Chapter 7 - Lucas Comes HomeHarrison did not lie.
He handed the hidden camera to Elena.
“Take this upstairs.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Act normal.”
“You think he had Caroline killed.”
“I think Caroline feared him.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
Harrison looked at the twins.
“But I’m not giving him a second chance if she was right.”
Elena took the boys upstairs.
Martin entered carrying two expensive toy cars.
“There are my favorite little terrorists.”
The old nickname now sounded different.
Harrison forced a smile.
“They’re resting.”
Martin embraced him.
For a moment, Harrison was eight years old again, grieving his father while Martin promised to look after him.
Then he remembered Caroline’s handwriting.
“How are you holding up?”
“Bad day.”
“Another nanny?”
“Sixth.”
Martin laughed.
“Maybe boarding school.”
Harrison studied him.
“They’re five.”
“I’m joking.”
Were you?
Martin poured himself bourbon without asking.
He had done that for years.
Suddenly every sign of familiarity felt like ownership.
“So,” Martin said, “new maid?”
“Housekeeper.”
“Pretty?”
Harrison’s eyes hardened.
“Why are you interested?”
Martin smiled.
“Your staff mentioned her.”
“Which staff?”
The smile flickered.
“Does it matter?”
“Humor me.”
Martin swirled his drink.
“Someone from the agency, perhaps.”
Harrison nodded as if satisfied.
They spoke about business.
Zurich.
Quarterly revenue.
A pending board vote.
Then Martin approached the reason he had come.
“You need to return tomorrow.”
“I’m staying home.”
Martin stared at him.
“You can’t.”
“I can.”
“The board vote—”
“Postpone it.”
Martin’s face changed.
Barely.
But Harrison saw it.
“Caroline wouldn’t want you throwing away the company.”
Harrison felt his pulse hammer.
“What did Caroline want?”
Martin took a drink.
“To be a mother. To spend money. To worry.”
“You two argued before she died.”
Martin’s eyes sharpened.
“Who told you that?”
Harrison smiled.
“So you remember.”
“Of course I remember. Caroline and I argued constantly.”
“What about?”
“You.”
“Anything else?”
Martin set down the glass.
“What is this?”
“Conversation.”
“No. It’s interrogation.”
Harrison walked toward the window.
“Did Caroline ever tell you someone followed her?”
Silence.
Then Martin laughed.
“Caroline was anxious after the twins were born.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No. She never told me.”
Harrison turned.
Martin’s expression was perfectly controlled.
Too controlled.
Upstairs, something crashed.
Martin looked toward the ceiling.
“Your little monsters awake?”
Harrison moved between him and the staircase.
“They’re fine.”
Martin’s eyes dropped to Harrison’s stance.
“You’re acting strangely.”
“I haven’t slept.”
“I can help.”
“How?”
“Take the boys for a few days.”
“No.”
Martin blinked.
“Harrison—”
“No.”
The rejection hung between them.
Martin picked up his coat.
“Fine.”
At the doorway, he stopped.
“You know grief distorts memory.”
Harrison said nothing.
“Caroline became suspicious of everyone near the end.”
“You said she never told you she was being followed.”
Martin’s face froze.
Harrison continued softly.
“So how do you know she became suspicious?”
Martin stared at him.
Then smiled.
“You’re tired.”
He left.
Harrison waited until the Mercedes disappeared.
Then he ran upstairs.
Elena had removed the camera’s memory card.
Daniel Ross, Harrison’s security chief, had finally arrived.
He examined it.
“This isn’t consumer equipment.”
“Can you trace it?”
“Maybe.”
“Do it.”
Daniel inserted the card into an isolated laptop.
There were hundreds of clips.
Most showed Harrison working.
Caroline entering the office.
The twins hiding in the passage.
Then a video from three weeks before Caroline died.
Harrison pressed play.
Caroline entered his office carrying papers.
Martin followed.
“You copied private records,” Martin said.
“I copied evidence.”
“You have no idea what you’re looking at.”
“I know exactly what I’m looking at.”
“You could destroy Harrison.”
“You already are.”
Martin stepped closer.
“Think about those boys.”
“I am.”
“If Harrison learns how much debt the company is hiding—”
“He’ll fix it.”
“He’ll lose everything.”
“He’d rather lose money than become you.”
Martin’s face twisted.
Then came the sentence Connor had remembered.
“Accidents happen to people who insist on standing in front of moving trains.”
Caroline did not flinch.
“If anything happens to me, Harrison gets everything.”
Martin smiled.
“Does he?”
The clip ended.
Harrison felt sick.
Daniel spoke first.
“We need police.”
“Not yet.”
“Harrison.”
“If Martin knows we have this, he’ll destroy whatever remains.”
Elena agreed reluctantly.
“We need copies somewhere he can’t reach.”
Daniel removed the drive.
“I’ll contact a federal investigator I trust.”
Then another clip appeared automatically.
Dated the night Caroline died.
The office was dark.
At 9:42 p.m., Martin entered.
Caroline’s crash happened at 10:16.
Martin opened Harrison’s desk.
He removed something.
Then spoke into his phone.
The microphone barely captured his words.
Daniel increased the volume.
Martin’s voice filled the room.
“She left ten minutes ago.”
A pause.
Then:
“Make sure the truck doesn’t miss.”
Elena gasped.
Harrison stopped breathing.
Behind them, Connor screamed.
They turned.
The twins stood in the doorway.
Caleb was staring at the screen.
“Daddy?”
Harrison rushed to close the laptop.
Too late.
Connor looked terrified.
“Is Uncle Martin the reason Mommy never came home?”
Harrison had spent fourteen months trying to protect his sons from grief.
Now the truth had entered the room anyway.
May you like
And he had no idea whether telling them would save them—
or break them completely.
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