Chapter 10 - THE LAKE HOUSE
Police surrounded the lake house before dawn.
Michael was inside.
They knew because heat cameras detected one person.
Keller asked me to stay back.
I didn’t argue.
I had already spent too many years believing confronting Michael myself would somehow fix something.
It wouldn’t.
At 6:17 a.m., officers called out.
Michael did not answer.
At 6:34, a shot was heard.
Nobody was hit.
Michael had fired into the ceiling.
At 6:41, he opened the front door.
His hands were empty.
He looked like a man who had aged ten years in one week.
Police ordered him to kneel.
He did.
Then he saw me beyond the vehicles.
“Daniel.”
I stayed where I was.
“Daniel!”
They handcuffed him.
He started shouting.
“She was going to take everything!”
I felt nothing.
“She was going to destroy Dad!”
Still nothing.
“I didn’t mean to kill her!”
That finally hit.
Not because I believed him.
Because he still thought intention mattered after two strikes with a tire iron.
I stepped closer.
Keller watched carefully.
Michael looked up at me from his knees.
“Tell them.”
“Tell them what?”
“That I loved her too.”
My stomach turned.
“What?”
Michael laughed bitterly.
“You never knew.”
Then I understood another secret.
Michael had feelings for Rachel.
Maybe for years.
Maybe before she married me.
It explained nothing.
Excused nothing.
But it added one more ugly layer.
“She rejected you.”
His face tightened.
“This isn’t about that.”
“It always was.”
He looked away.
I crouched several feet from him.
“You stole from the company.”
“She found out.”
“You tried to scare her.”
“She refused.”
“And when she chose the truth over you, you killed her.”
Michael shouted.
“She was going to ruin everyone!”
I stood.
“No.”
“You ruined everyone.”
Police pulled him toward the car.
He twisted around.
“What about Dad?”
I looked at him.
“What about him?”
“He knew about the money.”
“Then he’ll answer for what he knew.”
Michael stared at me.
For the first time, he seemed to realize the family shield was gone.
No father protecting him.
No company.
No Vanessa.
No altered report.
Nothing.
He was placed in the patrol car.
I watched until it disappeared.
Then Keller came beside me.
“You okay?”
“No.”
It was the first true answer I had given anyone in days.
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Then his phone rang.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at me.
“Daniel.”
Something in his face made my stomach drop.
“What now?”
“Someone broke into your house last night.”
I froze.
“The kids?”
“They’re safe.”
I had sent them to stay with Rachel’s sister, Emily.
“What was taken?”
Keller looked toward the lake.
“The blue folder.”
My blood went cold.
Michael had been here all night.
May you like
Vanessa was in custody.
Which meant there was still someone else involved.
