Chapter 13 - The Button Beneath the Floor.
Maren felt the room tilt.
"You installed it."
Rebecca nodded.
"Not personally."
"Your company."
"A contractor I control."
Maren looked at Vivian.
Vivian appeared equally stunned.
"I hired that company after three security failures."
Rebecca said nothing.
Maren understood.
"You caused the failures."
"Two of them."
Ruiz cursed under her breath.
Maren's anger became almost calm.
"You frightened me into installing your panic button."
"I needed you to have a direct alarm Reed didn't know about."
"You manipulated me."
"Yes."
"Again."
"Yes."
Maren stared at her.
"You keep admitting things as if honesty makes them clean."
Rebecca flinched.
The sentence seemed to land somewhere deeper than the others.
Vivian looked at Rebecca with sudden recognition.
"That's what Nathan used to say about Charles."
Rebecca's mouth tightened.
"I know."
Vivian's voice softened.
"And you're doing the same thing."
Rebecca looked away.
Ruiz closed the laptop.
"Rebecca Ward, you are under arrest for unlawful surveillance, computer intrusion, forgery, conspiracy, and several offenses we will add after the prosecutor finishes reading this disaster."
Rebecca did not resist when the officer cuffed her.
Before they led her away, she looked at Maren.
"There is one thing you still need to know."
Maren did not answer.
"Reed did not marry you for the trust."
Maren's face tightened.
"Then why?"
Rebecca nodded toward Thomas's notebook.
"He married you for that."
Maren looked at the small black book.
"He didn't know I had it."
"He believed your father left it to you."
"I didn't even know it existed."
"Reed didn't know that."
Rebecca was led from the room.
Maren stared at the notebook.
Vivian sat beside her.
"Thomas must have discovered something Reed feared."
Maren's voice was bitter.
"That narrows it down beautifully."
Ruiz returned to the table.
"We need to finish reading it."
The next pages tracked the months before Vivian's crash.
Thomas had recorded meetings with Charles, Graham, Nathan, and Naomi Crane.
Then the notes changed.
They became shorter.
More urgent.
R.V. HAS STARTED SEARCHING MY OFFICE.
R.V. ASKED MAREN'S SCHOOL SCHEDULE.
Maren stared at the line.
"I was seventeen."
Vivian's face tightened.
Ruiz turned the page.
R.V. BELIEVES I HAVE THE ORIGINAL SERVICE ORDER.
HE DOES NOT KNOW WHERE.
Another page.
CHARLES OFFERED ME MONEY TO DESTROY IT.
I REFUSED.
Another.
R.V. CAME ALONE TONIGHT.
HE CRIED.
HE SAID HE DID NOT MEAN FOR DANIEL CRANE TO DIE.
Vivian covered her mouth.
Maren looked at her.
"Reed caused the crash."
Vivian's eyes filled.
Ruiz kept reading.
R.V. SAYS HE LOOSENED THE BRAKE LINE TO FRIGHTEN HIS MOTHER AND STOP HER FROM LEAVING WITH COMPANY RECORDS.
HE CLAIMS CHARLES TOLD HIM THE CAR WOULD FAIL IN THE DRIVEWAY.
HE SWEARS HE DID NOT KNOW SHE WOULD TAKE THE MOUNTAIN ROAD.
Maren felt cold from her scalp to her fingertips.
Reed had been nineteen.
He had tampered with his mother's car.
A stranger had died because of it.
He had then helped conceal the truth.
Vivian stood and walked away from the table.
Her shoulders shook once.
Maren wanted to go to her.
She did not.
There was more.
Thomas's next entry was dated three days later.
R.V. AGREED TO TESTIFY IF I PROTECT HIM FROM CHARLES.
Nathan will arrange it.
Then, one week later.
R.V. WITHDREW.
CHARLES BOUGHT HIM WITH THE COMPANY.
Maren's jaw tightened.
The final entry in that section had been written in heavy ink.
THE BOY IS GONE.
THE MAN HE CHOSE TO BECOME IS WORSE THAN HIS FATHER.
Vivian was crying openly now.
Maren looked at the next page.
A sealed envelope had been glued to the paper.
On the front, Thomas had written one name.
MAREN.
Ruiz carefully opened it.
Inside was a letter.
Maren recognized the handwriting immediately.
My sweet girl,
If you are reading this, then I failed to keep this world away from you.
Maren's vision blurred.
She continued.
Reed Vale may one day come looking for what he believes I hid with you.
He will be charming because charm is the first tool his father taught him.
He will make coincidence feel like destiny.
Maren stopped.
Her stomach twisted.
Their first meeting at the museum.
The spilled champagne.
The conversation about her father.
None of it had been accidental.
She read on.
Do not hate yourself if you trust him.
Good people are not foolish because practiced liars fool them.
Maren pressed the letter to her mouth.
For the first time since the poisoning, she cried.
Vivian knelt beside her.
Maren let her take her hand.
Ruiz quietly turned away.
When Maren could breathe again, she unfolded the final section.
If Reed comes for the notebook, it is because he still believes the original service order is inside it.
It is not.
I put the order where a Vale will never willingly look.
Maren frowned through her tears.
May you like
Beneath the sentence, Thomas had drawn a small square with a circle inside it.
The exact shape of the panic button beneath the mansion floor.
