Chapter 16 - The Death Nobody Questioned
Claire stopped breathing for a second.
“What does that mean?” she demanded.
Pike laughed through the speaker.
Victoria squeezed the phone. “Daniel, where are you?”
“Still asking the wrong question.”
Elena looked at Alvarez, who was recording everything.
Pike continued. “Everyone thinks Claire’s father had a heart attack in his car. Everyone thinks Elena’s father died from complications after years of poor health. Interesting family history, isn’t it?”
Elena’s chest tightened.
“What are you saying about my father?”
Silence.
Then Pike said, “Ask Victoria about the private investigator.”
The call ended.
Every face turned to Victoria.
Nathan’s voice was low. “What investigator?”
Victoria sat down.
For the first time, she looked truly defeated.
“Twelve years ago, after the platform accident, I hired a man named Ross Bell to keep track of the injured workers and their attorneys.”
Elena felt sick. “You had my father watched?”
“Yes.”
“After the settlement?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
Victoria whispered, “Years.”
Nathan stared at her as if she were a stranger.
Victoria rushed on. “I wanted to know if anyone planned to break the confidentiality agreements. That’s all.”
Claire asked, “Did Ross Bell know my father?”
“Yes.”
“Is he alive?”
Victoria hesitated.
Walter answered. “He disappeared four years ago.”
Elena stood.
The room felt too small.
She wanted air. Space. A world where her wedding had only failed because her mother-in-law hated her.
Instead, she had inherited twenty years of buried damage.
Nathan followed her into the hallway.
“Elena.”
“Not now.”
“I know.”
She stopped.
“No, Nathan. You don’t.”
He looked wrecked. “Then tell me what to do.”
She turned to him. “For once? Don’t ask me to teach you how to be a man I can trust.”
He absorbed the words without arguing.
She walked away.
At the end of the hall, Sophie waited beside a window.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
Elena almost smiled.
Then Sophie held out her phone.
“I just got a voicemail on the office emergency line.”
May you like
Elena pressed play.
A man’s voice said, “My name is Ross Bell. If Victoria Hale is finally talking, tell Elena Marlowe her father left something for her.”
