Chapter 10 - The Night Anna Died
The statement was dated forty-eight hours before Anna's death.
Lucas read it alone in Ian's office that evening.
The wedding guests had gone home.
Rosewood Mansion was silent.
Sophie was staying with Margaret in the guest suite.
Rebecca had left with her mother.
Charles had left separately.
Lucas could not bear to remain near the ballroom.
So he sat beneath fluorescent office lights and read the words Anna had written seven years earlier.
She described unauthorized transfers.
Shell companies.
False invoices.
Charles Whitmore.
Two executives working with him.
And Rebecca.
Lucas stopped at her name.
Rebecca had not stolen money.
Anna made that clear.
Rebecca had been a junior accounting employee who discovered suspicious entries.
She initially helped Anna.
Then she became afraid.
Charles was her father.
Anna wrote that Rebecca begged her not to contact authorities.
When Anna refused, Rebecca warned Charles.
That warning gave him time to destroy records.
Lucas closed his eyes.
Rebecca had been involved from the beginning.
Not as mastermind.
As the person who chose her father over the truth.
Anna's final paragraph hurt most.
Charles has repeatedly asked me to stop the investigation. Yesterday he said Sophie would be better off with a mother who understood when to stay quiet. I do not know whether this was a threat, but I am documenting it because I no longer trust coincidence.
Lucas put the page down.
Ian sat across from him.
"There's no proof Charles caused the crash."
Lucas looked up.
"But she was afraid of him."
"Yes."
"And Rebecca knew."
"We don't know how much she knew afterward."
Lucas laughed bitterly.
"She knew enough to spend years searching for this."
Ian nodded.
Lucas rubbed his face.
"How did I miss all of this?"
"You were grieving."
"That's an explanation. Not an excuse."
Ian said nothing.
Lucas thought about Sophie.
Every time she had tried to tell him something, he had asked her to explain it like an adult.
Rebecca had been allowed to defend herself with sophistication.
Sophie had only fear.
Lucas had treated the better speaker as the more credible person.
He hated himself for it.
Ian leaned forward.
"Don't turn this into another punishment."
"What?"
"Anna died. You blamed yourself for surviving. Now Rebecca betrayed you and you're preparing to blame yourself for that too."
"I failed Sophie."
"Then do better."
Lucas stared at him.
Ian continued.
"That's what being a parent allows. You don't get to be perfect. You get to return."
At Rosewood that night, Sophie woke from a nightmare.
Margaret held her until she stopped shaking.
"Is Daddy mad at me?"
"No."
"I stopped his wedding."
Margaret pulled back.
"You didn't stop anything."
"I told him."
"Your father stopped a wedding because an adult hurt you."
Sophie considered this.
"Will Rebecca come back?"
"I don't know."
"She said she loved Daddy."
"I think she did."
Sophie frowned.
"Can bad people love somebody?"
Margaret's eyes became sad.
"Sometimes people who do bad things still love. Love doesn't erase what they did."
"Do we hate her?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because hate keeps people living inside you long after they should have left."
Sophie leaned against her.
"Mommy hated Grandpa Charles?"
"I don't think so."
"But he stole."
"Your mother wanted him stopped. That's different."
Sophie closed her eyes.
Downstairs, a security sensor sounded.
Margaret sat up.
A car had entered the property.
She checked the camera.
Rebecca.
Margaret called Lucas immediately.
Then she went downstairs.
Rebecca stood outside the front door wearing sweatpants and a coat over the clothes she had worn beneath her wedding gown.
Her face looked exhausted.
Margaret did not open the door.
"What do you want?"
Rebecca looked toward the security camera.
"Anna's original letter."
"You burned it."
"Part of it."
Margaret's expression hardened.
"You don't get to ask us for anything."
Rebecca looked behind her.
"My father is leaving the country."
Margaret froze.
"What?"
"His plane leaves at six in the morning."
"How do you know?"
"Because he asked me to go with him."
Margaret stared.
Rebecca lifted a flash drive.
"He also asked me to destroy this."
"What is it?"
"Seven years of financial records."
Margaret's breathing changed.
May you like
Rebecca continued.
"And an audio file from the night Anna died."
