Chapter 5: Everything She Wasn't Supposed to Find
Elena drove.
Sarah sat in the passenger seat with her hands folded in her lap, watching the road, saying nothing.
The mountains receded in the mirror.
Neither of them spoke until the town came into view — its ordinary rooftops, its ordinary streets — and the ordinariness of it felt almost offensive after what had just happened on that cliff.
"Claire," Sarah said.
Elena's hands tightened on the wheel.
"What?"
"The name on his phone.
Before he turned the screen away." Sarah looked at her.
"Do you know anyone named Claire?"
Elena was quiet for long enough that Sarah had her answer.
"His assistant," Elena said finally.
"She started eight months ago."
Eight months ago.
The same month as the wedding.
"Elena."
"I know."
"How long have you—"
"I didn't know.
Not for certain." Elena exhaled slowly.
"I suspected.
There were things.
Small things.
The way he talked about work differently.
The way he stopped talking about it at all.
A receipt I found once that he explained away." She shook her head.
"I wanted to be wrong."
Sarah looked out the window.
A woman was walking a dog along the pavement.
A child was on a bicycle.
Everything was completely normal and she felt as though she had arrived from another planet.
"The baby," Sarah said quietly.
"He said it wasn't his."
"He's lying."
"Elena—"
"He is lying." Elena's voice was firm.
"I don't know why.
I don't know what he's trying to build toward, but that is a lie and we are going to prove it." She glanced over.
"Are you all right?
Physically.
Are you all right?"
"I think so.
I need to sit down somewhere that isn't moving."
"We're going to my flat.
You're not going back to that house."
"My things are there."
"Your things can wait.
You cannot go back there alone, Sarah.
Not until we know what we're dealing with."
Sarah nodded.
She didn't argue.
She didn't have the energy to argue, and somewhere beneath the exhaustion was the quiet recognition that Elena was the only person in her life right now who was telling her the truth.
They reached Elena's flat just after eleven.
It was small and warm and smelled like coffee and old books, and Sarah sat down on the sofa and didn't move for a long time.
Elena made tea.
She set a cup in front of Sarah and sat across from her.
"Tell me everything," Elena said.
"From the beginning.
Before the wedding.
Before the engagement.
Everything you remember that felt wrong."
"I didn't think anything felt wrong."
"Think harder."
Sarah wrapped both hands around the mug.
She thought.
"He was very interested in my father's company," she said slowly.
"I thought it was because he respected what my father had built.
He asked a lot of questions.
About the structure.
About who held shares.
About what would happen to my portion if—" She stopped.
Elena waited.
"If I died without a will," Sarah finished.
The room was very quiet.
"He asked you that," Elena said.
"He framed it as financial planning.
He said we should both have wills drawn up before the baby came." Sarah set the mug down.
Her hands were steadier than she expected.
"I never made an appointment.
I kept putting it off.
He never pushed me on it."
"Because he already had a plan that didn't require your signature."
"Elena, that's—"
"Is it?" Elena leaned forward.
"Think about what happened this morning.
Think about what your death on that cliff would have looked like.
A tragic accident.
A pregnant woman, unstable path, terrible fall." Her voice didn't waver.
"Think about who would have inherited your shares in your father's company."
Sarah's mouth went dry.
"Daniel," she said.
"As your husband.
Yes." Elena stood up.
She crossed to the small desk in the corner and pulled open the top drawer.
"I need you to call your father."
"My father doesn't know about any of this—"
"That's exactly why you need to call him." Elena set a notepad and pen on the coffee table.
"And then I need to make a call of my own."
"To who?"
Elena picked up her phone.
Her face had settled into something Sarah hadn't seen before — not anger, not fear.
Something quieter and more dangerous than either.
"To Marcus," she said.
"My father's solicitor.
The one who called this morning." She looked at Sarah.
May you like
"Because if my mother changed that will, Marcus knows.
And if Marcus is afraid enough to call Daniel at nine in the morning on a mountain — he may be afraid enough to talk."
