Chapter 13 - The Invisible Woman
Leah had been in our lives for four years.
That was the horrifying part.
She booked Marcus’s flights.
Ordered Evelyn’s birthday flowers.
Sent me calendar invitations.
Once held Noah for twenty minutes while I took an emergency call.
I could barely remember the color of her eyes.
Some people become powerful by commanding attention.
Leah had become powerful by teaching everyone not to notice her.
We traced the message to a private chapel attached to an old Vance charitable foundation in Brooklyn.
Marcus insisted on coming.
“No.”
“She worked for me.”
“That’s exactly why you’re not coming.”
“She manipulated my accounts.”
“You manipulated me.”
His face tightened.
We had not forgotten the ballroom simply because larger monsters had entered the story.
That mattered.
“I’m still divorcing you,” I said.
Marcus stared at me.
“Tonight?”
“No. Tonight I’m telling you so you don’t mistake cooperation for forgiveness.”
For once, he had no clever answer.
I went to the chapel with a tracking device hidden inside my dress.
Mom secretly followed.
Of course she did.
Inside, Leah sat alone beneath a wooden crucifix.
No weapon.
No guards.
Just a folder.
“My father was Samuel Grant,” she said.
Past tense.
Mom stopped behind me.
Leah saw her.
Something flickered across her face.
Not hatred.
Grief.
Samuel had spent his life knowing he had been surrendered but never knowing Helen searched for him. Richard found him first.
He recruited Samuel into Northstar.
Then, when Samuel tried to contact Helen, Richard had him killed.
Leah was fourteen.
“My grandfather erased my father,” she said. “Your father killed him. And your mother spent decades protecting a family name that destroyed both of them.”
Mom shook her head.
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
That surprised us both.
Leah slid the folder toward me.
She had spent fifteen years building the evidence required to destroy Richard.
Victor was part of her plan.
Daniel too.
“Daniel isn’t kidnapped?”
“No.”
My anger exploded.
“You staged it?”
“We needed Richard to expose himself.”
“You used Noah.”
“I never threatened Noah.”
“Someone did.”
Leah’s expression changed.
That was the first time she looked afraid.
“If Victor didn’t send those messages and I didn’t…”
We both understood.
There was another player.
My phone rang.
Evelyn.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
She was sobbing.
“Claire, Marcus is gone.”
“What?”
“He received a call and left.”
“From whom?”
“I don’t know. But he took a gun.”
My blood turned cold.
Leah stood.
“Richard.”
“No,” Mom whispered.
She was looking at the chapel window.
A black SUV had stopped outside.
The rear door opened.
My father stepped out.
May you like
And beside him was Marcus.
Holding the gun against Victor Sloane’s head.
