Chapter 10 - Four Adults Had Lied About the Night Caroline DiedAndrew returned to Samuel’s estate.
This time he did not knock politely.
He walked into the study and dropped the forensic report onto the desk.
Samuel read it.
His face changed.
Andrew watched him.
“You were there.”
Samuel said nothing.
“Your fingerprint is on the ribbon.”
Still nothing.
“Tell me the truth.”
Samuel slowly stood.
“I arrived after Caroline fell.”
Andrew’s chest tightened.
“How?”
“Nathaniel called me.”
“So Nathaniel was there.”
“Yes.”
Andrew closed his eyes.
Another lie confirmed.
“What did he say?”
“That there had been an accident.”
“You came to the house.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Samuel’s voice weakened.
“Caroline was alive.”
Andrew nearly struck him.
Instead, he gripped the desk.
“Everyone keeps telling me that.”
Samuel looked ashamed.
“She was barely conscious.”
“Did you call an ambulance?”
“No.”
Andrew stared at his father as if seeing a stranger.
“Why?”
“Marcus told me Caroline had the evidence in the hidden room.”
“You searched for evidence while she was dying?”
Samuel flinched.
“I thought Lang was helping her.”
“Lang helped cover it up.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t want to know.”
Samuel said nothing.
Andrew stepped closer.
“You cared more about your company than my wife.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“Caroline died on my floor while four people stood around deciding what secrets mattered more than her life.”
Samuel’s face crumpled.
“I have lived with that every day.”
“Good.”
Andrew turned away.
Samuel called after him.
“There was one person who tried to help her.”
Andrew stopped.
“Who?”
“Lucinda.”
Andrew looked back.
Samuel continued.
“She wanted to call immediately.”
“Then why didn’t she?”
“Marcus took her phone.”
“Why didn’t she run outside?”
“Nathaniel blocked the door.”
Andrew stared.
Samuel’s version changed the dynamics.
Lucinda was still guilty.
She had grabbed Caroline.
She had hidden evidence.
She had lied.
She had later terrorized Alex.
But maybe the night itself had spiraled beyond what she intended.
Samuel continued.
“Marcus was panicking. Nathaniel was furious. Lang kept saying we needed to think.”
“And you?”
“I stood there.”
Samuel’s voice broke.
“I stood there like a coward.”
Andrew looked at him with disgust.
“You were all cowards.”
When Andrew returned home, Elizabeth was sitting on the floor with Alex.
They were repairing the rabbit together.
A new ribbon lay beside them.
Blue.
Andrew stared.
Alex noticed.
“Green bad.”
Andrew knelt.
“It wasn’t bad.”
Alex looked uncertain.
“The green ribbon belonged to Mommy,” Andrew said.
“She saved it because it mattered.”
Alex touched the rabbit.
“Lucinda cut it.”
“Yes.”
“Because scared?”
Andrew glanced at Elizabeth.
“Yes.”
Alex thought about that.
Then asked, “Bad people scared too?”
Andrew swallowed.
“Sometimes.”
“Still bad?”
“Being afraid doesn’t make someone bad.”
Andrew chose his words carefully.
“But hurting people because you’re afraid can still be wrong.”
Alex looked down.
“Lucinda cried.”
“I know.”
“She misses Mom?”
Andrew had no answer he trusted.
Elizabeth gently said, “People can love someone and still do terrible things.”
Alex stared at the rabbit.
Then whispered, “Mom loved her.”
Andrew looked at him.
“What?”
“Mom and Lucinda friends.”
“Yes.”
“Mom said Lucinda needed help.”
Andrew felt a new ache.
Caroline had known Lucinda was involved with Marcus.
Yet perhaps she had still hoped to save her.
Alex continued.
“Mom told her run away.”
“When?”
“That night.”
Andrew leaned closer.
“Before Mommy fell?”
Alex nodded.
“What did Lucinda say?”
Alex closed his eyes.
“She said Marcus has pictures.”
Andrew and Elizabeth looked at each other.
“What pictures?”
“I don’t know.”
Detective Reed searched Marcus’s seized laptop.
Deep inside an encrypted folder, investigators found hundreds of photographs and recordings.
Doctors.
Executives.
Politicians.
Affairs.
Drug use.
Financial crimes.
Private medical information.
Marcus’s blackmail archive.
Lucinda had a folder too.
Inside were photographs from twelve years earlier.
A car.
A young Lucinda crying.
A man on the pavement.
Police paperwork.
Reed discovered the case quickly.
When Lucinda was twenty-three, she had been driving during an accident that killed a pedestrian.
The official report blamed the victim for stepping into traffic.
But Marcus had photographs proving Lucinda had been looking at her phone.
He had used the evidence to control her for years.
Andrew felt no forgiveness.
But he finally understood.
Marcus had owned her fear.
And Nathaniel had used Marcus.
The conspiracy was not one straight line.
It was a chain.
Each person holding something over the next.
Caroline had tried to break that chain.
And it had killed her.
Then Reed called.
“We found Nathaniel.”
Andrew stood.
“Where?”
“At the airport.”
“Leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Where was he going?”
“Switzerland.”
Dr. Lang.
Andrew’s pulse quickened.
“Did you stop him?”
“Yes.”
“What did he have?”
Reed paused.
“A passport.”
“Anything else?”
“Two million dollars in negotiable bonds.”
May you like
Andrew waited.
“And a photograph of Alex.”
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