Chapter 4
“Your mother was given money for her trouble.”
“No,” I said. “She wasn’t.”
“Then she refused it,” Vivian replied. “Some people enjoy martyrdom.”
Liam stepped toward her.
“How much did she know?”
Vivian’s eyes narrowed.
“Enough to become inconvenient.”
My heart began to pound.
“What does that mean?”
Liam did not look away from his mother.
“Answer her.”
Vivian gave a soft laugh.
“You want ugly truths in front of a staff employee?”
“She has a name.”
The words came instantly.
Emma.
It was only my name, yet hearing him defend it made my throat tighten.
Vivian studied him for a long moment. Then she looked at the blue flower again, and her voice turned quiet.
“Martha Hale saw something that night.”
The medical machine beside me kept beeping steadily, cruelly normal.
“What did she see?” Liam asked.
Vivian’s face revealed nothing.
“Your father’s car.”
Liam froze.
“He had not been home,” she continued. “He was not searching for you. He had been leaving the estate when you ran out into the storm. Martha saw him pass you on the road.”
Liam’s face drained of color.
“That’s impossible.”
“She recognized the car from the newspapers. The driver slowed. Then continued.”
No one spoke.
The truth entered the room slowly, like poison.
His father had seen him.
His father had left him.
My mother had found what his own blood had abandoned.
Liam turned away, one hand braced against the wall. For a moment, all I could hear was the storm tapping against the window and the ragged edge of his breathing.
“My mother tried to report it,” I whispered.
Vivian’s gaze returned to me.
“She tried many things.”
The room tilted.
I remembered fragments.
My mother whispering on the phone after midnight.
My mother burning envelopes over the kitchen sink.
My mother telling me never to speak to strangers in expensive cars.
My mother crying once, silently, when she thought I was asleep.
“What did you do to her?” I asked.
Vivian’s expression hardened.
“I protected my family.”
“No,” Liam said.
The word was soft but final.
“You protected the family name.”
Vivian stepped closer to him.
“You were eight years old. You have no idea what that world was like. Your father had enemies. The board was circling. One scandal, one rumor that the Vance heir had been abandoned in a storm, and everything could have collapsed.”
“It should have.”
For the first time, Vivian looked shaken.
Liam turned back to her.
“What happened to Martha?”
Vivian lifted her chin.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying again.”
This time she did not deny it.
My pulse thundered in my ears.
“She got sick,” I said slowly. “After she lost her job.”
Vivian’s eyes shifted.
May you like
That was enough.
“You had her fired,” I said.
