Chapter 5 - THE HUSBAND WHO BOUGHT MY FAMILY'S DEATHGideon opened a cabinet beneath the security monitors and removed two burner phones.
He handed one to me.
"The first number is Detective Nora Bennett," he explained. "She's assigned to the financial crimes task force. The second belongs to the attorney handling your father's trust."
"Are they working together?"
"Not officially."
"Why?"
"Because some of the people involved in your family's deaths still have influential friends."
I looked at the phone.
For years, I'd believed money made the Ashworth family untouchable.
But looking at the ledger, I finally understood something.
Their wealth wasn't proof of their strength.
It was proof of how much they had to lose.
"Can Detective Bennett protect Sophie?" I asked.
"Gideon?"
He was studying one of the monitors.
Theron had entered his office.
Vivienne stood beside the desk with the pistol hidden behind her back.
Her expression changed instantly when she saw him.
She smiled.
Then she began crying.
The transformation was so practiced it made my skin crawl.
Theron approached her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck.
For a few seconds, they looked like an ordinary couple comforting each other after a frightening incident.
Then she stepped back.
Her expression hardened.
She reached into her handbag and held up something small.
A jade pendant.
I instinctively touched the one hidden beneath my dress.
Mine was still there.
"She has another pendant," I whispered.
Gideon turned.
His face changed.
"Where did she get that?"
"I don't know."
He leaned closer.
"Your father commissioned three identical pendants."
"Three?"
"One for each daughter, and one for your mother."
My stomach twisted.
"My mother's pendant disappeared in the fire."
"Yes."
"And Vivienne has it."
Gideon didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
The woman who'd murdered my mother was holding a piece of jewelry taken from her body.
I stared at the monitor.
Theron reached toward the pendant.
Vivienne snatched it away.
Their argument intensified.
Though we couldn't hear their words, the hostility between them was unmistakable.
"Can we record this?" I asked.
"The system has been recording continuously."
"Then save everything."
Gideon gave me an approving look.
"I already have."
Onscreen, Theron grabbed Vivienne's wrist.
She jerked away.
Then she pointed the pistol at him.
My breath caught.
"She's going to shoot him!"
Gideon remained calm.
"Watch."
Theron froze.
Vivienne moved closer, speaking rapidly.
He shook his head.
She pressed the weapon against his chest.
Then Theron did something unexpected.
He laughed.
Not a happy laugh.
A bitter, exhausted laugh.
He said something that made Vivienne recoil.
For one brief moment, she looked afraid.
Then the office monitor went black.
A message appeared.
CAMERA SIGNAL INTERRUPTED.
Gideon swore softly.
"She's found the secondary wiring."
"What do we do?"
"We leave."
He gathered the ledger and sealed envelopes.
I stood too quickly.
Pain tore through my side.
I gasped and grabbed the desk.
Gideon immediately steadied me.
"Your ribs may be fractured."
"I'll survive."
"Your father used to say that."
I looked at him.
"He did?"
"Whenever he refused to rest."
For a moment, I pictured Dad sitting at his desk, his reading glasses slipping down his nose.
He'd always smelled faintly of coffee and cedarwood.
I had almost forgotten that.
Almost.
Gideon guided me through the hidden corridor toward a service exit behind the greenhouse.
As we moved, he continued explaining the investigation.
"Your father believed a criminal network had infiltrated Ashworth Industries. He collected financial records proving that executive officers had been diverting pension contributions into shell companies."
"Did Theron know the employees were losing their retirement savings?"
"Yes."
The answer came without hesitation.
"How many people were affected?"
"Thousands."
I thought about the photographs in Theron's office.
Workers shaking his hand.
Employees celebrating company anniversaries.
Factory supervisors presenting him with awards.
He'd always described himself as a man who valued loyalty.
Meanwhile, he was stealing from the people who trusted him.
"What happened to the money?"
"Some funded property acquisitions. Some paid political consultants and attorneys. A significant portion disappeared into accounts controlled by Celeste Rowan."
"Vivienne."
"Yes."
We reached a narrow staircase.
Gideon paused.
"Your father discovered the fraud because one of the pension administrators approached him privately."
"Who?"
"A woman named Margaret Voss."
I recognized the name.
Margaret had been my mother's closest friend.
She died six months before the fire.
A car accident.
Another terrible coincidence.
I stopped walking.
"Margaret didn't die accidentally, did she?"
Gideon's silence was enough.
My throat tightened.
"How many people?"
He looked at me.
"At least six deaths have been connected to the conspiracy."
I leaned against the wall.
Six people.
Six families destroyed.
And my husband had built his empire on their suffering.
We continued toward the greenhouse.
Halfway down the stairs, the burner phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
I stopped.
Gideon looked back.
"Don't answer."
But something made me hesitate.
The caller ID displayed a single word.
LISSY.
I pressed the button.
"Hello?"
A frightened voice answered.
"Elise?"
Sophie.
I could barely speak.
"Sophie, where are you?"
"Did Gideon find you?"
"Yes. I'm with him."
She exhaled shakily.
