Chapter 9 - THE BOATHOUSE
Ortiz refused to let us go alone.
So we lied to Malcolm.
At 11:58 p.m., Tessa and I walked toward the old Mercer boathouse with no visible police anywhere. Noah was safe across town with two officers and a pediatric nurse.
That separation felt like tearing off skin.
The boathouse door opened.
Vivienne stood inside.
Her dress was dirty. Her hair was pulled back. She looked nothing like the polished woman who had shared my bed for eight months.
“Where’s Grant?” I asked.
“He doesn’t know I called you.”
“Tessa’s mother?”
“Alive. For now.”
Tessa stepped forward.
Vivienne held up both hands.
“I know what I did to Noah.”
“Do you?” Tessa asked.
Vivienne flinched.
“My father told me if I could get you fired, everything would stop. He said nobody had to die.”
“You believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
I stared at her.
“You terrorized a baby because your father asked.”
Her face crumpled.
“Yes.”
No excuse. No defense.
For the first time, she sounded honest.
She handed me a keycard.
“Original Hartford files are in a storage lab under Vale Biologics. My father is moving them tonight.”
A floorboard creaked behind us.
Vivienne’s eyes widened.
“Run.”
Grant stepped from the shadows holding a pistol.
Tessa froze.
Grant smiled.
“You always were the difficult witness.”
I moved in front of her.
Grant aimed at my chest.
Then Vivienne hit his arm.
The gun fired into the rafters.
Police flooded the boathouse from both doors.
Grant grabbed Vivienne by the neck and dragged her backward.
“Tell them to stop!”
She looked at me.
Then at Tessa.
And said, “Don’t.”
Grant’s face twisted.
He shoved her toward the water and ran through the side exit.
Ortiz’s team pursued him.
Tessa rushed to Vivienne.
But Vivienne pushed the keycard into my hand.
“My father already knows you’re coming.”
“How?”
May you like
She looked terrified.
“Because someone in the police department just warned him.”
