Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO DISAPPEARED TWICE
Skylar spent the afternoon searching for Elise.
Public records showed that Elise Morgan had sold her apartment six months earlier. Her bank accounts had been closed. Her professional licenses were inactive.
Her last known address led to a vacant house outside Blackridge.
At sunset, Skylar drove there alone.
She told Derek she was visiting the cemetery.
It was the first direct lie she had told her husband.
The house stood at the end of a narrow road bordered by wet pine trees. No lights showed inside.
Skylar parked two houses away and approached on foot.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, the rooms were empty except for dust and the outlines left by missing furniture. In the kitchen, a calendar still hung on the wall.
Every page after January had been torn away.
Skylar searched the cabinets.
Nothing.
She entered the bedroom and found an old suitcase beneath the bed.
Inside were clothes that appeared deliberately ordinary, several prepaid cards, and a newspaper dated five months earlier.
A sentence had been circled in red ink.
PRIVATE AIRCRAFT RECOVERY ENDS WITHOUT FINDING SECOND FLIGHT RECORDER
The article concerned her father’s crash.
Investigators had recovered one flight recorder from the wreckage. The second recorder, which stored cockpit audio, was never found.
Skylar heard a car outside.
She moved to the window.
Headlights swept across the front of the house.
A black sedan stopped beside her car.
Derek stepped out.
Skylar backed away from the window.
He should not have known she was there.
The front door opened.
“Skylar?”
His voice traveled through the empty house.
She looked around for another exit.
A rear door led to a fenced garden. She crossed the kitchen and pulled it open.
A woman stood on the other side.
Skylar nearly screamed.
The woman wore a dark raincoat and held one finger to her lips.
It was Elise Morgan.
Elise grabbed Skylar’s wrist and pulled her outside.
They crossed the garden and slipped through a broken section of fence.
Behind them, Derek called Skylar’s name again.
Elise led her into the trees.
They crouched behind an abandoned shed while Derek searched the house.
“You should not have come,” Elise whispered.
“You sent the messages.”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“I do not know.”
Skylar stared at her. “Derek said you resigned.”
“I tried to resign. He would not let me leave with what I knew.”
“What do you know?”
Elise glanced toward the house.
Derek’s silhouette appeared in an upstairs window.
“Not here.”
“You disappeared for six months.”
“I disappeared because someone tried to make my death look voluntary.”
The words sent cold through Skylar’s body.
Elise continued.
“They created a history. Medical visits. Prescriptions. Statements from colleagues. Evidence that I was depressed and unreliable. Then they prepared a note.”
“Who are they?”
“Derek. Patricia. Dr. Bellamy. Martin Sloane. Maybe others.”
Skylar wanted to reject the names.
Martin had served her father for fourteen years.
Dr. Bellamy had treated her with quiet patience.
Patricia had welcomed her into the Halston family.
Derek had held her through the night after the crash.
Elise reached inside her coat and removed a flash drive.
“I copied a set of internal transfers before I left. The money moves through Northstar and into a company called Meridian Crown.”
“How much?”
“Almost eighty million dollars so far.”
Skylar could not breathe for a moment.
Elise held out the drive.
Before Skylar could take it, light swept through the trees.
Derek had activated the flashlight on his phone.
Elise closed her hand around the drive.
“Listen carefully. Your father created an emergency continuity order before he died. Derek believes it gives him control if you are declared incompetent or dead.”
“Does it?”
“I never saw the final page.”
Skylar remembered the empty safe.
“Derek has the documents at Vale House.”
Elise’s eyes sharpened. “Where?”
“In a hidden room behind his office.”
Elise looked genuinely afraid.
“You found the room?”
“I found the door.”
“Do not open it alone.”
“Why?”
“Because Derek did not build that room.”
“Who did?”
Elise leaned closer.
“Your father.”
A branch cracked nearby.
Elise pushed the flash drive into Skylar’s hand.
“Go back to the house. Let Derek find you. Tell him you came because you believed I might be hiding here.”
“He will know I spoke to you.”
“Then give him something else to fear.”
“What?”
“Ask him about Saint Orison.”
Elise disappeared deeper into the woods.
Skylar remained beside the shed.
Derek found her less than a minute later.
He looked relieved.
Then he looked angry.
“What are you doing here?”
“I received an anonymous message.”
“About Elise?”
“Yes.”
He studied the empty trees behind her.
“Did you find her?”
“No.”
Derek came closer.
“How did you know this address?”
“The message included it.”
“Show me.”
“I deleted it.”
His eyes changed.
Skylar had seen Derek irritated, disappointed, and impatient.
She had never seen him frightened until then.
She stepped past him.
“Who is Saint Orison?”
Derek seized her arm.
The movement was sudden but controlled.
His fingers tightened once before he released her.
“I have never heard that name.”
Skylar looked at the place where his hand had been.
“You are lying.”
“No,” he said. “Elise is lying.”
“I told you I did not see her.”
Derek stared at her.
Then he smiled.
“Of course.”
During the drive home, he held Skylar’s hand.
He did not let go once.
When they reached Vale House, Patricia’s red sports car was waiting outside.
May you like
She stood in the foyer beside Dr. Bellamy.
On the table between them rested a medical consent form.
