Chapter 7 - THE FIRST WIFE
Caroline Cross disappeared seven years before Michael met Victoria.
Michael said she fell from a boat during a storm.
Her body was never recovered.
Patricia organized a memorial.
Serena managed the insurance claim.
The mine photographs showed Caroline alive months after the accident.
She sat against the same blue wall.
A newspaper in one image confirmed the date.
Michael had kept his first wife prisoner.
Detective Morales reopened the case.
Bank records showed Caroline inherited a medical-device company shortly before her disappearance.
Michael became controlling trustee after she was declared dead.
He sold the company two years later.
The money funded his first investment firm.
Michael had built his wealth through the disappearance of one wife.
Victoria was meant to become the second.
A forensic team discovered initials scratched beneath the mine bed.
C.C.
Below them appeared three words.
PATRICIA HAS THE KEY.
Police searched Patricia’s home.
They found a brass key inside a jewelry box.
It opened the mine restraints.
Patricia claimed Michael gave it to her after Caroline died.
A hidden compartment beneath the box contained Caroline’s wedding ring.
Patricia was arrested for conspiracy and unlawful confinement.
She screamed that mothers protected sons.
Detective Morales answered:
“Not from consequences.”
Michael learned about Caroline’s evidence during a jail interview.
His face remained calm until investigators showed the photographs.
Then he requested a private conversation with Gabriel.
Gabriel refused.
Michael offered the location of Caroline’s body.
The prosecutor agreed to listen without making promises.
Michael claimed Caroline escaped the mine.
Harold found her near the lake.
They fought.
Harold killed her.
Michael said he helped hide the body because Harold threatened him.
No one believed his sudden innocence.
He provided a location beneath an old boathouse.
Divers found human remains.
Dental records matched Caroline.
A fracture on her skull indicated homicide.
The discovery added murder charges against Harold and conspiracy charges against Michael, Patricia, and Serena.
Gabriel returned to Victoria’s bedside.
He told her unconscious body the truth.
“You were not the first.”
“But you will be the last.”
Her fingers moved beneath his hand.
May you like
Then the monitor changed.
Victoria opened her eyes.
