Chapter 6
I pressed my back against the wall.
My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it.
They were here.
Outside.
Evelyn.
Daniel.
Rebecca.
All three of them.
I could hear their voices.
Quiet.
Angry.
Desperate.
"She's in there," Evelyn said. "I know she is. The lawyer's car was at the hotel. And this is the only place he owns out here."
"What do we do?" Daniel asked. His voice was trembling.
"We get the drive back," Evelyn said. "And we make sure she never talks again."
My blood ran cold.
Make sure I never talk again.
They were going to kill me.
"We can't kill her," Rebecca said. She sounded scared. "Mom, that's murder. We can't—"
"Shut up!" Evelyn hissed. "Do you want to go to prison? Huh? Do you want to spend the rest of your life behind bars? Because that's what's going to happen if she talks. She has all the evidence. She'll destroy us. All of us. We have no choice."
There was silence.
Then Daniel spoke.
"Okay," he said. "What do we need to do?"
I felt sick.
Daniel.
My husband.
He was going to help his mother kill me.
He was actually going to do it.
"Here's the plan," Evelyn said. "The fence is electric. But I know how to turn it off. Daniel, you go around the back. Rebecca, you stay by the car. If anyone comes, you honk the horn. I'm going in the front. We find her. We get the drive. And then we... we take care of her."
"Take care of her?" Rebecca whispered. "What does that mean?"
"It means she has an accident," Evelyn said. "A terrible accident. She fell down the stairs. Or she hit her head. Nobody will ever know. Nobody will ever suspect. Now move."
I heard footsteps.
Coming toward the house.
I looked around the room.
I needed a weapon.
Something.
Anything.
I saw a fireplace poker by the fireplace.
I grabbed it.
It was heavy.
Cold.
Solid.
I held it tight.
I waited.
I heard a click.
The security system beeped.
Evelyn had turned it off.
She knew the code.
Of course she did.
She'd been married to Harold for thirty years.
She knew everything.
The front door handle turned.
It jiggled against the couch I'd pushed in front of it.
"She's blocked the door," Evelyn said. "Daniel, go around to the back window. Break it. Get in. Open the front door from the inside."
"Okay," Daniel said.
I heard footsteps running around the side of the house.
I ran to the back of the cottage.
To the bedroom.
The back window was there.
I heard glass shatter.
Daniel was climbing in.
I hid behind the bedroom door.
I held the fireplace poker tight.
My hands were shaking.
But I was ready.
I would not let them hurt me.
I would not let them kill me.
I would fight.
Daniel climbed through the window.
He stood up.
He brushed glass off his clothes.
He had a knife in his hand.
A knife.
My husband had a knife.
He was going to use it on me.
He walked toward the bedroom door.
Toward me.
I raised the fireplace poker.
I waited.
He reached for the door handle.
He turned it.
He stepped into the hallway.
And I swung.
The poker hit him hard across the back of the head.
Daniel cried out.
He fell to the floor.
The knife clattered away.
He was unconscious.
But alive.
I didn't have time to think about it.
I heard Evelyn at the front door.
"Daniel?" she called. "Did you get in? Daniel?"
I grabbed the knife from the floor.
I ran to the front door.
Evelyn was pushing against it.
The couch was moving.
Slowly.
She was strong.
Desperate.
She was going to get in.
I looked around the room.
I saw my phone on the coffee table.
I grabbed it.
I dialed 911.
"911, what's your emergency?"
"Someone is trying to kill me," I whispered. "I'm at a cottage in the woods. Off Route 7. About a mile past the old mill. Please hurry."
"Help is on the way, ma'am," the operator said. "Stay on the line with me."
"I can't," I whispered. "They're almost in. I have to go."
I hung up.
The couch moved again.
Harder.
Evelyn was almost through.
I heard Rebecca's voice from outside.
"Mom! I see lights! Police lights! They're coming!"
Evelyn stopped pushing.
There was silence.
Then I heard running.
Footsteps.
Car doors slamming.
Tires screeching.
They were gone.
They'd run.
The police were coming.
I was safe.
For now.
I slid down against the wall.
I dropped the knife.
I dropped the fireplace poker.
I put my head in my hands.
And I cried.
Ten minutes later, the police arrived.
Harold and the lawyer arrived right behind them.
The paramedics checked Daniel.
He was still unconscious.
