Chapter 3 - The Second Person Alex Remembered From That NightAlex squeezed Andrew’s hand hard enough to hurt.
“Daddy.”
It was only the fourth word he had spoken in six months.
Andrew looked at him.
Alex stared toward the hallway.
“The man.”
“What man?”
Alex’s lips trembled.
“The man with her.”
Andrew felt something inside him break.
Marcus’s footsteps approached the library.
Lucinda stepped backward.
“Andrew, listen to me.”
“No.”
“You don’t know what Marcus will do.”
“That sounds like your problem.”
“It becomes your problem if he believes you have Caroline’s evidence.”
Marcus entered.
He stopped when he saw Andrew.
Then Elizabeth.
Then Alex.
His expression changed when he noticed the open bookcase.
“Damn it, Lucinda.”
Andrew’s hands closed into fists.
Marcus remained near the doorway.
“Where’s the drive?”
Andrew laughed once.
A humorless sound.
“Interesting. You both keep asking me that.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“Caroline collected documents she didn’t understand.”
“She understood enough to get you fired.”
“She was going to destroy a company thousands of people depend on.”
“You stole from it.”
Marcus glanced at Lucinda.
“She told you?”
“No.”
Andrew’s voice dropped.
“My dead wife did.”
Marcus looked toward the hidden room.
Andrew saw the calculation in his eyes.
Alex suddenly moved behind Elizabeth.
Marcus noticed.
For one strange second, fear crossed his face.
“The kid talked?”
Lucinda said nothing.
Andrew stared at Marcus.
“How would you know Alex stopped talking?”
Marcus realized his mistake.
“It was common knowledge.”
“No.”
Andrew stepped toward him.
“It wasn’t.”
Marcus backed up.
Andrew continued.
“His condition was private. The press never knew. The company never knew.”
Lucinda closed her eyes.
Marcus cursed.
Andrew felt rage rising.
“You were here after Caroline died.”
Marcus said nothing.
“You saw my son.”
Nothing.
“You knew he had stopped speaking because you were here that night.”
Alex began crying.
Andrew turned instantly.
“Buddy, look at me.”
Alex struggled to breathe.
Elizabeth knelt beside him.
“You’re safe.”
Alex shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone froze.
Alex looked toward the hallway.
“He came up stairs.”
Marcus went white.
Andrew whispered, “Keep going.”
“Mom said run.”
Alex covered his ears.
“She told me hide.”
The words were broken.
Painful.
But they were words.
Andrew knelt.
“Where did you hide?”
Alex pointed toward the curtains.
The library curtains.
Andrew looked.
“There?”
Alex nodded.
“Mom came.”
His voice cracked.
“Green robe.”
Andrew’s eyes moved toward Lucinda.
Alex continued.
“She yelled.”
“Who?”
Alex pointed at Lucinda.
“She wanted key.”
Lucinda started crying.
“Alex, sweetheart—”
“Don’t talk to him,” Andrew snapped.
Alex flinched.
Andrew immediately softened his voice.
“I’m sorry, buddy. Keep looking at me.”
Alex wiped his eyes.
“Mom said no.”
Andrew’s chest burned.
“Then what happened?”
Alex’s body began trembling.
Elizabeth whispered, “Andrew, maybe that’s enough.”
But Alex suddenly spoke faster.
As if once the door inside his mind opened, the memory was pouring through.
“She grabbed Mom.”
Lucinda shook her head.
“No.”
“Mom ran.”
“No, Alex.”
“She ripped green.”
Alex pointed at the ribbon Andrew still held.
“Mom fell.”
Andrew could barely breathe.
“From the staircase?”
Alex nodded.
Lucinda whispered, “It was an accident.”
Andrew looked up.
“You were there.”
Lucinda began sobbing.
“She pulled away from me.”
Marcus swore.
“Shut up.”
Andrew turned.
“What did you do?”
Marcus moved toward Lucinda.
Andrew stepped between them.
Marcus stopped.
Lucinda spoke through tears.
“Caroline confronted me. She had the key to the room. She said she was going to the police in the morning.”
“You threatened her.”
“I begged her.”
“You grabbed her.”
“She started running.”
Alex screamed.
“You pushed!”
Lucinda covered her mouth.
Andrew felt the world disappear.
His son had remembered everything.
And the woman who had comforted Andrew at Caroline’s funeral had been responsible.
Marcus suddenly lunged toward the bookcase.
Elizabeth reacted before anyone else.
She slammed the hidden door shut.
Marcus shoved her.
Andrew tackled him.
They crashed into a side table.
Alex screamed.
Lucinda moved toward the rabbit.
Elizabeth grabbed it first.
“Don’t!”
Lucinda snatched at the toy.
The seam ripped open.
The flash drive fell onto the carpet.
Everyone saw it.
Marcus froze.
Then he dove for it.
Alex moved first.
The seven-year-old boy kicked the drive beneath the bookcase.
Marcus grabbed Alex’s arm.
Andrew’s rage exploded.
He pulled Marcus away and drove him against the wall.
“Touch my son again and I swear—”
“Andrew!”
Elizabeth pointed toward Lucinda.
She was running.
Lucinda disappeared into the hallway.
Andrew looked between Marcus and the direction she had gone.
Then sirens sounded outside.
Elizabeth stared through the window.
“Police.”
Andrew exhaled.
“I called them before we came upstairs.”
Marcus’s face collapsed.
The mansion filled with officers.
Marcus surrendered when he realized every exit had been blocked.
Andrew ran after Lucinda.
He found the east staircase empty.
A balcony door stood open.
Wind moved the curtains.
For one horrifying second, he imagined she had escaped.
Then a voice came from behind him.
“Andrew.”
Lucinda stood at the top of the staircase.
The same staircase where Caroline had died.
Tears streamed down her face.
“I never wanted any of this.”
Andrew stared at her.
“You had six months to tell the truth.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was Alex.”
Lucinda looked toward the stairs.
“I loved her.”
“You don’t get to say that.”
“I did.”
“Then why did you leave her there?”
Lucinda stopped crying.
Andrew’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
She whispered, “She wasn’t dead when she fell.”
Andrew’s face drained of color.
“What did you say?”
Lucinda looked directly at him.
“She was still alive.”
Andrew could no longer hear the police downstairs.
Could no longer hear Marcus shouting.
Could no longer hear his son crying.
There was only one thought.
Caroline had survived the fall.
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Which meant Lucinda had made a second choice that night.
And whatever that choice had been was far worse than an accident.
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