Chapter 6 - THE SECRET BURIED AT THE LAKE HOUSEEvelyn Voss had worked for the Bennett family for thirty-two years.
But investigating a threat and proving a crime were very different things.
Richard denied everything.
He claimed the sedan belonged to his company but had been used by dozens of employees.
He insisted his phone call had been “taken out of context.”
Olivia had recorded it.
His lawyers claimed he had been discussing “financial stress affecting pregnancy.”
Jonathan called the explanation insulting.
Olivia called it terrifying.
Richard had always been charming in public.
At family weddings, he toasted everyone.
At funerals, he cried the hardest.
As a child, Olivia had called him Uncle Richie.
After her grandfather died, Richard gradually disappeared from her life.
She assumed grief had created distance.
Now she wondered whether resentment had.
Jonathan explained the history.
Richard believed Olivia’s mother, Caroline, had been favored by their father.
When Caroline died from cancer at forty-two, her inheritance passed into trust for Olivia.
Richard expected the family assets to be reorganized.
Instead, Olivia’s grandfather protected even more property for his granddaughter.
“He challenged the trust twice,” Jonathan said.
“I never knew.”
“Your grandfather kept it from you.”
“Everyone keeps things from me.”
Jonathan lowered his eyes.
She immediately regretted the accusation.
He had spent half his career protecting her.
“I’m sorry.”
“You have a right to be angry.”
“No. I have a right to information.”
That became Olivia’s new rule.
No more protecting her with silence.
She wanted everything.
Jonathan gave it to her.
Richard had accumulated serious debts.
Failed commercial projects.
Private loans.
A gambling problem carefully disguised through business accounts.
If Olivia died without a child, most Bennett assets would go to charity.
If Olivia’s child was born alive, the child became successor beneficiary.
Either outcome cut Richard out permanently.
Unless he could break the trust.
Or control its beneficiary.
Olivia felt sick.
“My daughter.”
Jonathan nodded grimly.
Richard did not merely have motive to hurt Olivia.
He had motive to control her baby.
Meanwhile, Adrian’s life was collapsing.
The Cole Development board placed him on administrative leave.
Reporters gathered outside headquarters.
Camille agreed to cooperate with investigators.
And the woman Adrian had planned to marry after divorcing Olivia retained her own attorney and publicly denied any knowledge of financial misconduct.
Adrian appeared at Hawthorne Lane that evening.
He stood outside the gate because Olivia had changed the security codes.
Through the intercom, he said, “I need five minutes.”
Olivia almost refused.
Instead, she allowed him into the front courtyard.
Not inside the house.
Two security officers remained nearby.
Adrian looked terrible.
His tie was gone.
His eyes were red.
“I deserved the divorce,” he said.
Olivia crossed her arms.
“That’s why you came?”
“No.”
He handed her an envelope.
“What is it?”
“The threats.”
“You said you destroyed them.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because one had something written on the back.”
She opened the envelope carefully.
Three printed letters.
Each contained vague threats about stolen Bennett property.
On the back of the third, someone had handwritten an address.
A warehouse near the Chicago River.
Olivia looked up.
“What’s there?”
“I went once.”
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
“What did you find?”
“Martin.”
Her chest tightened.
“He told me he was investigating the threats.”
“At a warehouse?”
Adrian nodded.
“He showed me surveillance photographs of you.”
“You knew?”
“I thought his people had taken them for security.”
Olivia stared at him with disgust.
“You saw photographs of your pregnant wife being followed and thought that was normal?”
“He told me—”
“You believed whatever was easiest.”
Adrian had no answer.
“Why give this to me now?”
“Because Martin disappeared.”
Jonathan’s investigator had confirmed that earlier.
Dr. Voss had emptied his apartment and abandoned his office.
Adrian continued.
“And because I found this.”
He handed her a photograph.
Richard Bennett stood beside Martin Voss outside a restaurant.
The date stamp was from eight months ago.
Before Olivia became pregnant.
Before the threats began.
“Where did you get this?”
“Camille photographed the contents of my cabinet before she took the folder.”
Olivia’s mind raced.
“You were both keeping secrets from each other.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“That relationship wasn’t exactly built on trust.”
For the first time, Olivia saw genuine shame in him.
It did not erase anything.
But it was real.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She looked away.
“Don’t.”
“I know sorry doesn’t fix—”
“Then don’t use it to make yourself feel better.”
His eyes filled.
“I loved you.”
Olivia turned back.
“Maybe.”
He flinched.
“But you loved being admired more.”
Silence.
“You wanted the successful company, the beautiful house, the loyal wife, the mistress who thought you were powerful.”
He lowered his head.
“You didn’t love people, Adrian. You loved the version of yourself you saw reflected in them.”
The words landed.
He wiped his face.
“What can I do?”
“Tell the truth.”
“All of it?”
“For once.”
He looked toward the house.
Then back at Olivia.
“There’s something else.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Three years ago, Richard offered to invest fifty million dollars in Cole Development.”
Olivia stared.
“Why didn’t you take it?”
“Your grandfather was still alive. He found out and threatened to remove me from every Bennett-backed deal.”
“What did Richard want?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Control.”
“Of the company?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Adrian swallowed.
“Access to you.”
Olivia felt cold.
“He said your grandfather had made you suspicious of him. He wanted me to convince you to restore him as a family trustee.”
“And you considered it?”
“For about a week.”
“You considered giving Richard influence over my trust?”
“I didn’t understand what he was capable of.”
“You understood fifty million dollars.”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Olivia stepped back.
The last surviving piece of her marriage broke.
Not because Adrian had cheated.
Not because he had humiliated her.
Because years earlier, he had considered selling access to her inheritance.
“Leave.”
“Olivia—”
“Leave.”
He obeyed.
As Adrian reached the gate, a black sedan turned onto Hawthorne Lane.
Security immediately moved.
The vehicle accelerated.
For one frightening second, Olivia thought it would ram the gate.
Instead, the rear window lowered.
Something flew onto the pavement.
The sedan disappeared.
A guard approached cautiously.
It was a small cardboard box.
Inside sat a silver baby rattle.
Olivia recognized it.
It had belonged to her mother.
She had kept it inside a locked display cabinet in her grandfather’s old lake house.
Beneath the rattle was a note.
THE BENNETT CHILDREN NEVER KEEP WHAT THEY STEAL.
Olivia’s face went pale.
Jonathan read the note.
Then looked at her.
“Who has access to the lake house?”
Olivia answered immediately.
“Only me.”
Adrian, still standing near the gate, whispered:
“No.”
Olivia looked at him.
He seemed horrified.
“What?”
Adrian stared at the rattle.
“There’s another person.”
“Who?”
“Your housekeeper.”
Olivia frowned.
“Mrs. Hayes?”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
He looked directly at her.
“The woman your grandfather fired the week before he died.”
Olivia’s heart stopped.
Because she remembered the woman.
And she remembered something else.
May you like
Her name had been Evelyn Voss.
Martin Voss’s mother.
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