Chapter 2 - The Car Waiting Below
A black sedan waited beneath the building awning.
The driver opened the rear door before Russell and I reached the curb.
Rain hammered the pavement around us.
Inside the car, warmth surrounded me.
For the first time that night, my hands began shaking.
Russell noticed.
He said nothing.
That was one of the reasons my father trusted him.
Russell never forced people to speak before they were ready.
He simply handed me a folded handkerchief.
“There’s blood near your lip.”
I touched my mouth.
I had not even noticed.
Russell’s jaw tightened.
“My father knows?”
“He knows enough.”
“What has he done?”
“Nothing irreversible.”
I looked at him.
“That is not reassuring.”
“It was not intended to be.”
My phone vibrated.
Victor.
I stared at his name.
Another call followed.
Then a message.
YOU LEFT YOUR PURSE.
Another.
COME GET YOUR THINGS TOMORROW.
Then another.
DON’T MAKE THIS DRAMATIC.
I almost laughed.
Russell looked toward my phone.
“Would you like me to block him?”
“No.”
I placed the phone face up between us.
“I want everything preserved.”
Russell nodded once.
“That sounds more like you.”
The car moved south through the storm.
I watched familiar streets slide past the window.
For seven years, I had deliberately stayed away from the Hartwell residence.
Tonight, we drove directly there.
The gates opened before we reached them.
The house beyond looked exactly as I remembered.
Stone walls.
Tall windows.
Warm light.
Security stationed discreetly beneath the covered entrance.
My father stood at the top of the steps.
Arthur Hartwell did not wait inside.
He came into the rain.
I stepped out.
He saw my cheek.
Everything in his face changed.
Not dramatically.
My father never performed emotion.
His eyes simply became harder.
“Olivia.”
I had imagined returning home many times.
I thought I would feel ashamed.
Instead, I felt tired.
“I stayed too long.”
Arthur took my face gently between his hands.
“Yes.”
The word hurt more than I expected.
Then he pulled me against him.
“But you came back.”
My eyes closed.
For several seconds, I was no longer Victor Hayes’s wife.
I was simply my father’s daughter.
Inside, Russell placed the Victor Hayes file on my father’s desk.
Arthur looked at it.
Then at me.
“Tomorrow morning, Meridian’s board is meeting.”
“I know.”
“Victor has been invited.”
I stared at him.
“Does he know why?”
“No.”
A cold understanding settled over me.
Arthur walked behind his desk.
“Tonight, Victor believes he has finally removed the weakest person from his life.”
May you like
My father opened the file.
“Tomorrow, we show him exactly what he threw away.”
