Chapter 2 - Rachel's Last Gift
Lucas ran.
He took the stairs two at a time.
Behind him, Vanessa shouted his name.
Richard shouted something else.
Lucas didn't listen.
He slammed through the service door.
“Sophie!”
Guests crowded the hallway.
Margaret stood near the bridal suite.
Sophie was behind her.
Two security guards had restrained a man Lucas didn't recognize.
The stranger wore a black catering uniform.
“What happened?”
Margaret pointed at him.
“He tried to take Sophie's flower basket.”
Lucas looked at the man.
“Who are you?”
The stranger said nothing.
One guard twisted his arm behind his back.
A small object fell from his pocket.
A plastic key card.
Lucas picked it up.
It wasn't a hotel key.
Printed across the front were three words.
BENNETT PRIVATE STORAGE
Lucas stared.
He knew that logo.
His company maintained a secure document facility outside Chicago.
Only senior executives had access.
“How did you get this?”
The man's eyes shifted toward Richard.
Just once.
But Lucas caught it.
So did Margaret.
Richard stepped into the hallway.
“Lucas.”
Lucas held up the card.
“Know anything about this?”
Richard's expression remained controlled.
“No.”
“Funny.”
Lucas moved closer.
“Because he looked at you.”
Richard smiled without humor.
“People look at me all the time.”
Lucas handed the card to security.
“Call the police.”
Richard's expression finally cracked.
“That isn't necessary.”
Lucas turned.
“Why not?”
“Because this is a private family matter.”
“A stranger tried to take something from my daughter.”
“He's probably a thief.”
“Then you shouldn't mind the police asking him questions.”
Richard stared at him.
Lucas stared back.
Neither moved.
Then Sophie tugged Lucas's sleeve.
“Daddy?”
Lucas immediately softened.
“Yes?”
“I remembered.”
“What?”
“What Vanessa wanted.”
Vanessa appeared behind Richard.
Her face was wet with tears.
“Sophie.”
Lucas stepped between them.
“Don't.”
Sophie looked at her flower basket.
“Mommy's button.”
Lucas frowned.
“What button?”
Sophie reached inside her dress.
A thin silver chain hung around her neck.
Lucas had seen it before.
He thought it was a children's necklace Margaret had given her.
Sophie pulled the chain out.
At the end was a small gold button.
Old.
Scratched.
Unremarkable.
Lucas stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“Grandma gave it to me.”
He looked at Margaret.
She went pale.
“Mom?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Rachel gave it to me.”
Lucas felt his pulse accelerate.
“When?”
“The week before she died.”
Nobody moved.
Lucas stared at his mother.
“You never told me.”
“She made me promise.”
“Promise what?”
Margaret looked at Sophie.
“To give it to Sophie when you remarried.”
Lucas's anger disappeared beneath confusion.
“That doesn't make any sense.”
“I know.”
Margaret's voice trembled.
“She said someday it would.”
Vanessa stared at the button.
Richard stared harder.
Lucas saw both.
“You were looking for this.”
Vanessa whispered.
“Lucas—”
“You locked my daughter in a bathroom over a button?”
Richard suddenly moved.
He reached toward Sophie.
Lucas blocked him.
“Don't touch her.”
Richard stopped.
The security guards shifted closer.
Lucas took the button from Sophie.
It was heavier than it looked.
He turned it between his fingers.
Something rattled inside.
Vanessa whispered.
“Oh God.”
Lucas looked at her.
“You know what this is.”
“No.”
“You just reacted.”
Richard grabbed Vanessa's arm.
“Stop talking.”
Lucas looked at the button again.
A thin seam ran around its edge.
He used his thumbnail.
Nothing.
One of the security guards handed him a small pocketknife.
Lucas carefully pressed the blade into the seam.
“Don't.”
Richard's voice echoed down the hallway.
Lucas looked at him.
Richard's face was terrified now.
That was enough.
Lucas twisted.
The gold button popped open.
Something tiny fell into his palm.
A microSD card.
Nobody spoke.
Lucas stared at it.
Then at Richard.
Then at Vanessa.
“What is on this?”
Vanessa started shaking.
Richard's voice became quiet.
“Lucas, give me the card.”
“No.”
“You don't understand.”
“You keep saying that.”
Lucas slipped the card into his pocket.
“So help me understand.”
Richard's eyes hardened.
