Chapter 9 - We found Lucinda three hours later.She had been taken from her home.
Her security system had been disabled using an authorized code.
Only five people possessed that code.
One was Nathan.
One was Lucinda.
One was me.
One was Martin.
And the fifth was Derek.
I turned toward him.
“You had access.”
Derek shook his head.
“I didn't take her.”
“Then who did?”
He didn't answer.
I watched him carefully.
For the first time, I noticed something.
His right hand was trembling.
There was blood on his sleeve.
“Derek.”
He looked at it.
“I was at the house.”
“When?”
“Before we came here.”
“Why?”
“To stop them.”
“Who?”
He looked at me.
“Gideon's men.”
I didn't know whether to believe him.
Then Nathan showed me a security image.
A hooded figure leaving Lucinda's house.
The figure walked like Derek.
Same height.
Same shoulders.
But the face was hidden.
Nathan zoomed in.
A ring appeared on the hand.
A silver ring.
I recognized it.
It belonged to Amanda.
I stared.
“Amanda.”
Derek looked at me.
“She wasn't at the warehouse.”
“No.”
“She escaped.”
He nodded.
We returned to the safe house.
Amanda was gone.
She had disappeared while Nathan's team was transferring her.
The guard assigned to her had been found unconscious.
On the wall, someone had written:
THE MOTHER WAS NEVER THE TARGET.
I read it twice.
“What does that mean?”
Nathan frowned.
Derek stepped closer.
“It means they wanted something else.”
“Me?”
“No.”
He looked at the documents.
“Your identity.”
I didn't understand.
Then Nathan found the answer.
The foundation's legal structure had one unusual provision.
The controlling trustee wasn't the person managing the money.
It was the person who originally endowed the foundation.
Me.
Not my husband.
Me.
Because he had transferred ownership to me before his death.
That meant Gideon couldn't simply seize the foundation.
He needed my legal identity.
Not my signature.
My existence.
He needed me alive long enough to prove who controlled the assets.
But why declare me dead?
Because a dead trustee could be replaced.
By whom?
Nathan pulled the filing.
The successor trustee was named.
Derek Harper.
My blood froze.
Derek stared at the document.
“I didn't know.”
I believed him.
For the first time.
Maybe.
Then the phone rang.
My phone.
A number I didn't recognize.
I answered.
A woman's voice spoke.
“Hello, Evelyn.”
Amanda.
“Where is Lucinda?”
“She is alive.”
“Where?”
“Not the question you should be asking.”
“What do you want?”
A pause.
“You.”
I laughed.
“You've already tried to kill me.”
“No.”
Her voice became cold.
“That was Derek.”
“You told him to.”
“I told him to scare you.”
“Into a frozen lake?”
She said nothing.
Then:
“Your husband left something for you.”
My grip tightened.
“What?”
“A letter.”
“My husband left many letters.”
“Not this one.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I have it.”
Silence.
“Bring me the foundation archive.”
“I don't have it.”
“You do.”
“How?”
“You were trained to find it.”
I frowned.
“By whom?”
Amanda's voice dropped.
“Your husband.”
Then she hung up.
Nathan looked at me.
“She knows more than she should.”
Derek shook his head.
“Amanda has been hiding things from me.”
“Like what?”
He stared at the floor.
“She met Gideon before she met me.”
That changed everything.
I remembered the first time Amanda entered my life.
She had been charming.
Helpful.
Too helpful.
She had asked about my husband.
His business.
His estate.
His death.
Questions I'd thought were innocent.
They weren't.
Nathan opened a laptop.
“There's another message.”
From Gideon.
A photograph.
Lucinda tied to a chair.
Alive.
Beside her stood Amanda.
And behind Amanda was a door.
I recognized that door.
My old home.
The house where Derek grew up.
The basement door.
The one I had sealed after my husband's death.
Nobody used it.
At least, I thought nobody did.
A caption appeared beneath the photograph:
COME HOME, EVELYN.
Then another message arrived.
COME ALONE.
I looked at Nathan.
He shook his head.
“No.”
I stood.
“Yes.”
“You know what happened last time.”
I looked at him.
“Last time, I went to the lake pretending I couldn't fight.”
I picked up my coat.
“This time they think they're taking an old woman home.”
May you like
I opened the door.
“They're walking into my house.”
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