Chapter 2
The security manager’s name was Marcus Hale.
I had known him for six years.
He was not a dramatic man.
He had once calmly handled a kitchen fire on the forty-third floor while half the building was screaming in the stairwell.
So when I saw his expression, I knew whatever was on that tablet was bad.
“Play it,” I said.
Isabella stepped toward me.
“Nathaniel, your mother needs a doctor.”
“She does.”
I looked at Marcus.
“Call an ambulance.”
Marcus nodded and tapped his radio.
Isabella’s eyes moved toward the elevator.
I noticed.
“So do the police,” I added.
Her head snapped toward me.
“For what?”
I didn’t answer.
Marcus pressed play.
The video had no sound, but I didn’t need sound.
At 6:41 p.m., my mother stepped onto the terrace wearing the same cream robe now dripping around her shoulders.
Isabella followed her.
Mom turned.
They appeared to be arguing.
Isabella pointed toward the jacuzzi.
Mom shook her head.
Then Isabella walked toward the security panel.
She entered a code.
The timestamp jumped.
6:42.
The camera image flickered.
Before the feed disappeared, Isabella reached for my mother’s arm.
Hard.
The screen went black.
Nobody spoke.
I could hear water dripping from Mom’s robe onto the stone floor.
Drop.
Drop.
Drop.
Isabella finally laughed.
It was a terrible little sound.
“Nathaniel, that proves nothing.”
I stared at her.
“You told me you froze because Mom slipped.”
“She did.”
“You were already fighting with her.”
“We weren’t fighting.”
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
I turned to Mom.
“What happened after the camera went off?”
My mother’s lips trembled.
“I told her I was going to tell you.”
Isabella’s face changed.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
“Tell me what?”
Mom looked at Isabella.
Then at me.
“She has been stealing from you.”
Isabella went completely still.
I almost laughed because the accusation seemed so strange compared with what had just happened.
“Stealing what?”
“Money.”
Isabella rolled her eyes.
“Evelyn has become paranoid.”
Mom reached inside the pocket of her wet robe.
Her fingers shook badly.
She pulled out a folded piece of paper.
The ink had bled around the edges, but I could still see a bank name.
And numbers.
Lots of numbers.
“I found this in her room,” Mom whispered.
Isabella lunged.
I caught her wrist before she reached it.
“Let go of me.”
“No.”
“It belongs to me.”
“So you admit it’s yours?”
She froze.
My mother closed her eyes.
Marcus quietly stepped between Isabella and the elevator.
That was when Isabella realized she wasn’t leaving.
Her voice softened instantly.
“Nate.”
I hated when she called me that.
I had loved it yesterday.
“Nate, please. You’re scared. I’m scared. Your mother almost had an accident.”
“Stop calling it an accident.”
“We don’t know what happened.”
“She knows.”
“Your mother is seventy-five.”
My mother flinched.
Something inside me snapped.
“You keep saying her age like it makes her stupid.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“It’s exactly what you mean.”
The elevator opened again.
Two paramedics rushed onto the terrace.
Mom tried to stand.
Her knees gave out.
I caught her.
“I’m fine,” she whispered.
“No, you’re not.”
One paramedic wrapped a blanket around her while the other checked her oxygen level.
“Any loss of consciousness?”
Mom looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
My stomach tightened.
The paramedic’s expression became serious.
“We need to take her in.”
I nodded.
“I’m coming.”
Isabella stepped toward us.
“So am I.”
“No.”
She stared at me.
“What?”
“You’re staying here.”
“With him?”
Marcus folded his arms.
Isabella looked from him to me.
Then she smiled.
It was the same smile she used at charity dinners whenever somebody said something insulting.
Controlled.
Elegant.
Cold.
“You can’t hold me here.”
“I’m not.”
I pointed toward the elevator.
“You’re free to leave.”
Her shoulders loosened.
“After you give Marcus your keycard.”
The smile vanished.
“What?”
“You’re no longer staying in my home.”
“Nathaniel.”
“Your keycard.”
“We’re getting married in three weeks.”
“Not anymore.”
My mother opened her eyes.
Even Marcus looked at me.
Isabella’s face drained of color.
“You don’t mean that.”
“I just pulled my mother out of a jacuzzi while you stood there watching her drown.”
“She slipped!”
“You disabled the cameras.”
“Because your mother spies on me!”
There it was.
The first crack.
Everyone went silent.
Isabella realized what she had said.
I stepped closer.
“What did Mom see?”
“Nothing.”
“What did she see?”
“Ask her.”
“I did.”
Isabella looked at my mother with naked hatred.
The paramedic noticed it too.
He moved closer to Mom.
Then Isabella whispered, “You’re making the biggest mistake of your life.”
“No.”
I removed the engagement ring from the chain around my neck.
I wore it there because Isabella had complained that I kept losing small things while traveling, so I had carried the matching wedding band prototype beside my father’s old cross.
I held the ring out.
“Looks like I almost made it.”
She stared at it.
Then she slapped it out of my hand.
It bounced once against the stone.
Marcus bent down and picked it up.
Isabella turned toward the elevator.
Before she stepped inside, she looked over her shoulder at Mom.
“This isn’t over.”
My mother went rigid.
I moved toward Isabella.
“You threaten her again, and you’ll regret it.”
She smiled.
“You still don’t understand what she did.”
The doors closed.
I stood there, staring at my reflection in the steel.
I thought the worst thing that evening was discovering the woman I planned to marry may have tried to hurt my mother.
I was wrong.
At the hospital, Mom was placed under observation for possible aspiration and shock.
I sat beside her bed while she slept.
Near midnight, she woke up.
“Nathaniel.”
“I’m here.”
She reached for my hand.
“There’s more.”
I leaned forward.
“What?”
“The money wasn’t the reason she wanted me quiet.”
My blood went cold.
“What was?”
Mom looked toward the hospital room door.
May you like
Then she whispered five words that changed everything.
“She knows about your father.”
