Chapter 11 - THE REAL ARCHITECT
Evelyn Harrington held the gun with both hands.
Her silk robe had been replaced by a dark coat. Her face was perfectly calm.
“Release my son,” she said.
Harrison let Richard go and moved between the weapon and the baby.
Morales was on the floor, struggling with the therapist. Her radio had been kicked under a cabinet.
Richard stared at his mother. “You said you were leaving.”
“I said what you needed to hear.”
Harrison understood.
“The hospital sedative. The fake nurse. The kidnapping.”
Evelyn nodded. “Richard is emotional. Vanessa is unstable. Someone had to manage the situation.”
“You ordered my sister’s death.”
“I ordered a quiet medical complication. Vanessa’s little performance on the stairs created unnecessary attention.”
Richard’s face drained of color. “Mother…”
Evelyn looked at him with contempt. “You could not even control your mistress.”
For the first time, Richard appeared to see what he had become.
Not a mastermind.
A spoiled son carrying out his mother’s design.
Evelyn aimed at Harrison’s chest. “Move.”
“No.”
“You will die for a trust document?”
“For my sister’s daughter.”
The baby began to cry.
The sound cut through the room.
Richard looked at the crib.
Something broke inside him.
He stepped between Evelyn and Harrison.
“Give me the gun.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t embarrass yourself further.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“She is the future of this family.”
“She has a name.”
Harrison did not know if Richard meant it or merely wanted to believe he did.
Evelyn shifted the gun toward her son.
Richard moved.
The shot exploded.
He fell against Harrison, blood spreading across his shirt.
Morales reached the radio and shouted for backup. Harrison drove Evelyn’s arm upward as she fired again. The bullet shattered a light. Officers stormed the room seconds later.
Evelyn was forced to the floor in handcuffs.
Richard lay beside the crib, gasping.
Harrison pressed a towel to the wound.
“Why are you helping me?” Richard whispered.
“Because your daughter is watching.”
Richard gave a weak laugh that became a cough.
“There’s a recording,” he said. “My mother kept it in the chapel. Khloe’s first miscarriage wasn’t natural.”
Harrison’s hands went cold.
Richard gripped his sleeve.
May you like
“She tested the drug on her before.”
Then Richard lost consciousness.
