Chapter 5
The first thing Adrian did was run upstairs.
Lily was standing in the hallway with Maria.
She had heard the gunshots.
Noah was crying in Maria’s arms.
“Daddy!”
Adrian lifted Lily.
“I’m here.”
“What happened?”
“Someone made a loud noise outside.”
“Was it Vanessa?”
The question cut him.
“No.”
He couldn’t promise more than that.
Not yet.
Daniel’s voice came through his earpiece.
“Police have secured the road. Dr. Wells is alive.”
Adrian closed his eyes for one second.
Relief.
Then anger.
Someone had fired at a man standing outside his home.
Someone connected to Caroline’s death knew the investigation was reopening.
Rachel returned fifteen minutes later.
Her jacket was soaked.
“Wells wasn’t hit.”
“Shooter?”
“Gone.”
“The car?”
“Abandoned two miles away.”
“Registered to?”
“Stolen.”
Adrian set Lily down.
“Maria, take them to the safe room.”
Rachel looked at him.
“You have one?”
“After a kidnapping threat three years ago.”
Lily grabbed Adrian’s sleeve.
“You’re coming?”
He wanted to say yes.
But he needed answers.
“I’ll be there soon.”
Her eyes dropped.
Adrian saw the fear instantly.
He changed his mind.
“Actually, yes.”
Rachel looked surprised.
Adrian followed his daughter.
He spent the next twenty minutes inside the reinforced room.
He sat on the floor.
Lily leaned against him.
Noah played with a wooden block.
No phones.
No detectives.
No business.
Just his children.
Lily finally whispered, “Mommy used to sit on the floor.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You remember that?”
“A little.”
“What else?”
“She sang.”
He smiled painfully.
“Yes.”
“Vanessa said Mommy didn’t want me.”
His smile disappeared.
“She said what?”
“She said Mommy was going to leave before she died.”
Adrian’s eyes burned.
“That is not true.”
“How do you know?”
“Because your mother loved you more than anything in this world.”
“More than you?”
Adrian almost laughed through the pain.
“Possibly.”
Lily gave the smallest smile.
Then it disappeared.
“Did Vanessa know Mommy?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Adrian paused.
Vanessa had told him she met Caroline through charity events.
At least that was the story.
Now every detail felt contaminated.
“I’m not sure anymore.”
When the house was declared secure, Adrian went downstairs.
Dr. Stephen Wells sat in the study with Rachel.
He was sixty, thin, and shaking badly.
A cup of coffee sat untouched beside him.
Adrian entered.
Wells looked up.
“You look like her husband.”
“I am her husband.”
“I mean you look exactly like the photographs.”
Adrian closed the door.
“Tell me everything.”
Rachel raised a hand.
“He is giving a formal statement.”
“Then I’ll listen.”
Wells looked at Rachel.
She nodded.
He began.
“I met Richard Hale six years ago. He was a patient.”
“What kind of doctor are you?” Adrian asked.
“An anesthesiologist.”
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
Wells continued.
“Richard knew I had gambling debts. Significant ones.”
“How significant?”
“At the time? Almost nine hundred thousand dollars.”
Adrian stared.
“He paid them?”
“Some. Then he owned me.”
“What did he ask you to do?”
“At first, prescriptions. Nothing I thought would kill anyone.”
Rachel interrupted.
“What did you prescribe?”
“Sedatives. Anti-anxiety medication. Muscle relaxants.”
“In whose names?”
“Different names.”
“Caroline’s?”
Wells swallowed.
“No.”
“Vanessa’s?”
“No.”
“Yours?”
“Yes.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“And Vanessa got them.”
Wells looked at him.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Richard.”
“Why?”
“He said she had trouble sleeping.”
Adrian almost lunged across the desk.
Rachel stopped him with one look.
Wells continued quickly.
“I didn’t know Caroline was taking them.”
“Until when?”
“After the crash.”
Adrian went still.
“How did you know then?”
“Richard called me.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me to destroy my prescription records.”
“And you did.”
“Yes.”
Adrian’s voice cracked with rage.
“My wife was dead.”
“I know.”
“And you destroyed evidence.”
“I was afraid.”
“My daughter lost her mother because you were afraid.”
Wells covered his face.
“I know.”
Adrian turned away before he did something he would regret.
Rachel took over.
“What happened before the crash?”
Wells lowered his hands.
“Two days before, Vanessa called me.”
Adrian turned back.
“She had my number?”
“Yes.”
“What did she want?”
“She wanted to know how long the sedative could impair someone.”
Rachel asked, “What exactly did she say?”
“She asked whether someone could still drive after taking it.”
Adrian’s hands curled into fists.
“What did you tell her?”
“That it depended on dosage.”
“Did she ask about dosage?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
“What dose?”
Wells told Rachel.
Her expression darkened.
Adrian didn’t understand the number.
He understood her face.
“Would it impair Caroline?”
“Very likely.”
“Enough to cause a crash?”
Wells nodded.
“Yes.”
Adrian walked to the window.
