Chapter 8 - ARTHUR'S SECRET
Police searched for Arthur through the night.
Victoria claimed she had no idea where he was.
Dominic refused to answer questions.
Lauren Pierce was located the next morning.
When Chloe told her Dominic was married, Lauren went completely silent.
“He said his wife died.”
I stared at her through the interview room glass.
Of all his lies, that one somehow felt especially cold.
Lauren had met Dominic at a charity event.
He had known exactly where she would be seated.
Exactly which university she attended.
Exactly what her father had left her.
She had believed they were coincidences.
I knew better.
Lauren handed Chloe her phone voluntarily.
One message from Dominic had been sent four days earlier.
Soon everything changes.
Then we can stop hiding.
Another read:
My mother already likes you.
I turned toward Chloe.
“Victoria met her?”
“Twice.”
So much for the terrified mother simply surviving her son.
That afternoon, officers found Arthur.
He was staying at a motel outside New Haven under another name.
He had bruising along his jaw but refused medical treatment.
He asked to speak with me.
Chloe allowed it under supervision.
Arthur looked twenty years older than he had two nights earlier.
“I’m sorry.”
I stared at him.
“For which part?”
He lowered his eyes.
“I should have stopped Dominic years ago.”
“You watched him hurt me.”
“I know.”
“You watched all of it.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was a coward.”
I wanted to hate him.
Part of me did.
But I needed answers.
“Who created Phase Three?”
Arthur looked toward the mirrored glass.
“Victoria.”
I felt my chest tighten.
“She found Rachel first.”
“What does that mean?”
“Dominic was reckless.”
“Angry.”
“Possessive.”
“But Victoria turned it into a system.”
Arthur explained that after Rachel threatened to expose Dominic, Victoria protected the family name.
She hired lawyers.
Doctors.
Investigators.
She learned how isolation could be disguised as concern.
How financial theft could look like marital planning.
How frightened women could be described as unstable.
Then she refined the method.
With Melissa.
With me.
“And Lauren?”
Arthur nodded.
“Victoria chose her.”
“Why?”
“The Bennett company is failing.”
There it was.
Money.
“How badly?”
“Worse than you know.”
Arthur leaned forward.
“Claire, they didn’t steal seven hundred eighty thousand dollars from you.”
I stared at him.
“That was only the first transfer.”
“How much?”
His voice broke.
“Almost four million.”
Before I could respond, Chloe entered quickly.
“Arthur, we need to move you.”
He stood.
“What happened?”
Chloe looked at me.
“Someone just tried to access Claire’s grandmother’s trust.”
Arthur went pale.
“Then we’re out of time.”
May you like
“Why?”
“Because once Victoria empties that trust, she won’t need Claire alive to control it.”
