Chapter 4 - The Best Friend
Daniel kept his hands visible.
“Put the gun down, Grant.”
Grant gave him the tired smile Daniel had seen a thousand times across conference tables and backyard grills.
“I really wish you hadn’t found that room tonight.”
“You knew Sarah was alive.”
“I knew a lot of things you didn’t.”
Daniel heard a faint click behind him—the bathroom lock.
He prayed Lily would stay inside.
“What did she find?” Daniel asked, buying time.
Grant’s smile vanished. “Files. Transfers. Contracts she didn’t understand.”
“Then explain them.”
“You signed half of them.”
Daniel’s blood went cold.
Grant had managed Mercer Development’s finances for eleven years.
“You forged my name?”
“I protected the company.”
“You kidnapped my wife.”
“Sarah was supposed to leave town. Vanessa was supposed to make sure she stayed gone. Everybody got emotional.”
A movement flashed behind Grant.
Vanessa appeared near the kitchen doorway holding Daniel’s phone charger and a set of keys.
“Grant, we need to go,” she said.
Daniel looked at her. “You knew him before you met me.”
Vanessa swallowed.
Grant answered for her. “Much longer.”
Daniel remembered meeting Vanessa at a hospital fundraiser fourteen months after Sarah vanished. She had listened when he talked about grief. She had helped Lily through nightmares. She had moved into the mansion nine months ago.
Every memory now felt contaminated.
“Was any of it real?” he asked.
Vanessa looked away.
Grant’s gun shifted toward the stairs.
“Bring Sarah down.”
“No.”
“Daniel, I’m trying not to hurt your daughter.”
That sentence erased the last piece of restraint Daniel had.
He grabbed a bronze sculpture from the console table and threw it.
Grant ducked. The gun fired.
The bullet shattered a mirror.
Daniel charged.
They hit the floor hard. Daniel drove his shoulder into Grant’s chest and slammed his wrist against the tile until the pistol skidded away.
Vanessa screamed.
Sarah suddenly appeared on the stairs with Lily behind her.
“Run!” Daniel shouted.
Vanessa snatched the gun first.
She pointed it at Daniel.
Grant smiled through a bloody lip.
“Good girl.”
Vanessa’s hand trembled.
May you like
Then she turned the pistol toward Grant.
“No,” she whispered. “I’m done taking orders from you.”
