Chapter 7 - TWENTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS
The room became very quiet.
“Tell me this is coincidence.”
Hale didn't.
“Marcus.”
“We don't know yet.”
“Tell me.”
“I can't.”
My stomach turned.
Lily's death had been diagnosed as bacterial meningitis.
Sudden.
Aggressive.
Natural.
At least that was what I'd believed.
Now twenty-five million dollars sat between grief and suspicion.
Federal investigators contacted the hospital.
Medical records were reviewed.
Blood samples had been preserved.
Specialists examined everything again.
For four days, I barely slept.
I imagined possibilities no mother should ever have to imagine.
Had someone hurt Lily?
Had David?
Had Thomas?
Had the illness been induced?
Every memory became evidence.
Her headache.
Her fever.
The vomiting.
David's absence.
His refusal to return.
Then the laboratory results arrived.
Dr. Patel met me personally.
“Maya, Lily's meningitis was natural.”
My knees nearly collapsed.
“You're certain?”
“Yes.”
“No poison?”
“No.”
“No deliberate exposure?”
“Nothing indicates that.”
I cried.
For the first time in weeks, my tears came from relief.
My daughter had not been murdered.
Death had been cruel enough without intention behind it.
But the insurance policy remained.
Why insure a seven-year-old for twenty-five million dollars?
The answer came from David's former insurance broker.
The policy wasn't really about Lily.
It was collateral.
David had used multiple life insurance policies as components in complex private lending arrangements.
Mine existed too.
$40 million.
David's own policy was $75 million.
The policies were another piece of his financial machinery.
Immoral perhaps.
But not murder.
Then the broker revealed something important.
“Mr. Vance tried to claim Lily's policy.”
I stared at him.
“When?”
“Four days ago.”
My mouth opened.
David had learned Lily was dead while sitting in federal detention.
And within days, someone acting on his instructions had initiated a $25 million insurance claim.
Hale's expression hardened.
“Who submitted it?”
“David's attorney.”
The attorney denied knowing why.
David had supposedly told him the money was needed to preserve family assets for me.
I didn't believe that for one second.
Neither did Hale.
Investigators traced the destination account.
It wasn't mine.
It belonged to Halcyon.
David wasn't trying to provide for his grieving wife.
He was trying to move twenty-five million dollars into the hidden network before the government could stop him.
Even after learning Lily was dead, David's first instinct had eventually returned to money.
That discovery destroyed whatever remained of my sympathy.
His attorney requested a plea meeting.
Prosecutors agreed.
David offered Thomas.
Accounts.
Passwords.
Names.
Everything.
In exchange, he wanted a reduced sentence.
And one additional condition.
He wanted five minutes at Lily's grave.
The prosecutor asked me how I felt.
I looked through the courthouse window.
Snow had begun falling over Chicago.
“Give him the five minutes.”
Hale seemed surprised.
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because there's something he needs to see.”
Two days later, David arrived at Rosewood Cemetery in a federal transport vehicle.
His wrists were cuffed.
His ankles were shackled.
Two marshals walked beside him.
I waited near Lily's grave.
David saw the headstone.
He stopped.
LILY GRACE VANCE
2018–2026
BELOVED DAUGHTER
BRAVE HEART
FOREVER OUR LIGHT
David collapsed to his knees.
For five minutes, nobody spoke.
Then he touched her name.
“I'm sorry.”
His voice broke.
“I should've come home.”
I stood several feet away.
“Yes.”
“I thought there would always be another day.”
“There wasn't.”
He began crying.
“I loved her.”
“I know.”
David looked at me in surprise.
I finally understood what Thomas meant.
David had loved Lily.
But love without action had been useless when she needed him.
I stepped closer.
“She loved you too.”
That hurt him more than hatred ever could.
Then David whispered something I wasn't expecting.
“My father knows you're controlling Halcyon.”
I froze.
“How?”
“He has people watching everything.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know anymore.”
David looked toward the cemetery entrance.
“But he'll come for you.”
A black sedan was parked beyond the gates.
Its engine started.
Hale immediately turned.
The sedan accelerated away.
May you like
And suddenly I understood.
David wasn't the most dangerous Vance anymore.
