Chapter 2 - The Truth at Breakfast
Thea didn't sleep.
She lay beside Sophie in a bedroom large enough to contain her mother's entire apartment, listening to the old Voss mansion settle around them.
Every floorboard sounded like a footstep.
Every whisper of wind sounded like someone touching the doorknob.
Sophie slept curled against her side.
Shortly after three in the morning, the little girl began mumbling.
“No, Mommy.”
Thea opened her eyes.
Sophie twisted beneath the blanket.
“Don't go.”
Thea touched her shoulder.
“Sophie.”
The girl's eyes opened.
For one terrible second, she looked somewhere else.
Somewhere three years earlier.
Then she recognized Thea.
“You're still here.”
“Yes.”
Sophie grabbed her hand.
“People leave.”
The words struck harder than Thea expected.
“My mommy left.”
“I know.”
“Uncle Lachlan almost left.”
Thea's thumb moved gently over the girl's fingers.
“But he didn't.”
Sophie considered that.
Then closed her eyes again.
Thea remained awake until sunlight reached beneath the curtains.
At seven-thirty, someone knocked.
Three knocks.
Two.
One.
Thea remembered the pattern.
“Who is it?”
“Emil, ma'am.”
She opened the door only after checking through the narrow gap.
Emil carried a tray with coffee, tea and toast.
“Mr. Voss is waiting in the breakfast room.”
“Has he slept?”
Emil's eyebrow moved slightly.
“I don't believe Mr. Voss has slept properly since 2023.”
That wasn't an answer.
It was more informative than one.
“Where is Sophie supposed to be?”
“With me, today.”
Thea looked down at the sleeping child.
“No strangers.”
“None.”
“And tell Lachlan I'm coming.”
Emil paused.
“I suspect he knows.”
Thea narrowed her eyes.
“What does that mean?”
Emil gave the smallest hint of a smile.
“He has been looking toward the doorway every thirty seconds.”
The word looking was deliberate.
Thea appreciated that Emil wasn't pretending.
“Does everyone in this house know?”
“About his sight?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You?”
“Only since last night.”
That surprised her.
“He fooled you too?”
“For three years.”
“Are you angry?”
Emil thought about it.
“I am old enough to know that anger and loyalty occasionally occupy the same room.”
Then he left.
Thea changed into the simplest clothing in her suitcase—jeans, a white blouse and flats.
No jewels.
No wedding ring.
She considered leaving the ring on the dresser.
Then remembered the threat.
The new wife won't last as long as Elena did.
She slipped the ring into her pocket instead.
Lachlan was standing beside a long breakfast table when she entered twenty minutes later.
No dark glasses.
No cane.
No performance.
Morning light touched his face.
For the first time, she saw him simply as a man.
Unfortunately, he was an irritatingly handsome one.
That realization annoyed her.
“I thought blind men didn't stare,” she said.
His eyes moved away.
“I spent three years training myself not to.”
“Apparently training wore off quickly.”
“Apparently.”
Coffee waited at her place.
Black.
She stopped.
“How do you know how I take it?”
“You drank it that way during our first meeting.”
“You watched that too?”
“Yes.”
Thea sat.
“Start talking.”
Lachlan remained standing for several seconds.
Then he placed an old photograph on the table.
A woman stood beside him.
Blonde.
Bright smile.
Approximately thirty.
Beside her was a much younger Sophie.
“My sister Elena,” he said.
Thea picked it up.
“She looks like Sophie.”
“Sophie looks like her.”
“What happened?”
Lachlan sat opposite her.
“Three years ago, Elena called me at eleven seventeen at night.”
“You remember the exact time?”
“I remember everything about that night.”
His expression changed.
“She told me she'd found something unusual in Voss Meridian's overseas accounts. Payments moving through shell companies. Millions of dollars. She was on the audit committee.”
“Was she an accountant?”
“An attorney.”
Thea listened.
“She asked me to meet her the next morning. She wouldn't discuss details over the phone. I told her she was being dramatic.”
His mouth tightened.
“She laughed.”
Thea knew what was coming.
“That was the last time you spoke to her?”
