Chapter 4
I sent Lily upstairs.
She didn't want to go.
Neither did I.
But there are truths children should not have to hear twice.
My oldest bodyguard carried her away with Alessia's locket around her neck.
The moment the door closed, I turned to Grace.
“Start.”
She shook her head.
“I can't.”
“You can.”
“You don't understand what was happening.”
I almost laughed.
“Then explain it.”
Celeste was crying now.
Preston wasn't.
He looked angry.
That distinction mattered.
Grace finally sat.
“Alessia discovered something.”
“What?”
“A relationship.”
“With whom?”
Grace looked at Celeste.
My fiancée went pale.
I turned toward her.
“No.”
Celeste whispered my name.
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You were involved before Alessia died.”
Celeste shook her head.
“Not with you.”
That was not what I asked.
“What relationship?”
Grace answered.
“Preston had been meeting men from the Vale crew.”
My expression changed.
The Vale family had been pressing our western businesses for years.
Not open war.
Pressure.
Routes.
Night deliveries.
Men disappearing from one side and reappearing on the other.
I had suspected leaks.
Never Preston.
He was an associate, not blood.
Useful enough to trust.
Close enough to enter my home.
“What was he giving them?”
Preston finally spoke.
“Nothing that mattered.”
I looked at him.
“That sentence means you gave them something.”
He smiled bitterly.
“Schedules.”
Grace closed her eyes.
“Routes.”
Celeste whispered, “Preston…”
He ignored her.
“Names of guards sometimes.”
I stared at him.
Eleven months of unanswered ambushes rearranged themselves in my head.
Minor attacks.
Intercepted shipments.
Men waiting where they shouldn't have known we'd be.
“You sold us.”
“No.”
“What do you call it?”
“Survival.”
That word again.
Cowards always rename betrayal.
Grace continued.
“Alessia overheard him.”
“When?”
“The night she died.”
My hands tightened.
“She came downstairs looking for Lily.”
My eyes moved to the service gap.
Lily had been nearby.
Alessia had hidden her.
“Then?”
Grace hesitated.
Preston answered.
“She confronted me.”
“And you attacked her.”
“She wouldn't stop.”
I moved.
Three of my men stepped closer, not to stop me.
To be ready.
Preston saw them.
Saw me.
Still smiled.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“She said she'd tell you everything.”
“And?”
“I couldn't let her.”
Grace whispered, “Preston.”
He looked at his mother.
“What? We're here now.”
Something was wrong.
Too much confidence.
He wasn't confessing because he had given up.
He believed something else protected him.
I felt it.
“So you put her in the freezer.”
Preston's smile disappeared.
“No.”
I turned toward Grace.
She answered.
“I did.”
Celeste made a sound.
“Mom.”
Grace didn't look at her.
“I thought twenty minutes would frighten her.”
I stared.
“You locked my wife inside a freezer.”
“She knew too much.”
“And Lily?”
Grace's face changed.
“She wasn't supposed to be there.”
“But she was.”
“Yes.”
“What happened next?”
Grace stopped.
That was the part.
The thing nobody wanted spoken.
“What happened?”
Celeste whispered:
“Alessia got out.”
I looked at her.
“How?”
Celeste wiped her face.
“I opened it.”
Preston turned on his sister.
“You stupid—”
I looked at him.
He stopped.
Celeste continued.
“I couldn't listen to her anymore.”
Grace stared at her.
“You told me the latch failed.”
“I lied.”
For the first time, mother and daughter looked like enemies.
“What happened after Celeste opened it?”
Silence.
Then Celeste said:
“Alessia ran.”
“Where?”
“Upstairs.”
“And Lily?”
“She took Lily.”
My heart began pounding.
“She escaped with my daughter?”
Celeste nodded.
“Then how did Lily end up back here?”
Nobody answered.
I looked at all three.
That was when I realized the biggest lie still hadn't been touched.
May you like
Alessia had escaped the freezer alive.
So someone had stopped her afterward.
