Chapter 4
Vivian kept voice notes.
Not diaries.
She hated writing by hand because she said her thoughts outran her fingers.
I had forgotten.
Her old phone remained in a locked drawer in my bedroom because I had never been able to erase it.
That night, I turned it on.
Caspian was asleep beside his nanny.
I sat alone.
There were hundreds of recordings.
Shopping reminders.
Ideas.
Arguments she planned to have with me and apparently rehearsed first.
Then one folder.
HOLLIS.
Her maiden name.
I opened the final recording.
Three days before her death.
Vivian’s voice filled the room.
“Elspeth thinks I’m angry about the money. I’m not. I’m angry about the fear.”
I sat still.
She continued.
For almost four years, the Vaughan family had received warnings about possible threats before major meetings.
Anonymous vehicles.
Suspicious staff.
Rumors of rival movements.
Enough to justify heavier security.
Enough to move important gatherings away from our properties and into Hollis-controlled venues.
Elspeth’s venues.
Dorian’s security.
More guards.
More private rooms.
More dependence.
Vivian had noticed something.
Most threats disappeared the moment arrangements changed.
No confrontation.
No attack.
No aftermath.
Only fear followed by expensive protection.
She began comparing dates.
Whenever Elspeth needed a Hollis property filled or Dorian wanted a security expansion approved, a warning appeared.
My stomach turned.
Not every threat was fake.
That would be too simple.
Some were real.
The false ones hid among them.
Perfect camouflage.
Vivian’s recording:
“I think they’re manufacturing enough danger to make Ronan believe consolidation is survival.”
Consolidation.
That was the word.
Dorian had argued for years that Vaughan and Hollis security operations should merge permanently.
Elspeth wanted Hollis venues designated official neutral ground for our allied families.
If both happened, they would control where we met and who guarded us.
Not my chair.
Something subtler.
My dependence.
Then Vivian said:
“I’m telling Ronan after Elspeth’s dinner.”
I closed my eyes.
That dinner.
She never got the chance.
The final words on the recording were quieter.
“If Elspeth tells me I’m imagining this again, I’m done protecting her.”
I replayed that sentence twice.
May you like
Vivian had been protecting her sister.
Until the night she died.
