Chapter 4
Catherine died five years ago.
Cancer.
Slow.
No mystery.
No conspiracy.
I refuse to turn every painful death into one.
But she had secrets.
Everyone does.
I opened her old desk for the first time in months.
Rafe found a notebook beneath the bottom drawer.
Not hidden carefully.
Just overlooked because grief makes certain furniture invisible.
Catherine had written Malcolm Crane’s name.
Not Michael Carr.
Malcolm.
Two pages.
He approached her at a museum fundraiser six years earlier.
Claimed my father had ruined his family.
Asked Catherine to convince me to open the Harrington records.
She refused.
Then he appeared at the mansion twice.
Uninvited.
Persistent.
On the third visit, Bruno cornered him near my office.
Not attack.
Growl.
Block.
Catherine wrote:
Bruno hates him. I trust the dog’s judgment more than Malcolm’s charm.
I almost smiled.
Then the next line erased it.
Malcolm says my father-in-law promised his father a permanent place in Sterling and then erased him after taking something valuable.
Something valuable.
What?
Catherine did not know.
She wrote:
Adrian would confront Malcolm immediately. I need to learn whether there’s truth beneath the grievance before I hand him another enemy.
That sounded exactly like her.
Protective.
Infuriating.
She investigated quietly.
Then got sick.
The notebook stopped.
I looked at Vanessa.
“You married him after this.”
She frowned.
“What?”
She had never seen the notebook.
Malcolm never told her.
Their marriage happened two years after his visits here.
Which meant he had not married Vanessa because of me.
But once she became my fiancée, old access returned.
He used it.
Maybe used her too.
Vanessa sat very still.
“He told me the Sterling grievance started after we married.”
“No.”
I handed her the notebook.
“It started before you.”
Her face changed.
For the first time, she looked less guilty than betrayed.
Good.
Multiple truths could exist.
She had deceived me.
May you like
Malcolm had deceived her.
Neither erased the other.