His reflection looked like a stranger.
For five years, he had blamed weather.
Speed.
Bad luck.
Now every explanation was changing.
Rachel asked, “Why come forward today?”
Wells looked toward the broken gate camera visible through another security monitor.
“Because Richard called me last night.”
“What did he say?”
“Leave the country.”
“Did he say why?”
“He said Vanessa had been arrested and the old problem was coming back.”
“Old problem?”
“His words.”
“And?”
“He told me if I stayed, I would be blamed for everything.”
Wells pulled something from his coat pocket.
Rachel immediately reached for it.
A flash drive.
“What’s that?” Adrian asked.
“Insurance.”
Wells looked at him.
“I started recording Richard after Caroline died.”
Rachel took the drive.
“Why?”
“Because I knew one day he would sacrifice me.”
“What is on it?”
“Phone calls. Emails. Copies of prescriptions.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Anything about Caroline?”
Wells nodded.
“One call.”
“What does he say?”
Wells stared at Adrian.
“You should let the detective listen first.”
“No.”
“Mr. Mercer—”
“Play it.”
Rachel hesitated.
Then inserted the drive into an isolated police laptop.
There were folders labeled by year.
She selected one.
A recording began.
Richard’s voice.
Calm.
Confident.
“Did you destroy everything?”
Wells answered, younger and more frightened.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“What happened, Richard?”
“An accident.”
“She took the medication?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“You said nobody would get hurt.”
“I said you would get paid.”
A pause.
Then Wells asked:
“Was Vanessa driving behind her?”
Adrian stopped breathing.
On the recording, Richard went silent.
Then he said:
“You need to stop asking questions.”
Wells’s recorded voice trembled.
“She told me she would scare Caroline. She never said—”
Richard cut him off.
“Caroline is dead. Nothing changes that.”
“And Adrian?”
“Adrian will grieve.”
“And Vanessa?”
Another pause.
Then Richard said:
“Vanessa will take care of Adrian.”
The audio ended.
No one moved.
Adrian whispered, “She married me eleven months later.”
Rachel closed the laptop.
Wells began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrian stared at him.
“Did Vanessa marry me because they planned it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she?”
“I don’t know!”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Did she ever love me?”
Rachel moved between them.
“That isn’t a question he can answer.”
Adrian laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
Everything he had believed about the last six years was collapsing.
His wife.
His lawyer.
His friend.
His first wife’s death.
Even his marriage to Vanessa.
Maybe especially that.
Rachel’s phone rang.
She answered.
“Monroe.”
Her expression changed within seconds.
“When?”
She looked at Adrian.
“Are you sure?”
Another pause.
“Send me the warrant copy.”
She ended the call.
“What?” Adrian asked.
“We accessed Vanessa’s red phone.”
His chest tightened.
“And?”
“There are encrypted messages.”
“With Richard?”
“Some.”
“What do they say?”
Rachel looked at Wells.
Then at Adrian.
“One conversation happened three weeks before Caroline died.”
“Read it.”
Rachel opened the forwarded transcript.
“Richard: ‘She changed her tea again. Increase it slowly.’”
Adrian’s face went numb.
“Vanessa: ‘She’s getting suspicious.’”
Rachel continued.
“Richard: ‘Then move sooner.’”
Adrian whispered, “Move what?”
Rachel scrolled.
“Vanessa: ‘If I do this, you keep your promise.’”
“Richard: ‘Adrian will be yours. The company access will follow.’”
Adrian stared at her.
His knees weakened.
Vanessa had not simply entered his life after Caroline died.
She had been waiting for Caroline’s place.
Rachel read the final message.
“Vanessa: ‘And the girl?’”
Adrian’s blood turned cold.
“What does Richard answer?”
Rachel’s eyes lifted slowly.
“He says, ‘Lily is too young to remember anything.’”
Adrian’s voice disappeared.
“What did Vanessa say?”
Rachel hesitated.
Then read:
“‘Children grow up.’”
Adrian immediately turned toward the stairs.
Lily.
The doghouse.
The threats.
The lies about Caroline.
It had never been random cruelty.
Vanessa had been afraid of Lily.
Not because of what Lily knew now.
Because of what Lily might eventually remember.
Adrian ran upstairs.
Lily was in her bedroom drawing.
She looked up.
“Daddy?”
He sat beside her.
“What do you remember about the morning Mommy died?”
Her pencil stopped.
“I don’t know.”
“Anything.”
“I was little.”
“I know.”
She frowned.
Then something passed through her expression.
A memory.
“I remember Mommy crying.”
Adrian’s heart pounded.
“Why?”
“She was talking to Vanessa.”
He tried to stay calm.
“Where?”
“In the kitchen.”
“What did they say?”
Lily stared at the paper.
“I don’t remember.”
“That’s okay.”
She squeezed the pencil.
Then whispered:
“Mommy told Vanessa to stay away from us.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
May you like
Lily looked at him.
“And Vanessa said, ‘By tomorrow, you won’t be able to stop me.’”
