Chapter 6
The next morning, Maya moved Lily out of the Vance estate.
She did not ask Richard.
She did not announce it to the capos.
She packed two suitcases, took Lily’s stuffed rabbit, and went to a townhouse Maya owned through her own company near Lincoln Park.
Richard called twelve times.
Maya ignored eleven.
On the twelfth, she answered.
“You took my daughter.”
“Our daughter.”
“You don’t make decisions alone.”
“You drove her mother’s face through her birthday cake while she stood beside us.”
“You hit me.”
“Yes.”
“You assaulted Vanessa.”
“She tried to take something from me.”
Richard laughed.
“You sound exactly like Eleanor.”
The line caught Maya’s attention.
“You barely knew Eleanor.”
Silence.
Maya sat straighter.
“Richard?”
He disconnected.
That mistake cost him.
Within an hour, Maya called Julian.
“Richard knew Eleanor personally.”
Julian rejected it immediately.
“He couldn’t have.”
“He just compared me to her.”
“He knows stories.”
“No. He said it like memory.”
Julian became quiet.
Maya continued.
“Find out where Richard was eleven years ago.”
“Why?”
“That was when Eleanor died.”
Julian did not like being ordered.
Maya could hear it.
But he agreed.
Meanwhile, Anthony brought Maya a copy of the recovered information from Vanessa’s phone after Vanessa voluntarily surrendered the passcode through her attorney.
Most messages were ordinary.
Some were not.
Richard and Vanessa had been discussing Maya for months.
Not romantically.
Strategically.
R: Has she mentioned the old woman?
V: No.
R: Search again.
V: I already checked the office.
R: Then check the necklace.
Maya reread the line.
The necklace.
Her hand immediately went to the silver chain.
Richard had known.
Another message dated three months earlier:
V: What if she gave it away?
R: She wouldn’t.
V: How do you know?
R: Because Maya keeps things that matter.
That sentence hurt in a different way.
Richard understood her habits.
Her sentimentality.
Her loyalty.
He had simply used them against her.
Maya scrolled farther.
Then found the message that changed the direction of everything.
V: Sterling still thinks it disappeared with Eleanor.
R: Let him.
V: And if Maya shows it?
R: She won’t get the chance.
Maya stopped.
The message was seven weeks old.
The birthday attack had not been spontaneous.
Maybe Richard had not planned the exact cake.
But he had been waiting for Maya to reveal the ring.
She called Julian again.
This time he answered immediately.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“Eleven years ago Richard spent almost four months away from Chicago.”
“Where?”
“He told everyone New York.”
“And?”
“He was lying.”
Maya waited.
Julian’s voice dropped.
“He was in Chicago.”
“Doing what?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Maya looked through the townhouse window.
Lily was sitting on the living-room rug, placing plastic teacups around her stuffed rabbit.
Maya felt the room narrow.
Richard had known about the necklace.
Known Eleanor.
Known the orchid.
And apparently lied about where he was during Eleanor’s final months.
May you like
Maya had entered her marriage believing the oldest secret between them was a brief engagement Richard had ended before meeting her.
Now she wondered whether their entire first meeting had been arranged.
