Chapter 10 - WHAT EVELYN SAW

Evelyn had watched Richard poison the glass.

She had done nothing.

The video showed her staring at him.

Richard whispered something.

Evelyn looked toward Charles.

Then lowered her eyes.

Claire felt sick.

“She knew.”

Preston stared at the screen.

“No.”

Claire paused the video.

“Preston.”

“No.”

“She saw him.”

“My mother said she didn’t know.”

Claire didn’t answer.

There was nothing kind enough to say.

Then Maya noticed something.

“Play it again.”

They watched.

Richard poured the drug.

Evelyn saw him.

But five seconds later, she reached toward Charles’s glass.

She moved it.

Preston leaned forward.

“What is she doing?”

Claire replayed the footage.

Evelyn switched Charles’s glass with an empty one.

“She saved him.”

Maya nodded.

“But then…”

Thomas returned to the table.

A waiter poured wine.

He picked up the poisoned glass.

Evelyn didn’t notice.

Thomas drank.

Claire closed her eyes.

It had been an accident.

A terrible, preventable accident.

Evelyn had saved her husband.

And unknowingly killed Claire’s father by leaving the poisoned glass on the table.

But what happened afterward was not accidental.

The cover-up.

The stolen shares.

The fake medical report.

Fourteen years of lies.

Those were choices.

At 2:00 a.m., coast guard officers located Richard’s boat.

Abandoned.

Blood on the deck.

No passengers.

Harold was found two hours later beside a highway.

Alive.

Evelyn remained missing.

Harold told investigators Richard had moved her into a car.

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

Claire leaned toward him.

“Think.”

Harold shut his eyes.

“He kept talking about Charles.”

“What about him?”

“He said Evelyn should die where Charles almost died.”

Preston looked up.

“I know where.”

Harrington Lake House.

The property had been abandoned since Charles’s death.

Police surrounded it before dawn.

Preston and Claire were ordered to remain outside.

They didn’t.

They entered through an old service tunnel Preston remembered from childhood.

Inside, Evelyn was tied to a chair.

Richard stood beside her.

A pistol rested in his hand.

“You.”

He looked at Claire.

“You really are Thomas’s daughter.”

Claire stared at him.

“Let her go.”

Richard laughed.

“After everything she did to you?”

“This isn’t about forgiveness.”

“Then what is it?”

“Choice.”

Claire stepped closer.

“You made choices.”

“She made choices.”

“My father made choices.”

“And now I’m making mine.”

Richard raised the gun.

Preston stepped forward.

“Shoot me instead.”

Evelyn screamed.

“No!”

Richard smiled.

“There’s the Harrington stupidity.”

Then Harold appeared behind Richard.

Nobody had seen him enter.

He struck Richard with a fireplace poker.

The gun fired.

Evelyn screamed.

Richard fell.

Preston grabbed the weapon.

Police burst through the doors.

For one second, Claire believed it was over.

Then she looked down.

Harold was holding his stomach.

Blood spread between his fingers.

He collapsed.

Claire knelt beside him.

“Stay with me.”

Harold coughed.

“There’s something else.”

“What?”

“Charles didn’t die from cancer.”

Claire froze.

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Harold looked toward Evelyn.

“He was murdered too.”