Chapter 10
Nora called Ethan that night.
He answered under Bennett’s instruction.
“Where’s Lily?”
“Safe.”
“You shouldn’t keep her from me.”
Ethan nearly laughed.
“You tried to take her from school.”
“She’s my stepdaughter.”
“No.”
The word surprised even Ethan.
Nora paused.
“No?”
“You don’t get to use a relationship as permission.”
Silence.
Then Nora said:
“I wasn’t going to hurt you.”
Ethan’s pulse changed.
“You put something toxic in my tea.”
“It wasn’t supposed to kill you.”
He closed his eyes.
Bennett, listening nearby, wrote:
KEEP HER TALKING.
Ethan asked:
“What was supposed to happen?”
“You were supposed to become ill.”
“Why?”
“So you’d stop signing things.”
“That makes no sense.”
“You were going to remove me from the trust.”
Ethan frowned.
“I didn’t know enough to remove you.”
“Caroline’s files were reaching you.”
“Which files?”
Nora realized the mistake.
Ethan continued:
“The ones proving you stole from her?”
Silence.
“Did you hurt Caroline?”
“No.”
Too fast.
“Did you put something in her drink?”
Nora began crying.
“She was ruining everything.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“Nora.”
“She wouldn’t stop.”
“What did you do?”
“I wanted her sick.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Same phrase.
“She wasn’t supposed to die.”
Across the room, Bennett’s expression hardened.
Ethan whispered:
“What happened?”
Nora cried harder.
“She collapsed.”
“And you called 911?”
Silence.
“Nora.”
“I panicked.”
“How long?”
“I don’t remember.”
“How long?”
“Ethan—”
“How long did Caroline lie there?”
Nora whispered:
“Nine minutes.”
Ethan’s eyes filled.
His first wife had been alive.
Nora waited.
Why?
“Because I was deleting her emails.”
Ethan covered his mouth.
Bennett watched him carefully.
Nora continued:
“When I called, I thought they could still save her.”
Ethan’s voice broke.
“You watched my wife die so you could delete emails?”
“She was exposing everything.”
Ethan could no longer speak.
Bennett signaled.
Trace obtained.
Nora was at a roadside motel forty miles away.
Police moved.
Before Ethan ended the call, Nora said:
“Ethan?”
He waited.
“I loved you.”
He closed his eyes.
Maybe she believed that.
Maybe she had.
It no longer changed what she did.
May you like
Police arrested Nora seventeen minutes later.
She had Lily’s passport in her bag.
