the photographs, but there was no mistaking her.
Elise.
Kieran watched it twice without speaking.
Then the video ended with a message.
THE WOMAN YOU BURIED IS THE WOMAN WHO CAN DESTROY YOU.
Garrett arrived twenty minutes later.
He looked as though he'd aged ten years overnight.
“Where did you get it?” Kieran demanded.
“An encrypted email. No sender information.”
“Forward it to our people.”
“I already did.”
I stood near the kitchen counter.
“Who is Elise?”
Kieran rubbed a hand over his jaw.
“She was the daughter of one of my father's business partners. Our engagement was arranged to unite two families.”
“Did you love her?”
“I thought I did.”
“And then?”
“She discovered my father was laundering money through legitimate development projects. She wanted to go to the authorities.”
Garrett interrupted.
“She also found records proving Vincent ordered the murder of three employees.”
Kieran turned sharply.
“You told me those records were destroyed.”
“They were supposed to be.”
“Garrett.”
“I found copies after Dad died.”
I looked between them.
“What does any of this have to do with my son?”
Garrett hesitated.
“Adrian Cole was the accountant who helped Elise collect those records. When he disappeared, he took a backup of the files.”
My stomach tightened.
“So Noah's father and Elise were working together?”
“Probably.”
I felt sick.
For five years, I'd believed Daniel had abandoned us because he didn't want the responsibility of being a father.
Now I was learning that he might have been running for his life.
Kieran instructed his men to move Noah and me to a secure residence.
This time, I didn't argue.
The house stood behind tall iron gates in a quiet neighborhood outside the city. It had a garden, a large kitchen, and enough bedrooms to accommodate a small army.
Noah loved it immediately.
He ran from room to room, asking whether he could have a bedroom with a blue wall.
Kieran arranged for it before lunch.
Watching him with my son made my feelings even more complicated.
He was a dangerous man.
But he was also a man who remembered that Noah hated peas.
That evening, I found a locked drawer in the guest bedroom.
Inside was a photograph of Elise.
She was standing beside Kieran at what looked like an engagement party.
On the back, written in elegant handwriting, were the words:
To Kieran. You promised you'd protect the truth, even when it hurt.
I was still holding the photograph when Kieran entered.
“You shouldn't have opened that.”
“Why did you keep it?”
“Because I never got the chance to apologize.”
“For what?”
“For choosing my father over her.”
He sat on the edge of the bed.
“When Elise asked me to help her, I refused. I told her she was destroying the family. Two days later, her car went over a bridge.”
“You think your father killed her?”
“I know he ordered the car to be sabotaged. I found the payment records years later.”
“Then why didn't you go to the police?”
“Because the records implicated me, too. I had signed documents I knew were false. I was trying to take control of the company before my father could destroy everything.”
I stared at him.
“So you protected yourself.”
“Yes.”
He didn't make excuses.
That was somehow harder to hear.
Before I could answer, the house alarm sounded.
A security guard appeared in the doorway.
“Mr. Voss. We have a breach.”
Kieran stood immediately.
“Where?”
“Back entrance.”
Then a woman's voice came through the security system.
“Hello, Kieran.”
He froze.
I recognized the voice from the video.
Elise.
“Open the door,” she said. “I'm here to collect what Adrian left behind.”
Kieran reached for his weapon.
May you like
And then she added one more sentence.
“Because your little nurse has no idea what her son inherited.”