“Yes.”
Lachlan stared down at his coffee.
“An hour later, Elena was driving home with Sophie. A truck crossed the median.”
Thea's chest tightened.
“Elena died?”
“At the scene.”
“And Sophie?”
“Fractured collarbone. Concussion. She was unconscious for two days.”
“You?”
“I wasn't in their car.”
Thea frowned.
“Then how did you lose your sight?”
“Because I reached the crash before the ambulance.”
He looked toward the window.
“I drove there after Elena stopped answering. A second vehicle was parked near the wreck. I saw someone standing beside it.”
“Who?”
“I couldn't identify him. It was dark.”
“What happened?”
“He saw me.”
Thea leaned forward.
“He came toward you?”
“He drove toward me.”
Her stomach dropped.
“I jumped behind Elena's vehicle. He struck the wreck. Metal shattered. Glass went through my face.”
Lachlan touched the skin near his temple.
For the first time Thea noticed a thin scar partly hidden by his hair.
“I woke in the hospital with severe damage to both eyes.”
“And doctors thought you were permanently blind.”
“They weren't certain.”
“But everyone believed it.”
“Yes.”
“When did your vision return?”
“Fourteen months later.”
Thea stared.
“You've been able to see for almost two years.”
“Twenty-two months.”
“And no one knows.”
“My ophthalmologist knows.”
“Name?”
“Dr. Adrian Shaw.”
“Anyone else?”
“One security consultant.”
“Not your grandmother?”
“No.”
“Not Emil?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because six days after Elena's funeral, someone entered my hospital room.”
Thea stopped breathing.
“A nurse?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“I heard him searching through my belongings.”
“Did he attack you?”
“He thought I was asleep.”
“What was he looking for?”
“I didn't know then.”
“And now?”
Lachlan pushed another object across the table.
A small silver memory card.
Thea stared.
“Elena hid this inside Sophie's stuffed rabbit before the crash.”
“How did you find it?”
“Sophie tore the rabbit last year. Mrs. Greene brought it to me because she heard something rattling inside.”
“What's on it?”
“Enough financial records to prove Elena had discovered theft.”
“Who stole the money?”
“That's what I don't know.”
“After three years?”
“The shell companies lead through twelve jurisdictions. Whoever built the structure knew our internal controls.”
“So someone inside Voss Meridian.”
“Yes.”
“Your fake blindness helped you investigate.”
His mouth tightened.
“It helped me listen.”
Thea remembered their first meeting.
He knows where people are from their shoes.
“That explains the act.”
“It explains part of it.”
“What's the other part?”
Lachlan met her eyes.
“I wanted whoever killed Elena to believe I couldn't identify them.”
A chill moved down Thea's spine.
“You saw the person beside the second car.”
“A silhouette. Height. Build. Movement.”
“You think eventually you'll recognize him.”
“I already might have.”
Thea stopped.
“Who?”
“I don't have proof.”
“Name him anyway.”
“No.”
Her chair scraped the floor as she stood.
“You promised me everything.”
“I promised the truth, not reckless accusations.”
“Those sound remarkably similar when you're the one deciding what's reckless.”
He didn't respond.
Thea pressed her hands against the table.
“Why marry me?”
“Astrid insisted.”
“That's not enough.”
“No.”
“Why agree?”
Lachlan's gaze held hers.
“My grandmother believed marriage would stabilize the company. The board has been questioning my ability to lead.”
“Because they think you're blind?”
“Because several people want my voting control.”
“And a wife helps?”
“The trust my grandfather created transfers additional voting shares to me after marriage.”
Thea stared.
“So I was a corporate move.”
“At first.”
The words stung unexpectedly.
She hated that they did.
“What does 'at first' mean?”
Lachlan looked almost uncomfortable.
“When Astrid brought me profiles of women from families she knew, I refused all of them.”
“Profiles?”
“Thirty-seven.”
“That's horrifying.”
“I agreed.”
“And then she brought mine?”
“No.”
Thea frowned.
“I chose you.”
Silence.
“How?”
“I saw you at St. Catherine's Hospital.”