But alive.
They took him to the hospital.
The police took my statement.
They looked at the broken window.
The knife.
The fireplace poker.
The tire tracks outside.
They believed me.
All of it.
They put out an all-points bulletin for Evelyn and Rebecca.
And for the car they were driving.
They would find them.
They promised.
But I knew it wouldn't be that easy.
Evelyn was smart.
And she was desperate.
And she had money.
Or at least she had some money.
The accounts were frozen.
But she'd had time to take cash.
To prepare.
She could be anywhere.
Harold sat next to me on the couch.
The police had moved it back.
He put his hand on my shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he said. "This is all my fault. I should have seen what she was. I should have stopped her years ago. I'm so sorry."
I looked at him.
He looked old.
Tired.
Broken.
"It's not your fault," I said. "She's good at what she does. She manipulates people. She controls them. She fooled all of us."
Harold nodded.
But I could see the guilt in his eyes.
It would be with him forever.
The lawyer walked over to us.
He was holding his phone.
"I just heard from the forensic accountant," he said. "He worked through the night. The evidence on the USB drive is real. All of it. The bank records. The transfers. The emails. Everything is authentic. Rebecca didn't tamper with it. She gave us the real thing."
I stared at him.
"Why?" I asked. "Why would she give me real evidence if she was working with Evelyn?"
The lawyer shook his head.
"I don't know," he said. "Maybe she was playing both sides. Maybe she thought if Evelyn won, she could say she was trying to trick you. And if you won, she could say she was helping you. Either way, she comes out ahead. She's a smart girl. Cold. Calculating. Just like her mother."
I nodded.
It made sense.
Rebecca was playing both sides.
Covering her bases.
She was her mother's daughter.
Through and through.
"So what happens now?" I asked.
"Now," the lawyer said. "We file the charges. We freeze all remaining assets. We take back control of the business. And we find Evelyn and Rebecca. They can't run forever. We'll find them. And when we do... they'll go to prison. For a very long time."
I nodded.
But I was tired.
So tired.
I wanted it to be over.
I wanted to move on.
To start over.
To forget.
But I knew it wouldn't be that easy.
Not with Evelyn still out there.
Not with her wanting revenge.
Not with her knowing where I was.
What I was doing.
Who I was with.
She would come back.
I knew she would.
And next time, she wouldn't make the same mistakes.
Next time, she would be more careful.
More desperate.
More dangerous.
And I had to be ready.
The next few days passed in a blur.
The grandfather took back control of the family business.
Harold stepped down.
He said he needed time.
To think.
To heal.
To make amends.
The business was in chaos.
Millions of dollars missing.
Clients angry.
Employees scared.
But the grandfather was strong.
He was a fighter.
And he had help.
From Harold.
From the lawyer.
And from me.
They asked me to stay on.
To help.
Because I knew the business.
I'd worked there part-time for years.
I knew the employees.
I knew the clients.
I knew how things worked.
And I was good at it.
Better than Daniel had ever been.
Better than Evelyn had ever been.
Slowly, we started to turn things around.
We found new clients.
We reassured old ones.
We fixed the books.
We started to recover the stolen money.
It was hard work.
Long hours.
But it was good.
It gave me purpose.
It gave me strength.
And it gave me something to fight for.
The business.
The family legacy.
My future.
And then, one week after the attack at the cottage, we got a break.
The police found Evelyn and Rebecca.
In a small town across the state line.
They were staying in a motel.
Using fake names.
They had cash.
They had passports.
They were planning to leave the country.
To fly to Mexico.
To disappear forever.
But the police found them first.
They arrested them without incident.
They brought them back to face charges.
Multiple counts of fraud.
Embezzlement.
Conspiracy.
Attempted murder.
They were denied bail.
They were locked up.
Awaiting trial.
It was over.
Or so I thought.
I was in my office at the business.
Working late.
Going through old files.
Trying to piece together what had happened.
When I found it.
An old file.
Hidden at the back of a filing cabinet.
Marked "Personal."
It was Harold's.
I opened it.
And what I found inside made my blood run cold.
Old letters.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Harold hadn't been the victim I'd thought he was.
He'd known about Evelyn's affair.
He'd known about the theft.
He'd known everything.
For years.
And he'd let it happen.
May you like
Because he had a secret of his own.
A secret that would destroy everything all over again.
