I looked at Melissa’s photograph lying beside the shattered frame.
“At my sister’s funeral.”
Nobody spoke.
By four thirty in the morning, I should have been collapsing.
Instead, I was more awake than I had ever been in my life.
Marcus found an old newspaper photograph from the Ashford hearings.
Linda stood outside a courthouse.
Cream coat.
Dark glasses.
My knees weakened.
It was her.
Older now.
Different hair.
But her.
Nathan’s “mother” had attended my sister’s funeral seven years before Nathan supposedly met me.
I wanted to call the police immediately.
Rebecca stopped me.
“Based on what?”
“She was at Melissa’s funeral.”
“That is suspicious. It is not evidence she caused Melissa’s death.”
“She and Nathan were under investigation by Melissa.”
“Yes.”
“And Melissa died.”
“Yes.”
“And now they’re targeting me.”
“Yes.”
“So what do we do?”
“We preserve everything. We contact investigators with the existing fraud evidence. We do not accuse them publicly of murder without proof.”
I hated that she was right.
Then Ben said, “The flash drive.”
Everyone turned.
Grace still had Melissa’s encrypted drive.
If Melissa had been investigating Nathan and Linda…
Rebecca grabbed her phone.
“Have Grace bring it here.”
“No,” I said.
They all looked at me.
“Nathan thinks the wedding is happening. He thinks Grace will be at the venue.”
Ben understood first.
“You don’t want him knowing we found it.”
“Exactly.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Then we secure a copy discreetly.”
At five ten, Grace’s roommate drove her to my house.
She arrived wearing pajama pants under a trench coat.
The moment she walked through the door, she threw herself into my arms.
“I knew something was wrong with him.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For not seeing it.”
She pulled back.
“Mom.”
I blinked.
Grace almost never called me Mom.
She had spent years using Aunt Sharon because she believed using Mom would betray Melissa.
Nathan had been the one encouraging the girls to call him Dad.
Now the word came to me naturally.
“Mom,” Grace repeated, “he fooled all of us.”
