Chapter 17 — Evelyn’s Final Choice
Lena wanted to rush at Vivian.
She wanted to forget the gun.
Forget the plan.
Forget every careful instruction Priya had given her.
Then Richard looked at her.
Not frightened.
Not pleading.
Trusting.
Lena forced herself to breathe.
“What happened that night?” she asked.
Vivian tilted her head.
“Does it matter?”
“It matters to me.”
Vivian seemed pleased by that.
She liked being the only person in the room who knew the full story.
“Evelyn found me in Boston,” Vivian said. “She threatened to tell Malcolm I was alive.”
“So you followed her.”
“I offered her money.”
“She refused.”
“Everyone has a price.”
“My mother didn’t.”
Vivian’s smile faded.
“No. She didn’t.”
On the night Evelyn died, Vivian had forced her car off a rural road.
Evelyn survived the initial crash.
Vivian climbed down the embankment and demanded the evidence.
Evelyn had thrown the documents into the river.
Then she used her final conscious moments to activate a recorder hidden beneath her seat.
Vivian never found it.
Richard had recovered the recorder before police arrived.
That was the tape Lena had heard.
“You left her there,” Lena said.
“She made her choice.”
“No. You made yours.”
Celeste stepped forward.
“Enough. Give us the key.”
Lena held it up.
“This key won’t help you.”
Vivian raised the gun.
“Do not test me.”
“The bank changed the box twenty years ago. Malcolm knew you were watching Walter.”
Vivian’s face changed.
“He gave Walter a decoy.”
Celeste looked toward her mother.
“You said it was real.”
Vivian ignored her.
“Where is the real key?”
Lena looked at Richard.
“My father has had it the entire time.”
Celeste turned toward him.
That was the distraction Priya had been waiting for.
A red laser appeared on Vivian’s shoulder.
“Federal agents!” a voice shouted. “Drop the weapon!”
Vivian fired.
The gunshot echoed through the theater.
Richard’s chair tipped backward.
Lena screamed.
Celeste ran toward the exit.
Vivian turned the gun toward Lena.
A second shot rang out.
Vivian collapsed.
May you like
But Richard did not move.
Blood spread across his white shirt.