Thea's heart skipped.
“When?”
“Six weeks ago.”
She remembered those weeks.
Her mother's appointments.
Double shifts at a rehabilitation center.
Eating vending-machine crackers for dinner.
“You were there?”
“For a board donation meeting.”
“And you saw me?”
“You were arguing with an insurance administrator.”
Heat reached Thea's face.
“That doesn't narrow it down.”
“You told him a human being wasn't a spreadsheet error.”
She remembered.
The administrator had nearly called security.
Lachlan continued.
“Afterward, you gave your last five dollars to an old man who couldn't pay for parking.”
“How would you know it was my last five dollars?”
“You opened your wallet.”
Of course he had seen.
“You investigated me.”
“Yes.”
“That's creepy.”
“Yes.”
She almost hated that he admitted everything.
“You learned about my mother.”
“Yes.”
“And then your grandmother conveniently offered to pay for her treatment.”
“I told Astrid about you.”
Thea's anger surged.
“So you engineered this.”
“I created an opportunity to meet you. Astrid created the contract.”
“Why me?”
Lachlan was silent long enough that she nearly repeated the question.
Then he said, “Because I needed someone in this house who wasn't impressed by money.”
She laughed once.
“You bought my marriage.”
His face tightened.
“That's why I almost refused.”
“Almost?”
“I knew what it would look like.”
“It looks exactly like what it is.”
“Yes.”
Thea shook her head.
“You saw a desperate nineteen-year-old whose mother was dying and decided she'd make a trustworthy wife.”
“I saw someone desperate who still gave away her last five dollars.”
“That doesn't make this better.”
“No.”
“Then why do you keep admitting that?”
“Because you told me last night that you wanted no more lies.”
That silenced her.
Lachlan stood.
“There is one more thing.”
He placed a folder in front of her.
“What?”
“Your marriage agreement.”
“I've seen it.”
“Not this version.”
Thea opened it.
A single page rested inside.
She read.
Then looked up.
“What is this?”
“An amendment.”
The contract's financial penalty for leaving the marriage had been removed.
Thea read it twice.
“You signed this?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“At five this morning.”
“Why?”
“So you can leave whenever you want.”
“And my mother's treatment?”
“Paid regardless.”
She stared at him.
“You're releasing me?”
“I'm giving you the choice I should have given you before.”
It should have made everything simpler.
Instead, Thea felt strangely unsettled.
“And Sophie?”
“What about her?”
“Someone threatened her last night.”
“Yes.”
“If I leave, does that make her safer?”
Lachlan didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Thea thought of Sophie whispering, People leave.
She hated this man for lying to her.
But she did not hate the little girl upstairs.
And whoever had come to the estate last night had mentioned Elena.
The dead woman.
The accident.
The new wife.
Something was connected.
Thea slowly closed the folder.
“I'm not staying because of you.”
“I understand.”
“I'm staying until I know Sophie is safe and my mother is through surgery.”
“All right.”
“And I want access.”
“To what?”
“Everything concerning the accident.”
“No.”
“Then I'm leaving.”
Lachlan stared at her.
Thea picked up her bag.
“One.”
He said nothing.
“Two.”
“Thea.”
“Three.”
“Fine.”
She stopped.
“Everything?”
“Everything I can legally show you.”
She gave him a look.
He sighed.
“Everything.”
A small voice came from the doorway.
“Uncle?”
They turned.
Sophie stood there holding an old stuffed rabbit.
The toy's left ear had been sewn back together.
She walked to Thea.
“I remembered something.”
Lachlan went pale.
“What?”
Sophie hugged the rabbit.
“The man from the wedding.”
“Yes?”
She looked at Lachlan.
“I heard his voice before.”
The breakfast room became silent.
“When?” Thea asked.
Sophie swallowed.
“In the car.”
Lachlan gripped the edge of the table.
“Which car?”
“The one that chased Mommy.”
Thea's blood went cold.
Sophie looked toward the hallway as if she feared the man might appear again.
Then she whispered:
“He called Mommy by her name.”
May you like
And upstairs, somewhere inside the mansion, glass shattered.
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