Chapter 8
Nora recognized her mother before the car stopped.
“Mommy!”
Elise came running from the porch.
No dramatic Mafia reunion.
No speech.
Just a mother dropping to her knees and a three-year-old colliding with her hard enough to knock them both sideways.
Nora screamed.
Not fear.
Joy.
Audrey cried beside me.
I stayed back.
This moment was not mine.
Elise kissed Nora’s face over and over.
Then saw the faint frosting stain still caught near one cardigan button.
Her expression changed.
“What happened?”
Nora answered first.
“Brent bad.”
That was enough to make Elise stand.
“Dad.”
“I handled it.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“How?”
“Later.”
Good.
I was learning.
We spent two hours without discussing the bakery.
Nora ate crackers.
Elise brushed her hair.
Audrey talked too much because that is what she does when emotions become dangerous.
Eventually Nora fell asleep on Elise’s lap.
Then my daughter looked at me.
“I thought you would come sooner.”
That hurt.
“How?”
She handed me a note.
She had mailed it three months earlier.
To my estate.
My name.
Never arrived.
Inside:
Dad, Brent lied. Martin is involved. Keep Nora away from both of them. I need time to make sure the women they targeted are safe. Don’t send anyone until I call.
I read it twice.
“Who intercepted this?”
“I don’t know.”
Another betrayal.
Closer.
Mail entering my estate passed through household security.
Three people had access.
Rafe.
My secretary Helen.
And Audrey.
I looked at my younger daughter.
She went pale.
“No.”
Elise said:
“Not Audrey.”
I believed her.
Rafe had served me twenty years.
Helen twenty-seven.
One of them had hidden my daughter’s message.
Or someone used them.
The story had just moved from the bakery into my own house.
Elise looked at me.
“That’s why I stayed gone.”
She had realized her note never reached me.
Meaning Martin’s influence went further than she thought.
“If your own house wasn’t safe…”
May you like
She did not finish.
She did not need to.
