CHAPTER 11 — WHAT HER MOTHER LEFT BEHIND
Richard moved quickly through the tunnel.
Emily followed the beam of his flashlight.
Behind them, smoke pushed beneath the sealed door.
“You can’t escape,” she shouted.
Richard glanced back.
“I’ve escaped for twenty years.”
The tunnel ended at a private dock beneath the cliff.
A speedboat waited in the water.
Richard stepped onto it.
Emily jumped after him.
He turned and aimed the gun at her chest.
“You should have stayed an employee.”
“You should have stayed dead.”
He fired.
Emily dropped.
The bullet struck the boat’s windshield.
She kicked his knee, and the gun flew into the water.
Richard grabbed her hair and slammed her against the console.
“You think your mother was brave?”
Emily drove her elbow into his ribs.
“She was brave enough to fight you.”
“She begged me at the cliff.”
Emily froze.
Richard smiled.
“There it is. The question you’ve carried your whole life.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked me to protect you.”
Emily’s eyes burned.
“And you watched me instead.”
“I was curious whether you would become her.”
“You framed me as a thief.”
“That was Grant’s plan.”
“You allowed it.”
“I needed to know whether you would break.”
Emily looked at the jewelry box on the console.
“I didn’t.”
She lunged.
Richard caught her wrist.
They struggled as the boat drifted from the dock.
A siren sounded above.
Ruiz and the coast guard were approaching.
Richard grabbed the box and smashed it against the metal railing.
The wooden shell broke.
A tiny black data key fell onto the deck.
Emily reached for it.
Richard stepped on her hand.
“Your mother wanted this destroyed.”
“No. She wanted the killing stopped.”
“You don’t know what she wanted.”
Emily looked past him.
“She told me.”
Richard turned.
Victoria stood on the dock with Marcus’s revolver in her hand.
Smoke rose behind her from the burning mansion.
Richard laughed.
“You never learned how to use a gun.”
Victoria aimed at the fuel line.
“I don’t need to hit you.”
She fired.
Fuel sprayed across the deck.
Richard stepped back.
Emily grabbed the data key.
Richard pulled a lighter from his pocket.
“Give it to me.”
Emily closed her fist.
“Or what?”
He flicked the lighter open.
“We all burn.”
Victoria’s voice trembled.
“Richard, stop.”
He looked at her.
“After everything, you still think there is something inside me worth saving.”
“No,” Victoria said. “I’m trying to save Emily.”
Richard threw the lighter.
Emily caught his wrist a second before it fell into the fuel.
They struggled against the railing.
Richard’s foot slipped.
He went over the side but held onto Emily’s arm.
She nearly followed him into the water.
“Help me!” he shouted.
Emily stared down at him.
For one terrible moment, she saw her mother on the cliff.
Begging.
Helpless.
Richard looked up.
“You’re not a killer.”
Emily tightened her grip.
“No.”
She pulled him high enough for the coast guard to seize him.
Richard was dragged aboard in handcuffs.
Ruiz took the data key.
“It’s over.”
Emily looked toward the burning house.
“No.”
She opened the broken jewelry box.
Inside the velvet lining was a folded strip of paper.
A message in Anna’s handwriting.
Emily, if you find this, trust Victoria—but never trust Marcus.
Emily slowly looked toward the cliff.
May you like
Marcus’s ambulance was gone.
And so was the original bracelet.