"Good. Listen carefully. I don't have much time."
"Are you safe?"
"For now."
"Where have you been all these years?"
Silence.
Then she whispered, "I'll tell you everything. I promise. But first, you need to know something about Theron."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"I know he paid the security company."
"No, Lissy. That's not the worst part."
"What is?"
"After the fire, he came to the hospital."
I stared at Gideon.
"What hospital?"
"The place they took me. I was barely conscious. My lungs were damaged. I couldn't speak properly."
Tears filled my eyes.
"Sophie—"
"I remember him standing beside my bed."
I pressed my hand against the cold stone wall.
"He told the nurse I was his responsibility."
I couldn't move.
"He paid for my treatment," she continued, "but only after making certain the records used a false name."
"Why?"
"Because he knew I had seen him outside our house that night."
The world seemed to narrow around her voice.
"What did you see?"
"I saw him arguing with Dad near the driveway. Vivienne was standing beside a black SUV. Dad was shouting that he'd already called the authorities."
I closed my eyes.
"Then what happened?"
"Theron hit him."
My breath caught.
"Dad fell. I ran to the window. Vivienne saw me."
Sophie's voice broke.
"She pointed at the house."
I could hear her fighting tears.
"Then everything happened so fast."
I wanted to reach through the phone and hold her.
"Where was Mom?"
"In the kitchen."
"And Dad?"
A long silence.
"Lissy, I don't know exactly what happened to Dad. I only know he wasn't moving when the smoke started."
My stomach clenched.
"How did you survive?"
"I broke a bathroom window."
I held my breath.
"I climbed onto the roof over the porch. But I slipped. I remember falling. Then I woke up in a hospital room with bandages on my arms."
"Why didn't you contact me?"
"They told me you were dead."
I covered my mouth.
"They showed me a newspaper article about the funeral," she continued. "Your name was listed among the victims."
My knees weakened.
"They told you I'd died?"
"Yes. For years, I believed I had nobody left."
I began crying.
Not softly.
Not gracefully.
Eight years of grief poured out of me.
Gideon placed a steady hand on my shoulder.
On the phone, Sophie whispered, "I'm sorry."
"No," I sobbed. "Don't apologize. Never apologize."
"I tried to get away."
"I know."
"They moved me whenever I asked questions. They said my memories were confused. They gave me medication that made it difficult to think."
I closed my eyes.
"I believe you."
"I finally escaped last year. A nurse helped me."
"Where is she now?"
"She disappeared."
My blood chilled.
"Disappeared?"
"I've been trying to find her ever since."
Gideon took a small notebook from his pocket.
"Ask Sophie whether the nurse was named Hannah Cole."
I repeated the question.
Sophie's sharp intake of breath told us enough.
"How does he know Hannah?"
Gideon leaned toward the phone.
"Miss Sophie, this is Gideon Price."
She began crying.
"Oh, Gideon."
His expression softened.
"Your father would be very proud of you."
"I thought everyone was gone."
"We're here now."
A car door slammed somewhere on Sophie's end.
She stopped breathing.
"Sophie?" I whispered.
"I have to go."
"Wait. Tell us where you are."
"I can't."
"Please!"
Then Sophie said something that made Gideon go perfectly still.
"Tell Gideon the silver key doesn't open the bank box."
He gripped my wrist.
"What?"
"It opens the clock."
"The clock?" I repeated.
"The grandfather clock in Dad's study."
I remembered it immediately.
A massive antique clock had stood against the wall of our old home.
But the house had burned.
"The clock was destroyed," I said.
"No," Sophie whispered. "Dad moved it two days before the fire."
"Where?"
"I don't know. But Gideon does."
Gideon closed his eyes.
"Sophie," he said, "please listen carefully. Do you still have the letter?"
"Yes."
"Then do not let anyone take it."
"What letter?" I demanded.
But Sophie was already speaking.
"Gideon, I found the missing name."
He gripped the phone.
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
Her answer came as a whisper.
"The person who ordered our family's murder wasn't an Ashworth."
She hesitated.
"It was someone our father trusted."
Then the call ended.
I looked at Gideon.
His face had turned ashen.
"What does that mean?"
He said nothing.
"Gideon?"
He stared at the wall for several seconds.
Then he whispered, "Dear God."
"What?"
He looked directly at me.
"Your father believed his greatest enemy was Theron Ashworth's father."
"And?"
Gideon swallowed.
"But if Sophie found the name I think she found, then your father was betrayed by someone much closer."
"Who?"
He slowly opened his briefcase.
From beneath the ledger, he removed a photograph.
Two men stood together at my parents' wedding.
One was my father.
The other was a smiling man with silver hair.
I recognized him.
I'd known him all my life.
He'd attended every birthday party.
Every Christmas.
Every family dinner.
He'd comforted me at the funeral.
And after my father's death, he'd taken responsibility for managing the estate.
My godfather.
Richard Vale.
May you like
Gideon looked at me with unbearable sadness.
"Miss Elise," he whispered, "I think the man who raised you after your parents died was the man who arranged their deaths."
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