Chapter 5
“I think people tell the truth when they are tired of carrying it.”
Rebecca had not gone far. She stood beside the stone balustrade, her arms folded tightly across her chest. Snow drifted over the garden beyond her.
When I stepped outside, she didn’t turn.
“You shouldn’t have asked that in front of Ethan,” she said.
“I should have asked it years ago.”
“I know.”
That stopped me.
Rebecca looked over her shoulder.
“I know you didn’t try to hurt me.”
The cold seemed to sharpen around us.
“Since when?”
“Since three years ago.”
“Three years?”
She nodded.
“I found something in my father’s study after he died.”
“Your father died six years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing for three years?”
“I was afraid.”
“Of whom?”
She looked through the glass doors at Alexander.
“Not the people you think.”
I waited.
Rebecca reached into the pocket of her dress and removed a small brass key.
My breath caught.
I knew that key.
It had belonged to the old library cabinet in the west wing—the cabinet Alexander had kept locked even from me. His father’s papers had been stored there, along with company records and family documents.
“What does it open?” I asked.
“The archive room beneath the west wing.”
“That room was sealed.”
“Officially.”
“Why are you showing me this now?”
“Because Ethan called you.”
The answer made no sense.
Rebecca closed her fingers around the key.
“Your return changes things. Alexander has been searching for the person who manipulated the evidence against you for years.”
I almost laughed. “He told me the case was closed.”
“He told everyone that.”
“Why would he search if he believed I was guilty?”
“Because he stopped believing it.”
I stared at her.
“When?”
“Not long after you left.”
A bitter warmth rose in my chest.
“He could have found me.”
“He tried.”
“Then he didn’t try hard enough.”
“No.” Rebecca’s expression tightened. “He tried in the wrong places. He believed you had left the country. Your accounts were closed. Your phone was disconnected. The address you gave him belonged to an empty apartment.”
“I never gave him a different address.”
“I know.”
The key pressed into her palm.
“Someone made it appear as though you had disappeared by choice.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you know where the answer is.”
“I know where the last piece of evidence may be.”
“Why didn’t you go there yourself?”