Chapter 3 - Rebecca’s Last Instruction
Ethan stared at Daniel.
For a moment, the room seemed to lose all sound.
“What did you just say?”
Daniel Price slowly entered the dressing room.
He had been the Cole family’s attorney for more than fifteen years and had known Ethan since Ethan was still fighting to turn his father’s modest logistics business into an international corporation.
Daniel rarely looked unsettled.
Now he did.
“Rebecca contacted me eleven days before she died.”
Ethan’s face went white.
“You never told me.”
“She asked me not to.”
“My wife contacted my attorney eleven days before her death, and you never told me?”
“Because she was alive when she gave me the instruction.”
“What instruction?”
Daniel looked toward Victoria.
“We should discuss this privately.”
Victoria stood.
“I agree.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
Her eyes widened.
“Excuse me?”
“Sit down.”
“You can’t order me—”
“Sit.”
Something in Ethan’s tone made her obey.
Sarah remained near the door.
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“Should staff be present?”
Ethan answered immediately.
“Sarah stays.”
Victoria let out a humorless laugh.
“Of course she does.”
Ethan ignored her.
Daniel opened his leather case.
He removed an old notebook.
“Rebecca called me from a number I didn’t recognize. She said she believed someone had been entering private rooms inside the estate.”
Sarah felt goosebumps rise along her arms.
Ethan looked at Graham’s absence in the hallway as if suddenly remembering him.
“Security?”
“She specifically told me not to contact security.”
Victoria stared at the carpet.
Daniel continued.
“She said she had gathered information and hidden it inside the vanity. If anything happened to her before she could speak with you, I was to retrieve it.”
“And you didn’t?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“The morning after she died.”
Ethan stepped toward him.
“You came into this house?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember seeing you.”
“You were at the hospital with Leo.”
Ethan’s expression twisted at the memory.
Leo had weighed barely four pounds.
Rebecca had been gone less than twelve hours.
“I checked the compartment.”
Daniel looked toward the empty space.
“It was empty.”
Ethan turned toward Victoria.
She immediately stood.
“This is ridiculous.”
“You knew Rebecca.”
“So?”
“You told me you didn’t.”
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
“I said we weren’t friends.”
“No. You said you had never met her.”
“That was months ago. Maybe you misunderstood.”
“I didn’t.”
“Ethan, you were grieving when we met.”
Sarah watched Victoria’s tactics shift.
First denial.
Then correction.
Then blame.
Ethan didn’t move.
“What was Rebecca hiding?”
“I have no idea.”
“Why are you in her dressing room?”
“I came here because I left something here months ago.”
“What?”
“A bracelet.”
“In a hidden compartment?”
Victoria opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Ethan nodded once.
“That’s what I thought.”
Daniel crouched beside the vanity.
He inspected the compartment carefully.
Then he noticed something.
“There are scratches here.”
Sarah moved closer.
Daniel pointed toward the wooden frame.
“Someone opened this recently.”
Victoria laughed nervously.
“Or a year ago.”
“No.”
Daniel rubbed his thumb over a fresh indentation.
“This exposed wood hasn’t darkened yet.”
Ethan looked toward Sarah.
“You recorded her?”
Sarah held up her phone.
“From the moment I entered.”
Victoria stepped forward.
“You had no right.”
“You’re in my late wife’s private room,” Ethan said.
“This house will be mine too if we marry.”
The room became silent.
Victoria realized what she had said.
Ethan’s face turned unreadable.
“If.”
She swallowed.
“That’s what I meant.”
“No. You said will.”
“Ethan—”
He held up a hand.
“Daniel, what exactly was Rebecca worried about?”
Daniel hesitated.
“She never gave me a name.”
“But?”
“She used one phrase twice.”
“What phrase?”
“She said someone was trying to ‘replace her before she was gone.’”
Sarah looked at Victoria.
The socialite’s face remained still.
Too still.
Ethan went to Rebecca’s vanity.
He touched the edge of the mirror.
For the first time, Sarah saw grief overpower anger.
“She knew.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“She suspected something.”
“Something happened to her.”
“Ethan, we don’t know that.”
“She was healthy.”
“She developed a catastrophic cardiac rhythm—”
“She was thirty-two.”
Daniel looked away.
Ethan turned.
“Was there an autopsy?”
“No. Her death was medically certified.”
“Because everyone thought it was a pregnancy complication.”
“Yes.”
Ethan’s eyes sharpened.
“Can we reopen it?”
Victoria stood abruptly.
“This is grotesque.”
Everyone looked at her.
She covered quickly.
“Rebecca deserves peace.”
Ethan stared.
“My wife deserves the truth.”
Victoria grabbed her purse.
“I’m leaving.”
“No.”
“You can’t imprison me.”
“I’m not.”
“Then move.”
Ethan stepped aside.
Victoria walked toward the door.
Sarah noticed the brass key was no longer on the carpet.
She looked down.
Gone.
“Stop.”
Victoria turned.
Sarah pointed toward her hand.
“The key.”
