Chapter 5 - THIRTY MINUTESLena’s phone went straight to voicemail.
Once.
Twice.
Five times.
Frank called the investigator she was supposed to meet.
“She never arrived.”
I felt sick.
Vivian stood outside my mother’s locked room and acted like she had just won.
She didn’t know Frank was with me.
She didn’t know we had already sent copies of the recordings and security footage to Helen.
And she definitely didn’t know Frank had texted a police captain he once worked with.
But none of that told us where Lena was.
“What do you want?” I called through the door.
“The drive.”
“Which drive?”
“Don’t play games.”
Interesting.
She knew about the drive.
“How?”
Silence.
Then, “Your father was never as clever as he thought.”
“You watched him?”
“I lived with him.”
“You drugged him.”
“He needed help sleeping.”
“You withheld his medication.”
“He was difficult.”
“You let him crawl across the floor.”
She laughed softly.
“You’re recording me, aren’t you?”
I glanced at Frank.
He gave a tiny nod.
Smart.
She wouldn’t confess further.
“What did you do to Lena?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You threatened her.”
“I simply said you should consider why she isn’t answering.”
“Where is she?”
“Bring me the drive.”
“Where?”
“Downstairs.”
“Then what?”
“You leave.”
“My father?”
“He comes with me.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then perhaps your little witness remains unavailable.”
The line between threat and confession was deliberate.
Vivian understood just enough law to be dangerous.
Frank typed on his phone and showed me:
KEEP HER TALKING.
POLICE 11 MINUTES.
I said, “You forged my signature.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You forged Dad’s.”
“Again, no idea.”
“Adrian stole from the company.”
“My son worked harder for Thomas than you ever did.”
There it was.
Not denial.
Resentment.
“I built my own company.”
“With Thomas’s money.”
“He invested $200,000. I repaid him.”
“You had advantages Adrian never had.”
“Adrian had a six-figure job Dad gave him.”
“A job.”
Her voice rose.
“You were promised the empire.”
Nobody had promised me anything.
But Vivian had constructed an entire moral universe in which I had stolen from Adrian simply by being my father’s daughter.
“He isn’t entitled to what Dad built.”
“And you are?”
“No.”
That silenced her.
I continued.
“It belongs to Dad. If he wants to leave every dollar to a dog shelter, that’s his decision.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“You sound exactly like your mother.”
That was meant as an insult.
It landed like a gift.
“Thank you.”
Vivian slammed something against the door.
Frank smiled despite himself.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
No voice.
Just breathing.
“Lena?”
A whisper.
“Evie?”
I covered the microphone and showed Frank.
He immediately started tracing options through the investigators.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Can you see anything?”
“Storage units. I’m locked in an office.”
My heart pounded.
“Who took you?”
“No one. I came here because Adrian told me he had proof he deleted my files. He said he’d give them back.”
“You went alone?”
“I know. It was stupid.”
“Stop. What happened?”
“He locked me in.”
“Is Adrian there?”
“I heard his car leave.”
Good.
This wasn’t a kidnapping in the conventional sense.
He had lured and confined her, which was still serious, but she was alive.
“Look for the business name.”
Lena moved.
“Riverside Storage. Unit 214.”
Frank already had it.
He texted the location to police.
“Stay on the phone.”
A crash echoed downstairs.
Frank looked toward the door.
“What was that?”
Vivian no longer answered.
Another crash.
Then the fire alarm erupted.
Shrill noise filled the mansion.
Smoke began creeping beneath the bedroom door.
“Fire,” Frank said.
We opened the connecting door into Dad’s dressing room.
Smoke already filled the hallway.
Vivian wasn’t outside anymore.
Frank grabbed the safe contents.
I took Mom’s letter and the backup drive.
We moved toward the rear staircase.
Downstairs, flames climbed the curtains of Dad’s study.
Too fast.
Accelerant.
“She set the house on fire.”
“Move.”
We reached the side entrance as sprinklers activated.
Outside, I turned back.
This was the home where my parents raised me.
Birthday dinners.
Christmas mornings.
The hallway where Mom measured my height in pencil until I was seventeen.
Smoke swallowed the windows.
Anger nearly pulled me back inside.
Frank physically turned me toward the driveway.
“Buildings can be rebuilt.”
Then an engine roared.
Vivian’s Mercedes shot from the garage.
She nearly struck a responding patrol car as she sped toward the gate.
Police followed.
I called Lena.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Fifteen minutes later, officers reached Riverside Storage and found her locked inside an administrative office.
Alive.
Adrian was not there.
They found something else.
My laptop.
Not my actual laptop.
An identical model with my name engraved underneath.
Inside were fabricated financial files, forged correspondence, and an entire folder labeled EVELYN.
They had built evidence against me before I even arrived.
At 6:40 p.m., police located Vivian’s abandoned Mercedes near the James River.
No Vivian.
For three hours, nobody knew where she was.
Then Helen called me at the hospital.
“You need to get here now.”
“I’m already downstairs.”
“Not Thomas’s room. Intensive care.”
My knees weakened.
“What happened?”
“Someone entered his room during the fire response chaos.”
I ran.
Dad lay unconscious with doctors around him.
A nurse stopped me.
“What happened?”
“His IV medication was tampered with.”
“By who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
A camera in the corridor had captured a figure wearing hospital scrubs, mask, and cap.
Female.
Approximately Vivian’s height.
Dad’s heart rhythm destabilized.
Doctors stabilized him.
Barely.
I sat outside ICU until midnight.
Frank appeared carrying two coffees.
“They found Vivian.”
“Where?”
“She walked into an attorney’s office.”
“Pike?”
He nodded.
“She’s claiming the fire was accidental and she fled because you threatened her.”
“Of course she is.”
“There’s another development.”
He sat.
“Adrian is missing.”
“What about his phone?”
“Off.”
“Car?”
“Found at the airport.”
“Did he fly?”
“No record under his name.”
I rubbed my eyes.
“We have video of him sabotaging the railing.”
“We have video of him working on it. His lawyer will argue maintenance unless investigators can establish intent.”
“What about Lena?”
“Strong evidence.”
“The forged laptop?”
“Strong.”
“So arrest him.”
“They’re trying.”
I stared through the ICU glass at Dad.
Then something occurred to me.
“Monday.”
Frank frowned.
“What?”
“The guardianship hearing.”
“Probably postponed.”
“No.”
I sat up.
“Vivian doesn’t need Dad dead.”
“Evie—”
“She needs him legally incompetent.”
I pulled out my phone.
“And Adrian needs me disqualified.”
I called Helen.
“What happens if neither Dad nor I can legally serve Monday?”
“Serve what?”
“The foundation trusteeship.”
She paused.
“The secondary trustee would step in temporarily.”
“Who?”
I already knew the answer would matter.
Helen checked the documents.
Then she went silent.
“Helen?”
“The alternate trustee was changed eighteen months ago.”
“Changed to whom?”
“According to the amendment… Warren Pike.”
The man representing Vivian.
Everything suddenly made sense.
This wasn’t Vivian and Adrian’s scheme with a lawyer helping them.
The lawyer was part of the scheme.
Maybe more than part.
I looked toward Dad.
“Pike needs the hearing.”
“Yes.”
“And he needs Vivian free long enough to reach it.”
“Yes.”
I remembered how easily Pike had appeared at the mansion during the police search.
How quickly he knew what evidence existed.
“Then Adrian isn’t running.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s cleaning up.”
“Cleaning up what?”
“The only person who can connect Pike directly to everything.”
Helen understood.
“Lena?”
“No.”
May you like
I looked through the hospital glass.
“Vivian.”
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