Chapter 8
Silas came to Lake Mercer the next morning.
I invited him.
He arrived smiling.
That annoyed me.
Lydia came too.
Under guard.
She did not look at Preston.
Interesting.
Silas entered the Quiet Room and saw Gabriel’s tapes on the desk.
His smile disappeared.
Finally.
“Your brother was dramatic.”
“Dead men often become inconvenient when they recorded the living.”
He looked at the photographs Evelyn took.
Then at Preston.
“You told him?”
Preston answered:
“The tapes did.”
Silas sighed.
Not guilt.
Disappointment in execution.
I asked:
“Did you engineer Lydia’s relationship with my son?”
He smiled faintly.
“I introduced them.”
“Did you brief her?”
Silence.
Lydia answered.
“Yes.”
Her father turned toward her.
Too late.
She continued.
She knew Preston felt overlooked.
Knew he wanted more family authority.
Knew I rarely gave it.
At first she treated him as assignment.
Then something changed.
“I loved him.”
Preston laughed bitterly.
“You lied from the first night.”
“Yes.”
Both true.
Silas looked irritated.
Emotion complicated strategy.
“What was the actual goal?” I asked.
He answered because denying it no longer helped.
Marriage.
Then Preston elevated as Whitlock successor.
Not immediately boss.
A second center.
Vale access through Lydia.
Eventually shared decisions.
Exactly what Gabriel feared.
“And Gabriel?”
Silas looked at the tapes.
“He was stubborn.”
“Did you cause his crash?”
“No.”
I believed him.
Not because I trusted him.
Because the answer carried no fear.
He did something else.
He fed Gabriel enough false information that my brother spent his last months suspicious of everyone.
Victor.
Two captains.
Even me briefly.
Silas smiled.
“Your brother died believing betrayal was everywhere.”
I stepped closer.
“That pleases you?”
“It proves he understood too late.”
Villain honesty.
Useful.
Then Harper spoke from the doorway.
“Mom didn’t.”
Silas turned.
Harper held Evelyn’s final envelope.
May you like
“My mother understood you before she died.”
For the first time, Silas looked afraid of someone other than me.
