Chapter 8 - The Lake House
I took Miles and two security officers to the lake house before sunrise.
The place had been empty since my father died eleven years earlier. Dust covered the furniture. The air smelled of cedar and old rain.
The fireplace stone with the lightning-shaped crack was easy to find.
The cavity behind it was not empty.
But the envelope was gone.
Miles crouched beside the hearth.
"Fresh scrape marks. Somebody beat us here."
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
We froze.
"Security. Identify yourself."
A shadow crossed the landing.
Then someone ran.
One officer followed.
Miles returned holding something small.
A gold cuff link.
L.S.
Leonard Sterling.
Vanessa's father had worn identical cuff links at our engagement dinner.
"Could be planted," Miles warned.
"Could be."
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A man's voice said, "You should have married into a quieter family, Ms. Cross."
"Who is this?"
"Someone trying to save you from your mother's mistakes."
"Was Caleb Bennett one of those mistakes?"
Then the man said, "Caleb was sentimental. Sentimental men confuse fairness with ownership."
"Leonard?"
A soft laugh.
"Go home, Adrienne. Marry my daughter. Let old paperwork stay buried. You will remain very rich. Grace Bennett will remain employed. Everyone wins."
"You burned my housekeeper."
"No. My daughter lost her temper. There is a difference."
That was the first admission.
"If I don't stop?"
Leonard's tone changed.
"Then you'll learn how much of your empire was built on signatures you never examined."
The call ended.
Miles stared at me.
"He's threatening the company."
"No," I said.
I looked at the empty cavity behind the stone.
May you like
"He's telling me the theft didn't stop with Caleb."
And for the first time in fourteen years, I wondered how much of Cross Technologies was actually mine.
