Chapter 6 - VICTORIA’S DAUGHTERThe car was found near an abandoned marina twenty miles north of Gloucester.
Emily wasn’t inside.
The blood belonged to her.
Not enough to establish that she was dead.
Enough to tell us she had been injured.
Police searched the shoreline.
Dogs searched the woods.
Daniel paced until Agent Ortiz ordered him to sit down.
I watched him unravel.
For the first time since I had known him, Daniel was no longer controlled.
No careful smile.
No polished voice.
No Mercer composure.
Just a brother terrified he had waited too long.
“This is my fault.”
Ortiz looked up.
“How?”
“I gave her the keys.”
“That helped her get away.”
“I should have gone with her.”
“You were trying to keep your father from following.”
“I should’ve done more.”
I thought of the years Emily had spent waiting for someone to do more.
I wanted to comfort him.
I didn’t.
Some guilt deserved to be felt.
At four in the afternoon, police found something else.
A burner phone.
Hidden beneath the passenger seat.
There was only one saved recording.
Emily’s voice.
“If you’re hearing this, I probably didn’t make it where I planned.”
She sounded calm.
Terrifyingly calm.
“My father didn’t start this.”
Daniel froze.
“My mother did.”
The recording continued.
“When Grandmother created my trust, she made Mom trustee until I turned twenty-five. Mom began taking money before Dad ever touched it. Allison discovered it. Dad helped cover it up because exposing Mom would expose him too.”
Rebecca covered her mouth.
“Cedar House wasn’t Dad’s idea. It was Mom’s.”
I remembered Victoria’s hand in Emily’s hair.
Her pearls.
Her perfect smile.
“Mom had Allison declared unstable. Dad arranged the paperwork. Daniel tried to help Allison escape. They punished him for it.”
Daniel bowed his head.
Emily continued.
“The night of the fire, Allison called Mom and said she had proof. Mom drove to Cedar House.”
The recording broke into static.
Then:
“I don’t know if she started the fire. But I know she was there.”
Agent Ortiz replayed the section.
“There’s more,” she said.
Emily’s voice returned.
“I found one of Allison’s original documents two months ago. A maintenance report. Cedar House had no electrical fault. The official report was changed afterward.”
Rebecca began crying silently.
“I hid the original.”
Emily gave an address.
A storage unit.
“And Claire… if you’re hearing this…”
My heart stopped.
“Daniel loves you. But loving someone doesn’t automatically make you safe for them. Make him prove he can become a man who doesn’t confuse silence with protection.”
The recording ended.
Daniel stared at the phone.
I couldn’t look at him.
Agent Ortiz immediately dispatched officers to the storage facility.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
Victoria.
Everyone went still.
Ortiz gestured for him to answer on speaker.
“Mom?”
Victoria sounded annoyed.
“Daniel, where are you?”
“Where’s Emily?”
A pause.
“How would I know?”
“Her car was found.”
“Oh.”
No shock.
No fear.
Just one cold syllable.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“What did you do?”
Victoria laughed softly.
“You’ve always been so dramatic when it comes to your sister.”
“She’s bleeding.”
“She has episodes.”
The same phrase.
The same script.
I suddenly understood where Daniel had learned it.
“Where is she?”
Victoria sighed.
“Come home.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“No.”
Silence.
Then Victoria’s tone changed.
“The police won’t save her.”
Ortiz straightened.
Daniel whispered, “What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
“Is she with you?”
“Come home alone.”
The call ended.
Agent Ortiz immediately began issuing orders.
Daniel stood.
“I’m going.”
“No,” Ortiz said.
“She asked for me.”
“Which means she expects you.”
“She has Emily.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I do.”
I stood too.
“I’m coming.”
Daniel looked at me.
“No.”
“This stopped being your decision days ago.”
Ortiz objected to both of us going, but eventually developed a controlled plan.
Daniel would return to the estate wearing a recording device.
Federal agents and local police would remain nearby.
I was supposed to stay at the command vehicle.
I didn’t.
Not exactly.
When Daniel entered the house at 8:47 p.m., I moved close enough to watch from the garden.
The same garden where I had hidden two nights earlier.
Victoria waited in the dining room.
Still wearing pearls.
Still immaculate.
“What have you done?” Daniel asked.
“What was necessary.”
“Where is Emily?”
“She’s alive.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Where?”
“First, you’re going to fix this.”
“Fix what?”
“Claire.”
My stomach dropped.
Victoria continued.
“She has poisoned you against your family.”
“No.”
“She ended your engagement because of Emily’s fantasies.”
“I ended nothing. Claire did.”
“Then repair it.”
“Why?”
“Because she has access to information.”
“You knew what she did for work when you welcomed her.”
“Exactly.”
I felt sick.
Victoria had never seen me as a daughter-in-law.
I was access.
Credibility.
A future shield.
Daniel said, “Did you kill Allison?”
Silence.
Victoria smiled.
“Your father put that question in your head.”
“No.”
“Then Emily.”
“Answer me.”
Victoria stepped closer.
“Allison was going to destroy everything.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“She betrayed us.”
“Did you start the fire?”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“I went there to retrieve documents.”
“And?”
“Allison became hysterical.”
Daniel whispered, “What happened?”
“She knocked over a lamp.”
“An electrical fire?”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
For the first time, she realized how much she had said.
Daniel asked, “So the official report was false?”
Victoria stepped back.
“Take off your jacket.”
He froze.
“What?”
“Take it off.”
She knew.
Daniel moved toward the front door.
It locked electronically.
Victoria picked up a remote.
“All those years,” she said quietly, “and you still think I don’t know when you’re lying.”
Two men entered from the hall.
Not Richard’s men.
Different.
Daniel backed away.
Then Victoria called toward the staircase.
“Bring her down.”
My blood froze.
A door opened upstairs.
Emily appeared.
Her hands were tied.
One side of her face was swollen.
But she was walking.
Alive.
Daniel whispered, “Em.”
Emily looked at him.
Then past him.
Toward the window.
Toward me.
And she smiled.
Not because she was happy.
Because she knew I had come back.
Exactly as she had asked.
At ten o’clock.
Again.
Victoria followed Emily’s gaze.
Her head turned.
Our eyes met.
May you like
“Oh,” she said softly.
“There you are.”
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