Chapter 10 - Vanessa’s Bargain
Officers met Vanessa at the front door.
She had arrived barefoot, with a cut across her cheek and blood on the collar of her coat.
“Help me,” she said. “They took Martin.”
Detective Ruiz ordered her to place her hands where officers could see them.
Vanessa obeyed.
For the first time, she did not look polished or prepared. Her hair hung loose around her face. Her hands shook.
I stood halfway down the stairs.
“Why are you here?”
“They are going to kill him.”
“You expect me to believe you care?”
“I do not care about Martin.”
Her eyes moved toward Noah, who stood behind Rosa on the upper landing.
“I care about surviving.”
Ruiz took her into the library.
I was allowed to observe from the doorway while she was questioned.
Vanessa admitted that Adrian Cross had instructed her to enter my life.
She claimed she had resisted at first.
“Martin introduced us,” I said.
“He was ordered to.”
Ruiz glanced at me.
“Martin worked for Cross?”
“He worked against him,” Vanessa said. “Then for him. Then against him again. Martin changes sides whenever guilt becomes inconvenient.”
“Why marry Daniel?” Ruiz asked.
“To gain guardianship of Noah.”
The honesty made me feel physically sick.
“Was any part of our marriage real?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“That question will not help you.”
“Answer it.”
“I was supposed to make you dependent on me. I was supposed to isolate you from employees, friends, and eventually Noah. The medical records would prove instability. The recordings would prove violence. Noah’s statements would prove neglect.”
“You hurt him to force those statements.”
Her face tightened.
“I frightened him.”
“You wrapped an iron cord around his wrist.”
“I lost control.”
“Repeatedly?”
She looked away.
I stepped into the room.
Ruiz raised one hand.
I stopped.
Vanessa spoke quietly.
“Cross said pain leaves clearer memories than coaching.”
Noah was not in the room, but the sentence still made me want to cross the distance between us and do something I would regret forever.
Ruiz saw it in my face.
“Mr. Mercer, step outside.”
I remained near the door.
“Where is Martin?” Ruiz asked.
“An abandoned textile factory near Harrow Bridge.”
“Why bring us this information?”
“Because Cross has finished using me.”
Vanessa explained that my unexpected return had destroyed the planned timeline. She was supposed to submit the guardianship petition on Friday after staging an incident involving the medication.
“What incident?” I asked.
“You were going to collapse while driving Noah.”
The room became still.
“How?”
“The coffee in your travel mug.”
I remembered the warm coffee waiting in the kitchen.
Had I arrived later, she would have offered it to me.
“The dosage would not kill you,” she said. “You would lose consciousness. The car was supposed to be stopped before anything happened.”
“You expected me to trust the people who planned it?”
“I expected them to value the evidence.”
“You risked my son’s life.”
Her eyes flashed.
“I did what I had to do.”
“No. That is what cowards say when the truth is too ugly.”
She lowered her gaze.
Ruiz asked about the second heir.
Vanessa became visibly frightened.
“I do not know who it is.”
“You entered the hidden room before,” I said.
“No. I knew a safe room existed. I never found the entrance.”
“Emily said the heir was already inside the house.”
Vanessa stared toward the ceiling.
Then her expression changed.
Not understanding.
Recognition.
She whispered one word.
“Rosa.”
I turned.
Rosa stood at the end of the hallway.
She had heard everything.
“That is impossible,” I said.
Rosa’s face had gone pale.
Vanessa laughed once.
“You really do not see anything until it is placed directly in front of you.”
“Stop talking.”
“Ask her real name.”
I looked at Rosa.
She held Noah’s shoulders protectively.
“Rosa?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“My name is Rosa Alvarez.”
“Your full name.”
She hesitated.
“Rosa Elena Mercer Alvarez.”
The room seemed to lose all sound.
“My father had another child,” I said.
May you like
Rosa nodded.
“I am your sister.”
