Chapter 7 - MALCOLM
Official records said Malcolm Bennett died eleven years ago.
Hotel fire.
Dental identification.
Closed casket.
The pattern made my stomach turn.
My mother had supposedly died through questionable identification too.
Daniel Reed reopened the file.
Within forty-eight hours, investigators found a problem.
Malcolm’s dental records had been submitted by a private clinic.
The clinic belonged to a Vale family holding company.
Margaret again.
Always near the paperwork.
Always close enough to make lies look official.
Then Serena contacted me.
This time, she asked to meet.
Public place.
No Adrian.
I chose a hotel lobby with security cameras.
Serena arrived wearing sunglasses.
She removed them.
There was a bruise beneath one eye.
I stared.
“Adrian?”
She shook her head.
“My mother.”
I almost did not believe her.
“Why?”
“Because I called you.”
She sat down.
“Claire, I know you hate me.”
“I don’t have enough energy left to hate everyone who deserves it.”
She looked down.
“I laughed at you.”
“Yes.”
“I knew Adrian hurt you.”
“Yes.”
“I was afraid of becoming the next person he turned on.”
“So you helped him turn on me.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I know.”
For once, she did not ask forgiveness.
That mattered.
Then she placed a flash drive on the table.
“Malcolm is alive.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
“My mother visits him.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know?”
“I followed her once.”
Serena had followed Margaret to a private rehabilitation facility six years earlier.
She saw a man in a wheelchair through a window.
Malcolm.
Older.
Partially paralyzed.
Alive.
“Why keep him alive?”
I asked.
“Because he knows where the money went.”
“Who hurt him?”
Serena looked toward the elevators.
“Adrian.”
My stomach tightened.
She opened a file on the drive.
An old voice recording.
Malcolm’s voice.
Weak.
“You were supposed to scare Eleanor.”
Adrian answered.
“She survived.”
“And Robert?”
“Controlled.”
“What about Claire?”
Adrian laughed.
“She’ll marry me eventually.”
The recording was dated ten years before I met him.
I stopped breathing.
Serena whispered.
“He didn’t fall in love with you.”
I stared at the waveform on the screen.
May you like
“No.”
“He waited for you.”
