Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT CHARLES DIED
Elena didn't deny it.
“Yes.”
Daniel stood beside her bed.
“You were here the night my father died.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know what I saw.”
Daniel waited.
Elena took a slow breath.
“Your father called me around nine.”
“He wanted the letters I had tried sending you.”
“Why?”
“He thought someone was intercepting them.”
Elena looked down.
“When I arrived, Marcus was leaving.”
“Did you speak to him?”
“No.”
“But he looked angry.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“What happened next?”
“Your father gave me the brass key.”
“He told me to protect it.”
“Then?”
“He became dizzy.”
Elena's expression changed.
“He reached for the desk.”
“I called an ambulance.”
Daniel sat beside her.
“The report said cardiac arrest.”
“I know.”
“Do you think Marcus did something?”
“I don't know.”
Elena's eyes filled with fear.
“But before your father collapsed, he said something.”
“What?”
“He said, ‘Marcus knows.’”
Daniel felt cold.
“Knows what?”
“He never finished.”
Elena looked at him.
“The next morning, Vanessa came to my apartment.”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“She told me your father had died.”
“She said you blamed me.”
“What?”
“She said you knew I had been there.”
“She said you believed the stress I caused him triggered his heart attack.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I never knew you were there.”
“I know.”
Elena wiped a tear away.
“She showed me messages.”
“From me?”
Elena nodded.
“They said you never wanted to see me again.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
He could almost admire the cruelty of it.
Vanessa hadn't simply separated them.
She had constructed two different realities.
One for him.
One for Elena.
“And the miscarriage?”
Daniel asked.
Elena's expression darkened.
“Vanessa needed you to believe the baby was gone.”
“So she forged the hospital documents.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stood.
“Why were you working here?”
Elena looked embarrassed.
“After Vanessa destroyed my references, nobody would hire me.”
“She offered me a job here under a different staffing agency.”
Daniel stared at her.
“She brought you into my house?”
“She said if I refused, she'd make sure I lost my apartment.”
“Why?”
“I think she wanted to watch me.”
Daniel understood.
Vanessa had kept Elena close because Elena knew too much.
And because humiliating her had probably been part of the pleasure.
Daniel walked toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To talk to Vanessa.”
Elena sat up.
“Daniel, don't.”
He turned.
“Why?”
“Because she isn't afraid of losing you anymore.”
Daniel frowned.
Elena looked toward the hallway.
“She’s afraid of what you found.”
A loud alarm suddenly erupted through the mansion.
Daniel spun toward the door.
Smoke drifted beneath it.
May you like
Then Thomas screamed from the hallway.
“Fire!”
