Chapter 15 - THE HART ESTATE
Police surrounded the Hart estate before dawn.
I was ordered to remain several miles away.
This time, I obeyed because Lily was beside me.
She had been discharged from the hospital and was staying temporarily at a protected location.
She slept with her head against my shoulder while I waited for Collins to call.
At 5:42 a.m., my phone rang.
“We found Michael.”
My body went rigid.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Is he under arrest?”
“Not exactly.”
Police had found him locked inside a basement room.
Someone had taken his phone and wallet.
He was dehydrated, bruised, and terrified.
The Hart estate had not been abandoned.
Evelyn had secretly maintained it through her foundation.
Inside the study, officers found boxes of corporate documents.
Hart Biomedical voting records.
Trust agreements.
And a prepared statement announcing that Evelyn had assumed emergency control of Lily’s shares because Daniel Mercer was under investigation for child neglect.
The statement had been written before the luncheon.
There was no longer any question.
My destruction had been scheduled.
Michael was transported to the station under guard.
He asked to see me.
Collins refused at first.
I insisted.
My brother sat behind thick glass.
For a long time, neither of us spoke.
Finally Michael said, “I’m sorry.”
I felt nothing.
Not yet.
“Why did you ask about the second injector?”
His face tightened.
“Because I hid it.”
“Where?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Why remove the label?”
“To make it look expired.”
The answer was almost too simple.
“If Lily survived, Evelyn wanted investigators to think you carried outdated medication.”
“And if she died?”
Michael began crying.
I had never seen my brother cry as an adult.
“We kept telling ourselves that wouldn’t happen.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He covered his face.
“If Lily died, Evelyn said the custody issue wouldn’t matter anymore.”
“Because Evelyn would inherit something?”
Michael looked up.
“No.”
“Because Evelyn believed you would kill yourself.”
The words hit me harder than I expected.
“She thought if Lily died, you wouldn’t survive it.”
My hands curled into fists beneath the table.
Michael whispered, “She knew exactly where to hurt you.”
I leaned closer to the glass.
“And you helped her.”
“Yes.”
There was no excuse after that.
No explanation that mattered.
As I stood to leave, Michael called my name.
“Daniel.”
I stopped.
“There’s one recording nobody found.”
I turned around.
“Anna recorded Evelyn too.”
“Where?”
May you like
Michael swallowed.
“Inside Lily’s old stuffed rabbit.”
