Chapter 6 - Nathan reached for his weapon.I reached for the desk lamp.
The door creaked wider.
A shadow appeared.
Then a familiar voice said:
“Don't shoot.”
Lucinda Vale stepped into the room.
She was the woman from the photograph.
The trustee.
The woman Nathan had warned me about.
She looked at me.
Then at the screen where my husband's face had disappeared.
“He finally told you.”
I stepped forward.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“You knew Derek wasn't my husband's son?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Lucinda walked to the table.
“Because I was there when your husband learned.”
My chest tightened.
“Who is Derek's father?”
She stared at me.
Then quietly:
“Gideon Vale.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“No.”
“Yes.”
I shook my head.
“That isn't possible.”
“It is.”
“You're lying.”
Lucinda didn't flinch.
“Your husband married you believing Derek was his child.”
I remembered.
Derek had been five years old when my husband married me.
His mother had died.
My husband adopted him.
He raised him.
Loved him.
Paid for everything.
And I never questioned the story.
Lucinda opened another file.
“Derek's biological mother was my sister.”
My mind raced.
Gideon's sister.
Lucinda.
A woman I had never heard of.
“How?”
“She had an affair with Gideon.”
“And Derek?”
“Born from it.”
My hands shook.
I looked at Nathan.
He had known some of this.
But apparently not all.
Lucinda continued.
“Your husband discovered the truth eighteen years later.”
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“Because he believed Gideon would kill you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“And he was right.”
Lucinda looked at the lake through the window.
“He was trying to protect you.”
She placed a second memory card on the table.
“Your husband recorded another message.”
I inserted it.
His face appeared again.
“Evelyn, if you are seeing this, then the first plan failed.”
He paused.
“My death was not a heart attack.”
I closed my eyes.
“It was poison.”
My husband named the poison.
Then came the confession.
“Gideon forced me to transfer the company.”
“But Derek helped him.”
The words were almost a whisper.
“Derek knew.”
My heart broke in a way that the lake had not managed to break it.
“Derek was with him that night.”
The video continued.
“I begged my son to choose his family.”
A pause.
“He chose Gideon.”
I covered my mouth.
My husband had called him son.
Even knowing the truth.
And Derek had still betrayed him.
Then the recording showed something unexpected.
My husband leaned toward the camera.
“There is one thing neither Gideon nor Derek knows.”
I looked up.
Nathan went still.
My husband whispered:
“The eleven million was never the real inheritance.”
The screen went black.
Silence.
Lucinda spoke.
“The money is bait.”
I turned toward her.
“What is the real inheritance?”
She slid the key from the box across the table.
“You already have it.”
I stared at the key.
“What does it open?”
“Something your husband spent years building.”
“Where?”
Lucinda pointed toward the old pool.
“The bottom.”
Nathan's expression hardened.
“The pool?”
Lucinda nodded.
“There is a chamber beneath it.”
I stared at the empty swimming pool.
The concrete basin had been drained fifteen years ago.
A layer of dust covered the tiles.
“You're telling me there's a room under this?”
“Yes.”
“How do we get inside?”
Lucinda looked at the key.
“You don't.”
She smiled faintly.
“Derek does.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Because he believes the thing he wants is down there.”
Nathan understood first.
“You want to bait him.”
Lucinda nodded.
“He will come.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
I felt a strange calm settle over me.
Eight months ago, I had begun pretending to be helpless to survive.
Now I had to pretend to be dead to catch my son.
We left the room before dawn.
At sunrise, my anonymous email account received a message.
From Derek.
I know you're alive.
My blood ran cold.
I opened the next message.
Meet me alone.
Then another.
Or Amanda dies.
I stared at the screen.
Nathan stepped closer.
“Don't go.”
I looked at him.
“I have to.”
“Why?”
Because Derek had finally made the mistake I had been waiting for.
May you like
He had separated Amanda from himself.
And he had told me exactly where to look.
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