“Your wife died because she didn't know when to stop digging.”
The hallway went dead silent.
Lucas felt every muscle in his body lock.
“What did you say?”
Richard realized what he had done.
Too late.
Lucas stepped toward him.
“My wife died in a car accident.”
Richard said nothing.
“Didn't she?”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Lucas looked at her.
Her eyes answered before her lips did.
“No.”
Lucas whispered.
“No what?”
Vanessa began crying.
“My father didn't cause the crash.”
Richard snapped.
“Vanessa!”
She flinched.
Lucas moved closer.
“What crash?”
“The brakes.”
Vanessa whispered.
Richard grabbed her.
“Shut up.”
Lucas shoved his hand away.
“What about the brakes?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“They weren't supposed to fail.”
Lucas felt sick.
“What does that mean?”
“They were only supposed to scare her.”
Richard's face went gray.
Lucas could barely hear his own voice.
“Who touched Rachel's car?”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Then pointed toward the man in the catering uniform.
Lucas turned.
The stranger smiled.
Not nervously.
Coldly.
Then he said:
“Ask your mother why Rachel was investigating the Cole family in the first place.”
Lucas looked at Margaret.
His mother was crying.
“Mom?”
She shook her head.
“Not here.”
“Tell me.”
“Lucas.”
“Tell me!”
Margaret looked at Sophie.
Then at the microSD card in his hand.
Finally, she whispered:
“Rachel discovered your marriage to Vanessa had been planned before you ever met her.”
Lucas stared at her.
“What?”
“And Rachel left proof.”
Lucas looked toward Vanessa.
The woman he had loved for three years.
The woman he had almost married.
Vanessa whispered:
“I was supposed to meet you.”
Lucas felt numb.
“When?”
“Six months after Rachel died.”
His stomach turned.
“That wasn't six months.”
Vanessa stared at the floor.
Lucas understood.
“You met me at the charity auction four months after Rachel died.”
Vanessa nodded.
“That wasn't an accident?”
“No.”
“Who sent you?”
She slowly looked at Richard.
Her father.
Lucas turned toward him.
Richard didn't deny it.
Lucas suddenly understood something far worse.
The Coles had not entered his life because Vanessa fell in love with him.
They had entered his life because Rachel died.
But why?
Lucas reached for his phone.
“I want a laptop.”
One of his security men nodded.
“Now.”
Richard stepped forward.
“Lucas, don't open that card.”
Lucas laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You threatened my daughter.”
“I did no such thing.”
“You knew what Rachel left behind.”
Richard said nothing.
“You sent someone after Sophie's basket.”
Silence.
“You planted your daughter in my life.”
Silence.
“And now you're telling me not to see what my dead wife wanted me to find?”
Lucas stared directly into his eyes.
“Watch me.”
Ten minutes later, they were inside the hotel's security office.
The wedding had been canceled.
Guests were being told there was a family emergency.
Lucas didn't care what anyone thought.
Sophie sat on Margaret's lap.
Vanessa sat alone.
Richard stood near the wall.
Two hotel guards watched him.
The man in the catering uniform had been handcuffed by responding police officers.
Lucas inserted the card.
Three folders appeared.
COLE DEVELOPMENT
BENNETT
And one labeled:
IF LUCAS IS WATCHING THIS
His hand shook.
He clicked.
A video opened.
Rachel appeared on the screen.
Lucas stopped breathing.
She looked exactly as he remembered her.
Brown hair.
Green sweater.
Tired smile.
Alive.
“Lucas.”
Her recorded voice filled the room.
“If you're seeing this, then something happened to me.”
Lucas covered his mouth.
Sophie stared at the screen.
“Mommy?”
Margaret began sobbing.
Rachel continued.
“I need you to listen carefully.”
“I found something inside Bennett Development's financial records.”
“Someone has been using your company to move money through shell corporations.”
Lucas slowly looked at Richard.
Rachel continued.
“I traced one of the shell companies.”
“It belongs to Richard Cole.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“But Richard isn't the person I'm afraid of.”
Lucas turned back to the screen.
Rachel leaned closer to the camera.
“The person helping him is inside our family.”
Margaret stopped crying.
Lucas felt ice move through his veins.
Rachel reached toward the camera.
Then she said:
May you like
“Lucas, whatever happens, do not trust—”
The video cut to black.
