Chapter 5 - PEYTON BREAKS
The fire changed everything.
Until that night, Ashbury had called the scandal a student conflict.
Now someone had tried to destroy evidence while Elliot’s daughter was inside the building.
The police opened a criminal investigation.
The school closed for two days.
Dr. Reed was placed on “temporary administrative leave.”
Elliot hated the phrase.
It sounded like vacation language for people who should have been answering questions in an interrogation room.
Charles Whitmore remained missing.
Victoria insisted she had not spoken to him.
Elliot did not believe her.
Neither did police.
Then Peyton disappeared.
Victoria called Elliot at 5:12 the following morning.
Her voice was shaking.
“Peyton is gone.”
Elliot sat up.
“What do you mean?”
“She left sometime after midnight.”
“Call the police.”
“I did.”
“Then why are you calling me?”
“Because she left a note.”
Elliot waited.
Victoria began crying.
“She wrote, ‘Dad said he can fix everything.’”
Elliot’s expression hardened.
“Charles contacted her.”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No.”
“You know your daughter.”
“Would she leave for someone she hadn’t spoken to?”
Silence.
Victoria whispered:
“No.”
“Then Charles contacted her.”
They found Peyton’s backpack at Grand Central Terminal.
Her main phone was inside.
She had left it intentionally.
Lila was the one who solved the problem.
“She has another phone.”
Detectives looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because she used to brag about it.”
“What kind?”
“Her dad gave it to her.”
“It has a private number.”
Sophie Ramirez confirmed it.
Police traced the signal to a marina in Connecticut.
Elliot did not want Lila going.
She insisted.
“She went because of what happened to me.”
“No.”
“She went because of her father.”
“And what happened to me.”
Lila stared at him.
“If she does something stupid because she thinks her family is falling apart, I need to hear what she says.”
Elliot sighed.
“Stay beside me.”
They found Peyton sitting inside Charles’s yacht.
Alone.
Crying.
She looked tiny without her perfect school uniform and perfect friends.
Lila stopped at the cabin door.
Peyton looked up.
“What are you doing here?”
“You disappeared.”
Peyton laughed bitterly.
“You hate me.”
“Yes.”
Every adult turned toward Lila.
She did not flinch.
“I do.”
Peyton stared.
“But I don’t want you dead.”
Peyton’s eyes filled.
“My dad isn’t here.”
Elliot crouched.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did you speak to him?”
“Last night.”
“What did he say?”
Peyton wiped her face.
“He said Grandma ruined everything.”
“What else?”
“He said your family has been trying to destroy ours for years.”
Elliot said nothing.
Peyton looked at Lila.
“He said your mom lied about him.”
Lila’s jaw tightened.
“My mom is dead.”
“I know.”
“You used that against me.”
Peyton began crying harder.
“I know.”
“You told me she died because she wanted to get away from me.”
Elliot froze.
He had never heard that before.
His eyes moved to Lila.
She refused to look at him.
Peyton whispered:
“I’m sorry.”
Lila’s face crumpled for half a second.
Then hardened.
“That day I went home and sat in Mom’s closet.”
Elliot stopped breathing.
“I smelled her old sweater for three hours.”
Lila continued.
“And I wondered if maybe you were right.”
Peyton covered her face.
“I wasn’t.”
“No.”
“You weren’t.”
Silence.
Then Peyton said:
“My dad told me you were dangerous.”
Lila almost laughed.
“I’m twelve.”
“He said if you stayed at Ashbury, you would ruin our family.”
“And you believed him?”
“He’s my dad.”
The sentence landed differently than Lila expected.
Her anger softened.
Not into forgiveness.
Into understanding.
“What did he tell you to do?”
Peyton shook her head.
“Nothing at first.”
“Peyton.”
Lila stepped closer.
“You didn’t start throwing my lunch away on your own.”
Peyton stared at the floor.
“He said nobody should want you there.”
Elliot’s stomach tightened.
“What exactly did Charles tell you?”
“He said I should make people see you for what you were.”
“What was she?”
Peyton whispered:
“Temporary.”
Lila flinched.
Peyton continued.
“He said if you hated school enough, you would leave.”
“Did he tell you to take her food?”
“No.”
“To destroy her things?”
“No.”
“Then why did you?”
Peyton looked at Lila.
“Because you wouldn’t leave.”
Silence.
“You kept coming back.”
“You kept getting better grades than me.”
“You got first chair in orchestra.”
“Teachers liked you.”
“My dad kept asking if you had quit yet.”
“And every time I said no, he got angry.”
Lila stared at her.
“So you kept making it worse.”
Peyton nodded.
Tears ran down her face.
“I wanted him to stop being angry at me.”
For the first time, Elliot saw what Charles had done to both girls.
He had turned one child’s fear into another child’s suffering.
That did not excuse Peyton.
But it explained how cruelty had been cultivated.
Lila stepped away.
“I’m not forgiving you.”
“I know.”
“Maybe not for a long time.”
“I know.”
“But tell the truth.”
Peyton nodded.
“I will.”
Then she looked at Elliot.
“My dad took something from the school.”
“The flash drive?”
“I don’t know.”
“He told me it was the thing that could put him in prison.”
“Where did he take it?”
Peyton hesitated.
“He has a storage place.”
“Where?”
“Queens.”
Police searched the unit that afternoon.
They found the stolen drive.
Boxes of financial records.
Burner phones.
And a handwritten payment ledger.
Most names were expected.
Reed.
Board members.
Security contractors.
Then Elliot reached one entry.
$250,000.
DR. SAMUEL VALE.
He stared.
Rachel frowned.
“Who is that?”
Elliot could barely speak.
“My wife’s oncologist.”
May you like
The payment had been made four years earlier.
Three months before Claire Mercer was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
