Chapter 5 - My Sister’s Name
The folder contained photographs.
Dozens of them.
Nora leaving work.
Nora entering her apartment.
Nora meeting friends.
Nora buying groceries.
Someone had been following her.
The photographs went back almost seven months.
Nora stared at the screen as though she were looking at pictures from somebody else’s life.
“Why?”
Grant had no answer.
Detective Cole did.
“Leverage.”
I understood immediately.
If Diane wanted to control me, Nora was an obvious pressure point.
Our parents were gone.
We had no brothers.
No children.
Nora was the person I loved most.
There were also copies of her mortgage records.
Bank balances.
Employment information.
Even a copy of her building’s floor plan.
Nora backed away from the table.
“I’m moving.”
“You’re not going home tonight,” Cole said.
“That’s what I mean.”
The police placed Nora under protection.
Grant continued explaining the files.
He said Diane documented everything.
Clients.
Weaknesses.
Family disputes.
Medical problems.
Financial stress.
She called them “profiles.”
People were not people to Diane.
They were opportunities.
Then Cole opened another document.
My profile.
It began six years before I married Evan.
I had met him only five years ago.
That meant Diane had known who I was before he supposedly met me by accident at a charity gala.
I read the first line.
SUBJECT: MARA BENNETT.
DAUGHTER OF RICHARD BENNETT.
ESTIMATED FUTURE INHERITANCE: $6.4M.
My hands went numb.
My marriage had not begun with love.
It had begun with research.
Page after page documented my habits.
My friends.
My breakup with a college boyfriend.
My relationship with Dad.
My insecurities.
Even my fear that I would never build a family as successful as the one my father had built.
Evan knew exactly what to say because Diane had taught him what I wanted to hear.
Nora began crying silently.
I could not.
I was too angry.
Cole scrolled lower.
After our wedding, the notes changed.
MARA RESISTS JOINT ACCOUNT.
RICHARD INTERFERING.
SUBJECT EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO SISTER.
PREGNANCY MAY IMPROVE CONTROL.
My stomach twisted.
I had suffered a miscarriage two years earlier.
For months afterward, Diane told me stress from my career had probably caused it.
She suggested I quit my job.
Evan agreed.
I almost did.
Then Cole stopped scrolling.
A line from eight months ago was highlighted.
IF RICHARD REMOVES EVAN FROM TRUST ACCESS, CONTINGENCY B.
I whispered.
“What is Contingency B?”
Grant looked genuinely frightened.
“I’ve heard that phrase before.”
“Where?”
“After your father died.”
Cole turned toward him.
“What did Diane say?”
Grant rubbed both hands over his face.
“She told Evan that Contingency B had worked once.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Then Grant added the rest.
“And she said it could work again.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Cole answered this time.
Nobody spoke.
Then a woman’s voice whispered.
“Mara.”
I knew that voice.
Diane.
“You should have listened to your husband.”
Cole began signaling another detective to trace the call.
Diane continued.
“Now your sister is involved.”
I looked at Nora.
Diane laughed softly.
“Tell Nora to look outside.”
Nora moved toward the curtains.
Cole grabbed her arm.
May you like
But we were already too late.
Down on the street, Nora’s car exploded into flames.
