Chapter 14 - REBECCA’S CONFESSION
Arthur Hale asked for an attorney.
Rebecca asked for Claire.
Lucas advised against it.
Claire insisted.
They met inside an interview room separated by a metal table.
Rebecca looked smaller without the mansion around her.
No designer dress.
No diamond bracelet.
No perfect smile.
Claire sat opposite her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Finally Rebecca said.
“You look different.”
Claire stared at her.
“So do you.”
Rebecca laughed once.
It sounded empty.
“Do you remember everything?”
“Enough.”
“Do you remember me being your friend?”
Claire’s eyes hardened.
“That’s the part I wish I could forget.”
Rebecca looked down.
“I loved your life.”
“You tried to kill me for it.”
“I didn’t start there.”
“No.”
Claire leaned forward.
“You started by wanting what belonged to someone else.”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“You had everything.”
“The husband.”
“The house.”
“The child.”
“Everyone loved you.”
Claire said nothing.
Rebecca continued.
“My father was going to prison.”
“You found the accounts.”
“He said if you exposed him, our family would lose everything.”
“So you helped him murder me?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I told myself we were only scaring you.”
Claire stared at her in disbelief.
“The brake line was supposed to fail after you reached the lower road.”
“He said you would crash into a ditch.”
“You believed that?”
“I wanted to.”
Claire’s voice turned cold.
“My daughter was in the car.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You gave her the red scarf.”
Rebecca began crying.
Claire remembered.
That morning Rebecca had personally wrapped the scarf around Lily’s neck.
“You knew she was with me.”
Rebecca covered her face.
“I didn’t know my father had already changed the plan.”
Claire sat back.
There it was.
Rebecca had spent two years building excuses.
But every excuse still ended with Claire driving toward a mountain in a sabotaged car.
“Why Grant?”
Rebecca slowly lowered her hands.
“Because he looked at you like you were the only person in the room.”
“I wanted someone to look at me that way.”
“So you erased me.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“You hoped I was dead.”
Rebecca did not deny it.
Claire’s next question was quieter.
“Why Lily?”
Rebecca looked toward the one-way glass.
“She kept you alive.”
Claire frowned.
“Every time she refused to call me Mom, you were still in the house.”
“Every time she cried for you, I was second.”
“So you punished her.”
Rebecca whispered.
“Yes.”
Claire’s eyes filled with rage.
Rebecca looked at her.
“I am not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“Because I don’t deserve it.”
“No.”
“You don’t.”
Rebecca swallowed.
“My father has another account.”
Claire went still.
“What?”
“He moved the stolen money through a company called Northstar Holdings.”
“That company still exists.”
“Who controls it?”
Rebecca looked toward the glass.
Then back at Claire.
“Someone inside Bennett Global.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“Who?”
Rebecca whispered a name.
Claire stopped breathing.
“Daniel Price.”
The security chief who had supposedly been protecting Lily.
The man who had controlled every camera in the mansion.
May you like
The man who had allowed Rebecca’s abuse to disappear from the system.
And Daniel was still free.
