Chapter 9 - My Mother’s Last NightMy mother died of cancer.
“You’re guessing.”
“Yes.”
I stepped closer.
“But people reveal themselves when someone guesses correctly.”
Marcus looked at his mother.
“Let’s go.”
Vivian ignored him.
“You want me to confess?”
“No.”
I glanced at the case.
“I want my father’s property.”
“Then Richard signs.”
Dad tore the confession in half.
Marcus’s face hardened.
“Bad choice.”
“No,” Dad replied. “Protecting you for years was the bad choice.”
Marcus flinched.
It was the first time I had seen Dad truly confront him.
“You stole from my company.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
Dad continued.
“A man died because you bought defective equipment.”
“I didn’t know the harnesses were defective.”
“Daniel told you.”
“Afterward.”
“And what did you do?”
Marcus said nothing.
“You hid it.”
“I protected the company.”
“No. You protected yourself.”
Marcus looked toward Vivian.
“Mom.”
Again.
The word carried something new.
Fear.
Vivian stepped toward Dad.
“You gave Emily every opportunity you denied Marcus.”
Dad stared at her.
“What?”
“She got your approval. Your attention. Your precious leadership training. Marcus spent his childhood trying to become good enough for you.”
“He wasn’t my son when he was a child.”
“He became your son.”
“And I treated him like one.”
“No. You treated him like a replacement executive.”
Dad shook his head.
“I gave him a job.”
“You gave Emily a future.”
I almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
There was something deeply broken beneath Vivian’s cruelty.
But broken people still made choices.
And hers had left bodies behind.
I said, “Daniel figured out you were protecting Marcus.”
Vivian looked at me.
“He found the money,” I continued. “Then Victor’s equipment. Then he realized somebody was covering the trail.”
Silence.
“You knew he planned to tell Dad.”
Nothing.
“So you followed him.”
Marcus said sharply, “Stop talking.”
Not to me.
To Vivian.
I caught it.
He was afraid she would say too much.
So I pushed.
“You put something in Daniel’s drink.”
Vivian laughed.
“At two in the afternoon?”
“He visited Hale headquarters. There’s a private executive bar in Dad’s office.”
Dad looked at me.
I was improvising.
But I remembered it.
Small cabinet.
Whiskey.
Water.
Glasses.
Daniel might have accepted a drink after confronting Marcus.
“You drugged him there,” I said.
Vivian’s face remained blank.
“Then Pike made sure the crash looked ordinary.”
Detective Pike moved slightly.
Nathan’s voice murmured through my hidden earpiece.
Keep them talking.
I looked at Pike.
“How much did she pay you?”
His face hardened.
Vivian said, “Don’t answer.”
I smiled.
That was mistake number one.
She had just responded as if there were an answer to hide.
Pike realized it too.
“You need to shut up,” he muttered.
Vivian turned.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
The alliance was cracking.
Good.
I said, “Seventy-five thousand dollars.”
Pike looked at me.
“Over eleven months,” I continued. “Daniel documented every payment.”
Vivian’s head snapped toward him.
“You said those accounts were clean.”
Pike went pale.
Mistake number two.
Marcus whispered, “Mom, stop.”
Too late.
Dad stared at Vivian.
“You paid a detective?”
She glared at him.
“You have no idea what I did for this family.”
Dad’s face twisted.
“For this family?”
“Yes!”
Her control finally cracked.
“For Marcus! For you! For the company!”
She pointed toward me.
“And after everything, you were going to hand it to her!”
Dad’s voice became quiet.
“It was always supposed to be hers.”
That sentence changed the room.
Marcus stared at Dad.
Vivian looked like she had been slapped.
I did too.
“What?” Marcus asked.
Dad looked at him.
“Emily helped build the expansion strategy before she left. Half the systems you inherited were hers.”
“So?”
“So you thought the company belonged to you because your mother told you it did.”
Marcus’s face reddened.
Dad continued.
“It didn’t.”
“You said I was your son.”
“You are.”
“Then why does she get everything?”
“Because ownership isn’t love.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“That’s convenient.”
“I gave you money. Opportunity. Responsibility.”
“You gave her respect.”
Dad said nothing.
Marcus looked at me.
Years of resentment burned in his face.
Maybe Vivian had fed it.
Maybe Dad had accidentally created it.
But Marcus had chosen what to do with it.
“Do you know what it was like?” he asked. “Every board member comparing me to you?”
“I was gone.”
“Exactly. You weren’t even there, and you were still better than me.”
I almost answered angrily.
Instead I said, “That wasn’t my fault.”
His expression changed.
For a moment he looked younger.
Then Vivian snapped, “Enough.”
She opened the hard-shell case.
Inside were the documents.
And a handgun.
Dad stiffened.
My pulse exploded.
Pike swore.
“Vivian, no.”
She picked up the gun.
Nathan’s voice sounded in my ear.
Stand by.
I kept my hands visible.
“Vivian.”
“Don’t.”
Her arm shook.
Not fear.
Rage.
“You came back and ruined everything.”
“No.”
I looked at Marcus.
“He did.”
Marcus flinched.
“You spent years hiding his mistakes,” I told her. “And every time you protected him, he made a bigger one.”
“Shut up.”
“You think you saved him.”
“Shut up!”
“You destroyed him.”
She raised the gun.
Dad stepped between us.
“Vivian.”
She froze.
He stood weakly, leaning on his cane.
“If you are angry at anyone, be angry at me.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Richard.”
“You said you did this for the family.”
His voice broke.
“Then don’t end it like this.”
For one second, I believed he had reached her.
Vivian’s arm lowered slightly.
Then Marcus lunged for the case.
Everything happened at once.
Vivian spun.
The gun fired.
Concrete exploded beside Marcus.
Pike drew his weapon.
I pulled Dad down.
Agents stormed the factory from three entrances.
“DROP THE WEAPON!”
Vivian screamed.
Pike dropped his gun instantly.
Marcus froze.
Vivian did not.
She backed away, pointing the weapon wildly.
“Stay back!”
Red laser sights covered her dress.
Dad shouted, “Vivian!”
She looked at him.
And in that second, Marcus grabbed her wrist.
The gun hit the floor.
Agents tackled them both.
I covered Dad with my body.
For several seconds, all I heard was shouting and footsteps.
Then silence.
Vivian was handcuffed.
Pike was handcuffed.
Marcus was facedown against the concrete.
One agent carried away the hard-shell case.
Nathan entered.
His eyes found me immediately.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Richard?”
Dad nodded shakily.
Nathan exhaled.
Then looked toward Vivian.
“We got everything.”
She laughed from the floor.
“You got nothing.”
Nathan walked closer.
“Actually, you discussed payments to Detective Pike while wearing three separate recording devices.”
Her laughter stopped.
“And,” he continued, “Pike just asked for an attorney after volunteering that he never agreed to help with Daniel Brooks.”
Vivian went still.
Nathan smiled faintly.
“Interesting choice of words, considering nobody had mentioned Daniel to him.”
Pike shouted from across the room.
“Shut up, Vivian!”
She turned toward him.
There it was again.
Fear.
Nathan leaned toward me.
“This is going to unravel fast.”
He was right.
But not in the way we expected.
Because as agents loaded Vivian into a vehicle, Marcus lifted his head and looked directly at me.
“Emily!”
I stopped.
An agent pushed him forward.
Marcus shouted, “Ask her about your mother!”
My body went cold.
Vivian screamed, “Marcus!”
He smiled through a split lip.
“You think she started killing people because of me?”
The agent grabbed him.
May you like
Marcus kept looking at me.
“You should ask what happened to your mother.”
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