Chapter 7 - THE SECRET BENEATH THE NURSERY FLOOR
Grant ordered a private reinvestigation of Claire’s crash.
He did not tell Rebecca.
He hired former federal investigator Lucas Warren.
Lucas began with the original police files.
Within four hours, he found something strange.
The mechanical report was missing.
Not incomplete.
Missing.
A record showed that one had existed.
Someone had removed it from the evidence system eleven days after the crash.
The authorization came from an attorney representing the Bennett family.
Arthur Hale.
Grant stared at the name.
“Rebecca’s father.”
Lucas nodded.
“Why would your family attorney request physical evidence from a fatal crash?”
“He wouldn’t.”
“Unless he needed something gone.”
Grant felt sick.
Arthur had stood beside him at Claire’s memorial.
Arthur had told him to stop torturing himself with questions.
Arthur had encouraged him to move forward.
And Rebecca had eventually become the woman Grant moved forward with.
Lucas leaned back.
“There’s more.”
He slid over a financial report.
“Three weeks after the crash, Hale paid off nearly four million dollars in private debt.”
“From where?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Grant stared at the page.
Upstairs, Evelyn entered the old nursery.
Claire’s belongings had been boxed long ago.
Rebecca wanted the room redesigned.
Grant had refused.
Evelyn knelt beside a loose floorboard near the rocking chair.
Claire had once shown her a hiding place there.
“If anything ever happens,” Claire had joked, “this is where I keep the things Grant forgets to ask about.”
At the time, Evelyn thought she meant birthday gifts.
Now she lifted the board.
A small metal box remained beneath it.
Inside were handwritten notes.
Bank statements.
Photographs.
And a flash drive.
Evelyn’s hands began trembling.
One note was addressed to Grant.
If you’re reading this, something went wrong.
Evelyn immediately called him.
Rebecca heard the phone ringing from the hallway.
She watched Evelyn disappear into the nursery.
Then she followed.
Evelyn had just picked up the metal box when Rebecca entered.
“What is that?”
Evelyn stood.
“Nothing that belongs to you.”
Rebecca saw Claire’s handwriting.
Her face changed.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
Rebecca locked the door.
Evelyn stepped backward.
“You won’t scare me again.”
“I don’t need to scare you.”
Rebecca reached into her purse.
Evelyn’s eyes widened.
Rebecca did not pull out a weapon.
She pulled out Lily’s medication.
A small bottle.
“You know what happens if she misses tonight’s dose.”
Evelyn went pale.
“Where did you get that?”
“Give me the box.”
“You would hurt her?”
Rebecca smiled coldly.
“I would never hurt my daughter.”
“She is not your daughter.”
Rebecca’s smile vanished.
A knock sounded.
“Evelyn?”
Lily’s voice came from the hallway.
Rebecca stared at the door.
Then at the box.
Then at Evelyn.
“Choose.”
Evelyn looked down at Claire’s letter.
And made a decision Rebecca did not expect.
She threw the metal box through the nursery window.
Glass shattered.
Rebecca screamed.
Two floors below, the box landed in the garden.
May you like
And someone standing outside the mansion picked it up.
Anna Mercer.
