CHAPTER 8 BRENDA’S OFFER
Brenda contacted me twelve hours later.
Not Andrew.
Me.
She sent a photograph of Margaret entering Senator Dane’s townhouse.
Under it was one message.
I have what you need. Come alone.
The meeting point was an abandoned theater in Brooklyn.
I did not go alone.
Evelyn tracked my location.
Two private security officers followed from a distance.
Andrew stayed in the car.
Brenda stood on the dark stage beneath one working spotlight.
Her crimson glamour was gone.
She wore jeans.
A sweater.
And fear.
“You look different without my husband beside you,” I said.
“He was never really mine.”
“No.”
“You only wanted what you thought he owned.”
She swallowed.
“I wanted out.”
“Out of what?”
“My mother raised me to fear Margaret.”
“Margaret paid for my schools, my apartment, everything.”
“Then she told me I owed her.”
“So you slept with Andrew.”
“I was supposed to make him turn against you.”
“You succeeded.”
Brenda’s eyes dropped.
“I didn’t know he would hit you.”
“You smiled.”
Her face crumpled.
“I hated you.”
“Why?”
“Because you had a name no one could buy.”
“You could walk away.”
I almost laughed at the irony.
“I stayed for four years.”
She handed me a flash drive.
“Margaret planned to transfer the company’s debt into your trust.”
“Once it collapsed, she would blame you and take control through Andrew.”
“Why frame me for the necklace?”
“To force you out before the audit.”
I inserted the drive into a secure laptop.
Recordings filled the screen.
Margaret discussing accounts.
Senator Dane ordering evidence destroyed.
A judge promising to block warrants.
Then one video stopped me cold.
It showed my mother alive.
Three days after the date of her supposed death.
She was being led into a private medical facility.
I looked at Brenda.
“What is this?”
“My mother filmed it.”
My voice barely worked.
“My mother survived the crash?”
“For a while.”
“How long?”
Brenda hesitated.
“Eleven years.”
The theater seemed to disappear around me.
Eleven years.
While I grew up believing she was dead.
While my father told me there was no body because of the fire.
“Where was she?”
“A clinic owned by Dane.”
“Why keep her alive?”
“She knew where the original ledgers were.”
“And where are they?”
Brenda looked toward the balcony.
A shadow moved.
She shouted, “Down!”
A gunshot cracked through the theater.
The flash drive flew from my hand.
Someone grabbed Brenda from behind.
Before security reached the stage, she was dragged through a hidden door.
May you like
Her last scream echoed through the theater.
“They know your mother is still alive!”
