Chapter 13 - Rebecca'S Last Secret
I caught Victoria in the courthouse stairwell.
“What did you bury?”
She kept walking.
I grabbed the railing and blocked her path.
“What did you bury at the lake house?”
Charles came through the door behind us.
“Victoria.”
She stopped.
Her shoulders dropped.
“Not a body.”
My knees almost gave out anyway.
“Then what?”
“A case.”
Charles swore.
“Why didn’t you tell police?”
“Because Rebecca asked me not to.”
I stepped closer.
“You said she disappeared.”
“She did.”
“You said you helped her escape.”
“I did.”
“Is she alive?”
Victoria looked at me.
“Yes.”
The word hit like a door thrown open.
Charles gripped the handrail.
“You knew for six years?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know where she lives now. We communicated through secure accounts.”
I laughed without humor.
“This family has secure accounts for everything except honesty.”
Victoria accepted that.
She told Detective Ramos the location.
An old maple tree twenty yards behind the lake house.
We drove back with police.
This time I stayed in the car until they cleared the property.
The baby had been moving less.
Not dangerously less, Dr. Patel said over the phone.
But enough that I kept counting kicks with one hand on my belly.
Ramos emerged from behind the house carrying a mud-covered waterproof case.
Victoria closed her eyes.
“That’s it.”
Inside were flash drives, old passports, receipts, and sealed letters.
No bones.
No blood.
No body.
I breathed again.
Ramos loaded the first drive on a clean laptop.
Folders appeared by year.
Six years ago.
Five.
Four.
Then a folder from six months ago.
My pulse jumped.
The video opened.
Rebecca appeared.
Older.
Hair shorter.
Alive.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Emily, if you’re watching this, Nathan found another wife.”
Nobody moved.
Rebecca continued.
“I’m sorry. I hoped he would change. I hoped his family would stop him.”
Victoria covered her mouth.
Rebecca lifted a folder toward the camera.
“Nathan’s pattern is financial control first. Medical control second. Isolation third. He needs people around you to question your memory before you start questioning his.”
My burned hand curled into a fist.
Then Rebecca leaned toward the lens.
“But Nathan isn’t the person you should be most afraid of.”
Charles stiffened beside me.
Someone moved in the background of the recording.
A man stepped into frame.
Charles dropped his coffee.
The cup hit the floor and burst.
I looked from the screen to him.
The man in Rebecca’s video was Charles.
Same face.
Same silver hair.
Recorded six months ago.
Charles whispered, “Emily…”
I backed away.
“You knew where she was.”
“No.”
“You were with her.”
“Once.”
Victoria stared at him.
“You told me you never spoke to her again.”
Charles said nothing.
I pointed at the screen.
Rebecca looked straight into the camera again.
Then she said:
“If Charles is standing beside you, make him tell you what he changed in the trust before Nathan found out.”
The video cut to black.
May you like
I turned to my father-in-law.
“What did you change?”
