Chapter 5 - SABRINA’S WARNING
Emma met Sabrina that evening in the chapel of St. Anne’s Hospital.
It was the only place Sabrina agreed to speak.
“No police,” she had insisted.
Emma brought Hale anyway.
He waited behind a divider near the confessional.
Sabrina sat in the final pew wearing a gray coat and dark glasses. A bruise marked her cheek where Emma would strike her eleven days later, though neither sister knew that yet. This bruise came from someone else.
Emma sat beside her.
“Who hit you?”
Sabrina faced the altar.
“You shouldn’t have gone to Lake Mercy.”
“Who hit you?”
“Ethan.”
“You told everyone he moved to Europe.”
“He did. Then he came back.”
“Why?”
“To make sure I stayed useful.”
Emma took out Daniel’s letter.
Sabrina stared at the handwriting.
“He knew,” she said.
“He knew you were involved.”
“I tried to warn him.”
“You met him at the motel.”
“Yes.”
“Were you sleeping with him?”
Sabrina turned sharply.
“No.”
“The photograph made it look that way.”
“That was the point.”
“Whose point?”
“The Steward’s.”
Emma waited.
Sabrina lowered her glasses.
Her left eye was swollen.
“Five years ago, Mom introduced me to an investment group. She said they helped wealthy families protect assets. I brought them documents from the trust. At first, the returns looked real.”
“And when did you learn they were stealing?”
“Two years later.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“Because every transfer carried my authorization.”
“You could have told Daniel.”
“I tried.”
“Three days before he died.”
Sabrina’s eyes filled with tears.
“I asked him to meet me at the motel because I was being followed. I gave him names, account numbers, everything I knew.”
“Then you called someone after he left.”
“Mom.”
Emma felt anger rise.
“You called the woman who was helping them?”
“I didn’t know how deeply she was involved.”
“She was on the road the night Daniel died.”
Sabrina closed her eyes.
“So you saw the video.”
“Six seconds of it.”
“That’s more than I saw.”
“What happened?”
“Daniel planned to meet Victor Lang. Victor said he could identify the Steward.”
“And?”
“Victor disappeared. Daniel died.”
“You filed the court complaint.”
Sabrina looked down.
“Yes.”
Emma stood.
Sabrina grabbed her wrist.
“Listen to me.”
“Let go.”
“They threatened Connor.”
Emma stopped.
“Who?”
“The group. Ethan showed me photographs from outside the school. He said if I didn’t help transfer guardianship, Connor would have an accident.”
“So you terrorized Grace instead?”
“I was trying to make the complaint look convincing without actually hurting anyone.”
“You cut her hair.”
“A small piece.”
“You threatened her.”
“I needed her to stay quiet.”
Emma pulled her wrist free.
“You needed my children to be afraid.”
Sabrina stood too.
“You think I don’t know what I’ve become?”
“I don’t care what you know.”
“You will when they come for you.”
Hale stepped from behind the divider.
“They already did.”
Sabrina’s face changed.
“You brought him?”
Hale approached.
“Ethan attacked us.”
“Then he knows you have evidence.”
“The evidence was destroyed.”
Sabrina laughed without humor.
“You think that matters? They will keep coming until they control the trust.”
Emma folded Daniel’s letter.
“Who is the Steward?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I have heard his voice. I have received instructions. I have never seen his face.”
“Where are the missing trust documents?”
“In Mom’s safe.”
“Combination?”
“Grace’s birthday.”
Emma looked at her.
“Why?”
“Mom uses dates she thinks no one notices.”
Hale said, “We need to bring Margaret in.”
Sabrina shook her head.
“If you arrest her, the Steward disappears.”
“She may have killed Daniel,” Emma said.
“She was there, but I don’t believe she killed him.”
“You defend her after everything?”
“I’m not defending her. I’m telling you that Mom is afraid of someone.”
Margaret had never appeared afraid to Emma.
She controlled every room she entered. She corrected people’s posture, grammar, and choices. Even grief had seemed to obey her. At Daniel’s funeral, she had organized seating while Emma could barely stand.
“Why arrange the birthday party?” Emma asked.
Sabrina looked toward the stained-glass window.
“The group wants you to sign the trust amendment in front of witnesses.”
“I won’t.”
“They don’t need you willing. They need you desperate.”
“What happens at the party?”
“I was told to create an incident involving Grace. The court representative would see it. Dr. Morgan would see it. Several teachers would see it.”
“And then?”
“Mom would offer you a choice. Sign temporary control of the trust to her, or risk losing the children during the investigation.”
Hale asked, “Where does the amendment transfer the money?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve seen it.”
“I’ve only seen the signature page.”
Emma studied her sister.
“What else aren’t you telling me?”
Sabrina’s eyes moved toward Hale.
“Daniel may still be alive.”
Emma’s mind rejected the words.
“No.”
“I received a message six months after the funeral.”
She took out her phone and opened a photograph.
A man stood in a train station in Montreal.
His face was partly turned away, but the shape of his shoulders and the scar near his right ear belonged to Daniel.
Emma enlarged the image.
The date was four months earlier.
“Why didn’t you show me?”
“Because the next message said that if I told you, they would send him back in pieces.”
Emma’s hands went numb.
Hale examined the photograph.
“This could be manipulated.”
“I know,” Sabrina said.
Emma could barely speak.
“Was Daniel’s body identified?”
Hale looked at her.
“The remains were badly burned.”
“That is not an answer.”
“Dental records confirmed it.”
“Who provided the records?”
Hale’s silence answered.
Margaret had.
Emma turned toward Sabrina.
“You will help me open Mom’s safe.”
Sabrina stepped back.
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“They’ll know.”
“Good.”
Sabrina stared at her.
For the first time since they were children, Emma saw genuine fear in her sister’s face.
“You still don’t understand,” Sabrina whispered. “The Steward isn’t trying to steal your family’s money.”
“What does he want?”
“He wants something Daniel hid inside the trust.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
A door closed somewhere in the chapel.
All three turned.
A folded note lay in the center aisle.
No one had seen who placed it there.
Hale opened it.
Three words were printed in black ink.
CANCEL THE BIRTHDAY.
May you like
Below them was a photograph of Grace asleep in her bedroom.
The picture had been taken that morning.
