Chapter 9 - The Mother Everyone Trusted.
Vivian Hart Vale had been dead for twelve years.
At least that was what Adrian had believed.
She had died from complications after heart surgery in Switzerland, and her ashes had been interred in the Vale family mausoleum.
Emma watched his face as Malcolm searched the ledger.
The initials V.H. appeared beside payments made before and after Vivian's supposed death.
"That doesn't make sense," Adrian said.
Victoria leaned over the page.
"Unless someone kept using her initials."
Malcolm shook his head.
"Look at the handwriting notes beside the entries."
Several included phrases like V.H. approved and V.H. requested delay.
Emma read one date aloud.
"September 2016."
Adrian stared at it.
His mother had supposedly died in 2014.
"Forgery," he said.
No one challenged him.
The possibility was reasonable.
It was also the possibility he needed to believe.
They returned to Vale House before dawn.
Police remained on the property.
The real necklace was secured as evidence.
Emma's bag was returned after being photographed.
She almost laughed when she saw it.
Less than six hours earlier, that bag had seemed like the center of her ruined life.
Now it looked small compared with everything else.
Adrian went directly to his mother's old suite.
The rooms had been preserved almost exactly as Vivian left them.
Victoria followed.
Emma stayed at the doorway until Adrian looked back.
"Come in."
She did.
The suite smelled faintly of cedar and old perfume.
Portraits of Vivian stood on a writing desk.
Emma studied them.
Vivian had dark hair, pale eyes, and a composed smile.
She looked nothing like Emma.
Relief came unexpectedly.
Then Emma hated herself for feeling it.
Adrian opened a locked cabinet with a key from his desk.
Inside were medical files from Vivian's final year.
He searched for the Swiss hospital records.
They were gone.
"I kept them here."
Victoria crossed her arms.
"Who has access?"
"Me."
"Only you?"
Adrian hesitated.
"Richard has a master key."
Emma looked at him.
"Your uncle again."
Adrian ignored the comment.
He opened another drawer.
A thin layer of dust covered everything except one rectangular space.
Something had been removed recently.
Victoria crouched beside the drawer.
"What was there?"
"A jewelry inventory book."
Emma's eyes sharpened.
"For the Asteria necklace?"
Adrian nodded.
A soft knock sounded behind them.
An elderly housekeeper named Margaret stood in the doorway.
She had worked for the Vale family since Adrian was a child.
"Mr. Vale, may I speak?"
"Of course."
Margaret looked at Victoria, then Emma.
"Privately."
Adrian almost refused.
Emma stepped back.
"I'll wait outside."
Victoria remained.
Margaret's expression tightened.
"Not with Miss Hale."
Victoria laughed coldly.
"Everyone has become very brave tonight."
Adrian nodded toward the corridor.
Victoria left with Emma.
Ten minutes passed.
Then fifteen.
Emma heard nothing through the heavy door.
Finally Adrian emerged.
His face was pale.
"Margaret says my mother did not die in Switzerland."
Victoria stopped breathing.
Emma stared.
"What?"
"She says the coffin was empty."
Victoria stepped toward him.
"How would she know?"
"Because my father told her."
"Jonathan told the housekeeper but not his son?"
Adrian's anger flashed.
"Apparently."
Margaret appeared behind him.
"Your father believed Mrs. Vale had become dangerous."
Emma looked at the elderly woman.
"Dangerous how?"
Margaret glanced toward the corridor as if the house itself might overhear.
"She controlled people by learning what they feared losing."
Victoria's face tightened.
"Money?"
"Children."
No one spoke.
Margaret continued.
"Careers."
"Marriages."
"Freedom."
Adrian's voice was low.
"Where did she go?"
Margaret shook her head.
"Your father never told me."
Emma studied her.
"But you know something else."
Margaret looked at Emma for a long moment.
Then she reached into her apron and removed a sealed white envelope.
Emma's pulse jumped.
It was the third white envelope connected to the case.
Margaret handed it to Adrian.
"Your father told me to give this to you only if Catherine's daughter ever entered the house."
Adrian stared at her.
"Emma has worked here for eleven months."
Margaret lowered her eyes.
"I know."
"Then why tonight?"
Margaret looked at Emma.
"Because until tonight, I wasn't sure she was Catherine's daughter."
Emma's throat tightened.
"You knew my mother?"
Tears appeared in Margaret's eyes.
"She was my sister."
Margaret's confession of kinship changed dozens of small memories for Emma.
The extra portion of soup left for her after late shifts.
The repaired coat button she had found sewn before winter.
The way Margaret always asked whether Emma had arrived home safely after storms.
Emma had mistaken those gestures for kindness from an older coworker.
Now each one carried the weight of a secret relationship.
That did not make them sweeter.
It made them painful.
"You could have told me," Emma said.
Margaret whispered, "I wanted to every day."
May you like
"Wanting to tell the truth is not the same as telling it."
Margaret lowered her eyes because there was no defense against that.