Victoria’s fingers closed.
“What?”
“You picked it up.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Ethan held out his hand.
“Empty your pockets.”
Victoria laughed.
“You have lost your mind.”
“Then prove it.”
She stepped backward.
Ethan didn’t move.
Finally Victoria reached into her pocket.
She removed the brass key.
Daniel stared.
Sarah whispered, “What does it open?”
Victoria threw it onto the vanity.
“Nothing.”
Daniel picked it up.
His eyebrows rose.
“Actually, I recognize this.”
Ethan looked at him.
“From where?”
Daniel turned the key over.
A number was engraved into the metal.
“Union Atlantic Bank.”
Victoria’s face changed.
Daniel continued.
“This is a private safe-deposit-box key.”
Ethan took it.
“Rebecca had a box?”
“Not that I knew of.”
Victoria suddenly moved toward the door.
Ethan blocked her path.
“Where did you get this?”
“I found it.”
“Where?”
“In the drawer.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No. It fell out of your hand.”
Victoria glared at her.
“Shut up.”
Ethan’s voice became quiet.
“Do not speak to her like that.”
Victoria looked stunned.
“You’re defending the maid?”
“I’m defending the person who has told me fewer lies today.”
The words landed hard.
Victoria’s lips trembled.
“This is insane.”
Ethan looked at Daniel.
“Find the box.”
Daniel nodded.
Victoria grabbed Ethan’s sleeve.
“Please.”
It was the first time she sounded truly frightened.
“Don’t do this.”
Ethan looked down at her hand.
“Why?”
“Because you’re destroying us over a dead woman’s paranoia.”
Sarah saw Ethan flinch.
Victoria saw it too.
And she knew immediately she had gone too far.
“Ethan, I didn’t mean—”
He pulled his arm away.
“Leave my house.”
Her eyes filled.
“Please.”
“Now.”
“What about tonight?”
“There is no tonight.”
“Ethan.”
“No dinners. No parties. No private visits.”
She stared at him.
“Are you ending our engagement?”
“We were never engaged.”
“You were going to propose.”
Sarah looked toward Ethan.
Apparently Victoria had believed that too.
Ethan’s eyes remained cold.
“You should go.”
Victoria’s face transformed.
The tears vanished.
“You’ll regret humiliating me.”
Ethan said nothing.
She looked toward Leo’s room across the hallway.
Then back at Ethan.
“Rebecca made you weak.”
Sarah inhaled.
Victoria smiled bitterly.
“And that baby is going to make you stupid.”
Ethan moved so quickly Victoria stumbled backward.
“Get out.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Victoria. Leave.”
She did.
But as she crossed the hall, she looked directly at Sarah.
And smiled.
Not because she had won.
Because she still knew something they didn’t.
Two hours later, Daniel called.
“I found the box.”
Ethan put the call on speaker.
“Who owns it?”
“That’s the strange part.”
Sarah stood beside him in the library.
Leo slept in a portable crib nearby.
Daniel continued.
“It’s registered to Rebecca under her maiden name.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Can we open it?”
“As surviving spouse, probably, but it could take paperwork.”
“How long?”
“A day or two if the bank cooperates.”
Ethan looked toward Sarah.
“Do it.”
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
Daniel paused.
“The bank’s access records show the box was opened four days after Rebecca died.”
Ethan froze.
“By who?”
“I’m requesting identification records now.”
“Rebecca was dead.”
“I know.”
“Then someone used unauthorized access.”
“Possibly forged authorization.”
Sarah thought of the key in Victoria’s hand.
“Could Victoria have opened it?”
Daniel answered.
“If she had identification and forged documents, maybe.”
Ethan’s phone buzzed.
Another call.
Graham.
Ethan looked at the screen.
Then answered.
“What?”
Graham’s voice sounded tense.
“Sir, we have a security problem.”
“What kind?”
“Someone entered the east gate using an old staff access code.”
Ethan stood.
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
“Where are they now?”
Graham hesitated.
“Inside the property.”
Sarah immediately looked toward Leo.
Ethan’s voice hardened.
“Lock down the house.”
“I’m trying.”
“Trying?”
“The main security console isn’t responding.”
Sarah’s stomach dropped.
Then all the lights went out.
The estate went silent.
A second later, somewhere upstairs, glass shattered.
Sarah grabbed Leo.
Ethan reached into a locked drawer and removed a handgun.
“Stay behind me.”
Sarah held Leo against her chest.
“Who could get past the gate?”
Ethan looked toward the dark doorway.
“Someone with inside help.”
Footsteps sounded above them.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Then the baby monitor on Ethan’s desk crackled.
A woman’s voice whispered through the speaker.
“Still protecting the wrong woman, Ethan?”
He stared at the monitor.
Sarah recognized the voice.
Victoria.
But that was impossible.
Victoria had left the estate hours ago.
Then Leo began crying.
And from the darkness beyond the library came another sound.
May you like
The click of the nursery door closing upstairs.
Someone had entered the room where they believed Leo was sleeping.
