Chapter 7: The House by the Lake
Nathan was not allowed inside the lake house.
Neither was Vanessa.
They waited behind the police tape while investigators moved in and out of the building.
The house stood at the edge of black water, surrounded by pine trees and silence.
Ethan remained beside Nathan.
Vanessa paced near the road.
After an hour, Detective Bennett emerged.
“There’s no body,” she said.
“Whose blood?” Nathan asked.
“We don’t know yet.”
Vanessa looked toward the house.
“Did you find the files?”
“No.”
Her face fell.
The detective noticed.
“But we found a hidden room beneath the basement.”
Vanessa stopped pacing.
“What was in it?”
“Photographs. Copies of identification documents. Bank records. Audio recordings.”
Ethan said, “Blackmail material.”
“That is our working theory.”
Nathan looked at Vanessa.
“Was my name there?”
Detective Bennett nodded.
“So was Ethan’s. Margaret’s. Several company executives. A judge. Two police officers.”
Nathan felt sick.
Adrian had built an entire system around secrets.
“What did he have on me?”
The detective glanced at Vanessa.
“A photograph of you entering a hotel with a woman six months ago.”
Vanessa turned toward Nathan.
He frowned.
“What woman?”
Detective Bennett showed him the image.
Nathan recognized the woman immediately.
“Claire Morgan. She’s a forensic accountant.”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
“You told me you were meeting a supplier.”
“I was investigating the missing money.”
“At a hotel?”
“She was attending a conference there.”
Ethan examined the photograph.
“It is framed to look intimate.”
Detective Bennett nodded.
“That seems to be Adrian’s method. He takes incomplete truths and turns them into useful lies.”
Vanessa looked ashamed.
“He showed me that picture.”
Nathan understood.
“You thought I was having an affair.”
“He told me Claire was helping you hide money before the divorce.”
“And you believed him.”
“You were already distant.”
“I was distant because you were stealing from me.”
Vanessa looked away.
Nathan shook his head.
“You never asked me.”
“You never asked me about the money.”
“I did. You told me stress could harm the baby.”
Neither of them spoke.
Their marriage had become a maze in which every honest conversation had been replaced by manipulation.
Detective Bennett cleared her throat.
“We also found a photograph of Vanessa at the lake house taken two nights ago.”
Nathan turned toward her.
“You told me you were at a prenatal appointment.”
Vanessa’s expression shifted.
“I went there to copy the files.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Where are the copies?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Ethan stepped closer.
“Where are they?”
She looked toward the lake.
“I mailed them.”
“To whom?”
“Myself.”
Nathan stared at her.
“That makes no sense.”
“Not to my home. To a private mailbox under another name.”
Detective Bennett asked, “What name?”
Vanessa did not answer.
A shout came from the house.
An officer ran down the steps carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a blood-covered necklace.
Vanessa made a strangled sound.
Nathan looked at her.
“You recognize it?”
She nodded.
“It belonged to my father.”
Detective Bennett studied her face.
“You said he disappeared fifteen years ago.”
Vanessa moved toward the evidence bag.
“My mother gave him that necklace. He never took it off.”
The officer said something quietly to the detective.
Her expression became grave.
“What?” Ethan asked.
Detective Bennett looked at Vanessa.
“The blood on the floor appears recent.”
Vanessa stared at the house.
Then a phone began ringing.
Not Nathan’s.
Not Ethan’s.
The sound came from inside Vanessa’s coat.
She slowly removed the hidden phone.
The screen displayed a blocked number.
Detective Bennett gestured for her to answer and activated the recording equipment on her own phone.
Vanessa pressed the call button.
“Hello?”
Adrian’s voice came through the speaker.
“You brought the police to Dad’s house.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with terror.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
“What did you do?”
Adrian laughed softly.
“You still haven’t figured it out.”
Vanessa looked toward the blood inside the house.
“Is Dad alive?”
The silence that followed was answer enough.
Then Adrian spoke.
“He has been alive all this time.”
May you like
Vanessa nearly dropped the phone.
“And now,” Adrian continued, “Nathan is going to help me get him back.”
