Chapter 3 - The Wife Who Died Eighteen Months Ago
Logan stepped backward.
The room seemed suddenly too small.
“No.”
The word escaped him before he could stop it.
Marina stared at him.
“I don’t understand.”
Neither did he.
Logan had buried Elena Mercer without a body.
He had stood beside an empty coffin because rescue divers had searched the lake for nine days without finding her.
The authorities discovered her damaged car near Blackwater Bridge.
The passenger door was open.
Blood had been found inside.
Her purse remained beneath the seat.
Her phone lay shattered near the guardrail.
Police believed she had entered the water.
Logan had spent months refusing to believe them.
Then eventually grief had done what evidence could not.
It exhausted him into acceptance.
“You cannot be Elena.”
Marina flinched.
“Elena?”
“My wife.”
Logan’s voice broke.
“Noah’s mother.”
Marina looked down at the child in her arms.
Her face collapsed.
Noah reached up and touched her mouth.
“Mommy sad.”
She began crying silently.
Logan turned away.
He could not watch.
He could not hope again.
Hope had almost destroyed him once.
“You don’t look like her.”
Marina wiped her face.
“I know.”
“You know?”
“I saw photographs when I started working here.”
She swallowed.
“There are pictures of Elena in the upstairs hallway.”
“I looked at them because something about her bothered me.”
“How?”
“I felt angry.”
Logan frowned.
“At her?”
“At myself.”
Marina shook her head.
“I couldn’t understand why.”
She touched the scar beside her face.
“Doctors told me I had reconstructive surgery before I was transferred to rehabilitation.”
Logan looked back.
“What happened to your face?”
“I was brought into St. Catherine’s Medical Center after a highway accident.”
“That’s what the records said.”
“My cheekbone was fractured.”
“My jaw was damaged.”
“There were burns on one side of my face.”
“I don’t remember the accident.”
Logan felt cold.
“What date?”
Marina gave him the date.
The room tilted.
It was two days after Elena disappeared.
Before Logan could speak, the library door burst open.
Vanessa entered with Logan’s attorney, Nathan Pierce.
“This has gone far enough.”
Vanessa placed several printed documents on the desk.
“I called Benton.”
She pointed at Marina.
“They confirmed she has a history of psychiatric treatment.”
Marina stiffened.
Logan picked up the pages.
Medication history.
Cognitive therapy.
Trauma treatment.
Memory loss.
Vanessa looked satisfied.
“She researched this family.”
“She got herself hired.”
“She found photographs of Elena.”
“She copied mannerisms.”
“She bought a replica pendant.”
Marina looked at her.
“How did you know about the pendant?”
The room went silent.
Vanessa froze.
Logan slowly lowered the documents.
Marina continued.
“You called it a replica.”
Vanessa’s lips tightened.
“But Logan never told you what was around my neck.”
Vanessa looked toward him.
“I saw it.”
“When?”
“At the party.”
“It was beneath my uniform.”
Vanessa had no answer.
Logan’s suspicion became something darker.
He turned to Nathan.
“Get me everything from Elena’s accident.”
“Police files.”
“Hospital records.”
“Insurance documents.”
“Phone logs.”
“Everything.”
Vanessa laughed nervously.
“You’re actually entertaining this?”
Logan walked to the door.
“I spent eighteen months believing my wife died.”
Then he looked back at her.
“If somebody convinced me of that deliberately, an engagement ring will be the least of their problems.”
Vanessa stared at him.
Logan opened the door.
Marcus stood outside.
“Marcus.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Nobody leaves the estate with documents, computers, or storage devices until I say so.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“You cannot imprison me.”
“I’m not.”
Logan glanced at the diamond on her finger.
“You’re free to leave.”
Her expression relaxed slightly.
“Without anything belonging to Mercer House.”
The relief disappeared.
And in that instant Logan understood something terrifying.
May you like
Vanessa was not worried about losing him.
She was worried about what he might find.
