Chapter 4 - The Woman We Buried
Lillian Cross was alive.
That should have been impossible.
I attended her funeral three years earlier.
Vanessa had stood beside the casket wearing black.
Daniel had comforted her.
I remembered feeling sorry for them both.
Now Daniel stood inside my father’s hidden passage looking as if someone had punched the air from his lungs.
“Lillian is dead.”
Vanessa’s voice came through the door.
“No, Daniel.”
A second voice answered.
Older.
Calm.
“I’m not.”
I watched Daniel’s face.
He knew that voice.
Marcus whispered, “We can leave through the passage.”
I shook my head.
I was tired of running from dead people.
I stepped back into the study.
“Evelyn,” Daniel warned.
I opened the door.
Vanessa stood in the hallway.
Behind her was a woman in her early sixties.
Silver-blonde hair.
Thin face.
Lillian Cross.
Older than the woman from my memories.
But unmistakable.
“You let your daughter bury you,” I said.
Lillian looked almost ashamed.
“So did your father.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“No.”
She entered the study.
Vanessa followed.
For the first time since the hotel confrontation, Vanessa didn’t look triumphant.
She looked frightened.
Lillian noticed my sling.
“I heard about your surgery.”
“You heard?”
Her face tightened.
“I’m sorry.”
I almost laughed.
“Apparently everyone is sorry.”
Daniel moved beside me.
Vanessa noticed.
Something bitter crossed her face.
“You still stand next to her.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I never stopped.”
Vanessa recoiled as if slapped.
I stared at him.
“You married her.”
Daniel closed his eyes briefly.
“Yes.”
Lillian interrupted.
“We don’t have much time.”
Marcus folded his arms.
“You seem to have had twelve years.”
Lillian accepted that.
“Fair.”
She turned to me.
“Northstar belongs to a network your father created after he disappeared. Originally, it was designed to hide assets from the people hunting us.”
“Us?”
“Your father. Me. Daniel.”
“And then?”
“Your father changed.”
I remembered the video.
Compromises.
Money.
Power.
“He decided the network was too useful to dismantle.”
“So you faked your death.”
“Because I tried to stop him.”
Vanessa spoke sharply.
“Mom.”
Lillian looked at her daughter.
“You deserve the truth too.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“You promised we were here for Daniel.”
“No.”
Lillian’s voice softened.
“You were.”
Daniel looked away.
The pieces came together slowly.
Vanessa had believed Daniel truly wanted her.
Maybe part of him had.
But Lillian had used the wedding for something else.
“Why marry Vanessa?” I asked.
Daniel answered.
“To draw Northstar into the open.”
I stared at him.
“You expect me to believe your affair was undercover work?”
“No.”
His voice broke slightly.
“The affair was real.”
Vanessa flinched.
Daniel continued.
“That part was my failure.”
At least he didn’t insult me with another lie.
“I was working with federal investigators on Northstar. Vanessa contacted me eight months ago. She said Lillian left information proving your father was alive.”
“Which was true,” Lillian said.
Daniel nodded.
“I should have told you. I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because the investigators believed someone close to you was feeding information to Northstar.”
I looked at Marcus.
He looked offended.
Claire.
The board.
Employees.
Friends.
“How close?”
“Inside your house.”
A chill moved down my back.
Daniel continued.
“They thought your cardiac condition was being exploited.”
“What does that mean?”
He hesitated.
My voice sharpened.
“Daniel.”
“Your medical records were accessed illegally six months ago.”
My heart thudded.
“By whom?”
“We don’t know.”
“Someone knew I needed surgery?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I was trying to find them.”
“You married your mistress instead.”
His face twisted.
“Yes.”
There was nothing he could say that made it better.
Whatever secret mission Daniel believed he was conducting, he had still betrayed me.
He had still turned off his phone.
He had still left me alone.
“I thought the wedding would force Northstar to act,” he said. “Vanessa told them she would gain access to Mercer assets through me.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You told me you loved me.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I did care about you.”
“Care?”
Lillian stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Vanessa turned on her mother.
“You planned this.”
“I planned to expose Charles.”
“You used me.”
“Yes.”
The honesty shattered her more than a lie would have.
Vanessa sat down slowly.
For the first time, I saw not my husband’s mistress but someone else’s daughter.
Someone who had spent years being manipulated by a parent who claimed necessity.
It felt unpleasantly familiar.
“Where is my father?” I asked.
Lillian looked at me.
“He contacted me three weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
My breath caught.
“This house?”
“He said he wanted to see you.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“Because he changed his mind after learning about your surgery.”
That didn’t make sense.
Unless—
“He knew about my heart?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Lillian looked at Daniel.
Daniel didn’t answer.
I understood.
“You told him.”
Daniel’s voice was quiet.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I was.”
“You don’t get to betray me and call it protection.”
He took the words without defending himself.
Good.
I was done making betrayal comfortable for the person committing it.
Marcus walked toward the desk.
“If Charles is alive, why attempt to access Evelyn’s trust using his own identity?”
Lillian’s eyes narrowed.
“He didn’t.”
Marcus showed her the document.
She read it.
Then her face changed.
“This isn’t Charles’s signature.”
“It matches archived examples.”
“No.”
She pointed toward the C.
“Charles always lifted his pen here after the crash.”
Marcus frowned.
“After the crash?”
“He injured his hand escaping the plane.”
That meant someone had copied an older signature.
Someone with access to records from before his disappearance.
Lillian looked at the verification phrase.
“Bluebird at midnight.”
Her eyes went to me.
“You remember that?”
“Yes.”
“Charles didn’t invent it.”
“Then who did?”
She hesitated.
“Your mother.”
My mother had been dead seventeen years.
Another ghost entered the room.
Marcus examined the access logs.
“Who besides Charles and Evelyn knew the phrase?”
Lillian looked toward the dark hallway.
“One person.”
The lights suddenly returned.
My phone immediately filled with missed notifications.
One from Claire.
Five minutes old.
EVELYN, CALL ME. DO NOT COME HOME.
Then another.
I opened it.
A security-camera still appeared.
Claire stood inside my penthouse.
Behind her was a man wearing a baseball cap.
He held something against her back.
A gun.
My blood turned cold.
The next message arrived from Claire’s phone.
BRING THE ORIGINAL TRUST DOCUMENTS.
ONE HOUR.
NO POLICE.
Then a final photograph appeared.
The man had removed his cap.
Daniel whispered beside me.
“Oh, God.”
I stared at the face.
I had seen it every day of my childhood.
May you like
My father was standing behind Claire.
And he was smiling.
